By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
Both Democrats and Republicans will go to the polls Tuesday to begin the process of electing a sheriff in Lonoke County.
In the Republican primary, the choice is between Sheriff Jim Roberson, who is in his sixth year as head of county law enforcement, and John Staley, who, at 28, has eight years of experience in law enforcement, which, he points out, is two years more than the sheriff has. This is Staley’s second race.
In the Democratic primary, Sam Chamberlain Jr., a former Pulaski County sheriff’s deputy and retired chief master sergeant with the Air Force, is running for the second time. But this is the first race for his opponent, Steve Rich, who has 23 years experience in law enforcement mostly in Lonoke and Pulaski counties.
If there is a common link between all the candidates who hope to take Roberson’s job, it’s in traffic. Roberson and his deputies run radar and stop speeders. All three of the other candidates say the deputies’ time and the county’s money could be put to better use.
They also say a sheriff’s job is to be an administrator, not an investigator or road deputy.
Roberson, whose experience was in law enforcement before he became sheriff, and was limited to his time as a Pulaski County jailer, takes issue with Staley’s claim that he is the more experienced Republican candidate for the job.
“I’m 60 years old,” the sheriff said. “How can he have more experience?”
Roberson said he has campaigned very little to keep his job. He has to work during the day and can’t legally campaign while he’s on the job, he said.
In answer to Lonoke County Judge Charlie Troutman’s query about how the campaign was going, Roberson said, “The people I see can’t vote.”
But he said from the limited campaigning he has done, it appears county residents are satisfied with his work.
“I’ve asked what changes people want and basically, the ones I’ve talked to like what we’re doing taking drug dealers off the streets,” he said.
The sheriff said one of the biggest problems in the county now is sexual assault.
The county has one detective assigned to investigate sex crimes, he said, but at least two are needed. He said he patrols because he is short-staffed. He also defends running radar to catch speeders.
“Radar is a good probable-cause tool,” he said. “We’ve served several hundred felony warrants by making traffic stops.”
The sheriff said he is proud of how far the department has come in six years. He now has good cars to drive and the technology has been upgraded, he said. When he took office he had to bring his own computer from home, he said.
Although employee turnover was high in the first two years, that is no longer the case, he said. Now the department has good equipment, good people and a good reputation.
“We are the elite in the state now,” he said. “We’re the people other people come to and ask how we do it.
“I stand on my record. People know what I’ve done. They’re only saying what they can do,” he said.
Staley, a Jacksonville police officer who works in the schools and the sheriff’s opponent in the primary, says he also thinks the county needs more deputies, but if elected he intends to put citizens on patrol who can watch for signs of trouble and call the deputies for help.
He said he also would ask the county’s elected constables to help out with patrol.
Theft in the rural areas is a big problem, Staley said, and that is where deputies need to concentrate their efforts, not in passing out speeding tickets.
He also is concerned about high-speed chases that can be deadly even for bystanders.
Staley said they are seldom necessary and if elected he would try to work with the city police departments in purchasing spike strips for stopping cars.
Staley also is concerned that the sheriff went over his budget for 2007 but didn’t use all of a federal grant he received. If elected, Staley said he would try to get more federal grants.
The county sheriff should be an administrator who works with other county and city officials and makes a point of meeting regularly with the public, Staley said.
What the county needs, he said is “more leadership and fewer traffic stops.”
Chamberlain, 51, said if elected he intends to save money on fuel and time by dividing the county into north and south precincts and stationing officers there while he would like an office in the courthouse where he would be available to the public.
Chamberlain, who now works as an unpaid auxiliary officer in Austin where his wife Bernie Chamberlain is mayor, was security officer in the Air Force in 1974-1979 who handled bomb dogs protecting Pres. Jimmy Carter.
His work as a fulltime police officer included departments in Washington, D.C. and Pulaski County under Tommy Robinson.
He joined the National Guard in 1982 and went active duty in 1988. For many years, he held a supervisory position as loadmaster. To keep his certification, he worked for Lonoke County and finally for Austin.
Chamberlain compares the sheriff to a rookie who feels like he can save the world by his own efforts.
“It’s not about you,” he said. “It’s about the people who do the work. Having the right people under you makes everything go smoother and you get a lot more done.”
If elected, Chamberlain said he would take the radar guns out of the patrol cars so the deputies would concentrate on watching residents’ homes.
A sheriff’s job is to protect families first and then their property, he said, adding that the current sheriff focuses too much on traffic.
Rich took a leave of absence from the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department where he worked as an investigator to run for sheriff. Now he is a manager at Routh Wrecker in Little Rock, one of the largest wrecker services in the state.
“I believe I’m the right man for the job,” he said. “I want to upgrade the department’s image. I want to be less traffic-oriented and more focused on crimes against persons.”
He said as sheriff he would try to make better use of the available assets because the reality is that most counties are short of money.
Rich disagrees with Staley and Chamberlain that the current sheriff has no experience. He had none when he started, but now he has six years, Rich said.
But that comes nowhere close to his 23 years of experience that will make him a better sheriff than any of the other candidates, he said.
“The other guys aren’t dirt bags,” he said. “I just think I’m the best man for the job.”
