Strong backgrounds and long-term experience in military and/or law enforcement are prevalent for almost all candidates in two of the top county races in the 2010 election.

The two announced candidates for county sheriff both have extensive service time with local law enforcement agencies plus additional training and experience in community projects.

Three of the four candidates for county jailer have anywhere from 11 to 36 years of experience in law enforcement. Two also had military police careers before joining law enforcement agencies. One served as an officer at a maximum security prison.

The following are synopses of the qualifications and goals of the candidates in these two important upcoming local races.

BARREN COUNTY SHERIFF

Two Democratic candidates, incumbent Chris Eaton and Glasgow Police officer Howard Garrison, will face off in the May primary.

Before becoming sheriff, Eaton served eight years as a deputy under former sheriff Barney Jones and has 16 years experience in law enforcement. He is a native of Barren County and graduated from Barren County High School in 1989. He is also a 1994 graduate of the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Police Academy.

Eaton is running for re-election on the platform that he accomplished all his campaign goals from his first election and has new ones set for the next four years.

He said he grew the department by adding more deputies and a female detective and he fulfilled his promise to be a “working” sheriff doing road patrols.

Eaton wants to continue to increase staff size to keep up with the growing population in the county including a cyber detective to investigate online crimes such as sexual predators on the Internet and identity theft. He is also implementing an e-warrant system in conjunction with the state attorney general’s office and wants to expand the sheriff’s most wanted and child support most wanted lists programs.

During a recent trip to Washington, Eaton met with Kentucky legislators to discuss financing for another long-term goal – a separate county law enforcement building to house the sheriff’s office, drug task force and emergency management agencies.

Eaton has memberships in state and national sheriff’s associations and was named Kentucky Sheriff of the Year in 2008. He is chairman of the Kentucky Sheriff’s Scholarship Committee, serves on the Boys and Girls Sheriff’s Ranch and Legislative committees and the National Sheriff’s Drug Enforcement Committee. In 2008, he was appointed by Gov. Steve Beshear to serve on the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council.

He is also a member of the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce, Barren County Alumni Association, Cave City and Etoile Masonic lodges, Barren County Cattleman’s Association and the Travelers Protective Association.

Eaton will face Garrison in the May 18 primary as his only opponent for the sheriff’s seat.

Garrison, a native of Barren County and a graduate of Barren County High School, has more than 15 years of experience working in law enforcement. He began as an auxillary officer for the Glasgow Police Depart-ment in 1986. After seven years of service there, he became an officer with the Cave City Police Department in 1993 and worked there for six years, serving both as a sergeant and accreditation officer during his duty time. Garrison graduated from the Department of Criminal Justice training program in 1994.

He returned to the GPD in 2007, where he has served as a school resource officer in the Glasgow Independent Schools and was named Kentucky Association of School Resource Officers’ Region 2 School Resource Officer of the Year in 2008.

Garrison said his work with students in the school system for almost three years and his experience with different law enforcement agencies will assist him in the role of sheriff. He said he sees a need for further common law education for young people in addition to just the D.A.R.E. program.



BARREN COUNTY JAILER

Four candidates, three Democratic and one Republican, are vying for the post of Barren County jailer.

Demo-crat Matt Mutter is the current jailer. He served as acting jailer and led operations there from late July 2008 through December 2010 after being appointed to the position by Sheriff Chris Eaton, following a leave of absence by then jailer Leland Cox pending the outcome of a criminal investigation.

After Cox’s official resignation effective Jan. 1 of this year, Mutter was sworn in as Barren County jailer by judge-executive Davie Greer on Jan. 2.

Mutter has 17 years of law enforcement experience, having served seven-and-a-half years as a deputy sheriff with the Barren County Sheriff’s Department; eight years with the Glasgow Police Department; and a year-and-a-half as a deputy jailer at the Barren County Correction Center.

One of the first things Mutter planned for the jail was implementing some type of employee evaluation system to follow up on the performance of workers at the corrections center. He also said he wants to work closely with members of Barren County Fiscal Court with regards to the existing jail and a new one if that comes to pass.

Maj. Mike Gibbons, a Cave City police officer, was the first candidate to file for the office of jailer on Nov. 4, the earliest date to legally do so.

Gibbons has 36 years of law enforcement experience, 26 of which has been in supervisory roles.

The Democratic contender graduated from Caverna High School then joined the U.S. Army in 1973 and received military police training at Fort Gordon, Ga., and additional training to become a K-9 handler at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

During his time in the military, he also served as a K-9 trainer, supervisor over the K-9 unit, worked in physical security and in military police investigations.

After receiving an honorable discharge in 1979, Gibbons went to work for the Glasgow Police Department as a police officer, working his way through the ranks from patrolman to major, then serving as assistant chief and two years as lieutenant colonel in the position of deputy chief. In 2004, he retired from GPD after 25 years of service.

After retiring, he worked for two years as a deputy sheriff with the Barren County Sheriff’s Office and three years with the Cave City Police Department as a patrolman, sergeant and now major. He presently serves as assistant chief of the CCPD.

Gibbons is also a graduate of the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice training and the Command Decisions Class.

Training and experience are two of the qualities that make him prepared for the job, he said.

Better training for employees in all areas of corrections is one of the changes he would like to see happen.

Bob Wing is the only Republican candidate running for jailer in the Nov. 2 election.

He has three years of police academy training and more than 11 years of law enforcement experience. He served with the military police and as a detective for the U.S. Army. He also worked as a maximum security prison officer in Florida. He served as a Winter Haven Police Department patrolman, as well as a traffic homicide investigator, field training officer and working on a riot task force.

After becoming a Barren County resident, Wing formerly served as both a Glasgow Police Department patrolman and a Barren County deputy jailer. He has also worked in the upholstery and carpentry trades and as an industrial electrician and has owned his own business for 18 years.

Wing ran against former jailer Leland Cox in the 2006 general election, but was defeated by the incumbent.

Wing wants to ease overcrowding at the jail, take away inmate privileges and try to cut down on the number of repeat offenders returning to the facility. He also opposes construction of a new jail.

He has a plan to model an inmate work program after a similar one started by controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The third Democratic candidate who has filed to run for jailer is Billy Bowles.

Bowles is a life-long resident of Barren County and is a graduate of Glasgow High School. He said he has experience supervising employees and knowing how to run a business from his job as assistant manager at Travelers Food Plaza on Happy Valley Road and that this will help him in supervising the day-to-day operations of the jail.

Former jailer Fred Shirley had also announced that he would be a candidate, but did not file by the Jan. 26 deadline to run in the May primary.

This story includes information from prior GDT articles.