By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – A fourth person has entered the race for Wabash County Sheriff in the May 2018 Primary Election.
Local businessman Walter Woods announced his candidacy to The Paper of Wabash County on Wednesday, June 24. He will run as a Republican.
“I feel that we need to get out there and combat this drug problem,” he said. “On a weekly basis, someone is mentioning the drug issue to me. It’s not that officers aren’t doing anything, we just need to get more people involved in fighting the drug epidemic.”
Joint cooperation among departments is needed to help curb the problem, Woods believes.
“All of the departments in county are trying to fight it,” he said, noting that departments outside the county may need to be brought in to fight the problem. “We need to make sure that we use all of our resources.”
The public also needs to be educated about the seriousness of the situation.
“You hear all the drug issues and stuff, but you don’t hear the public saying, ‘Hey, this is happening,’” Woods continued. “I mean, you hear it after the fact after someone they loved got into drugs. It’s a major epidemic in our county and surrounding counties.
“We just have to work with state and local governments and get everybody involved to combat the drug epidemic.”
The drug problem also plays a role in another problem facing the county, and that is jail overcrowding, Woods said.
“I’ve served under four different sheriffs as a reserve, and you see the population climb drastically to where we were housing 100-plus inmates in our jail,” he said. “We’re now housing a lot of our own prisoners in other counties.”
Some of the overcrowding problem lies with state mandates and policies, Woods concedes. But drugs also play a major factor, he believes.
“If we get a handle on the drug epidemic, that’s going to alleviate some of the problems, but it’s not going to alleviate all of the issues,” he said. “We need to look for other funding.
“We actually need a jail, which we don’t have funds for. We need to look for grants, private money or something to help us appropriate the funding we need to obviously build a new jail.”
A drug rehab facility would also help fight the problem, Woods said.
“It would be nice if we could find some type of drug rehab to come to this area,” he said. “Rather than housing drug offenders in jail, they could be housed at a rehab facility, which would alleviate some cost to the county.
“That’s not something the sheriff himself can implement or anything. It’s something the community is going to need to try to get together.”
Budget is another issue in the race, Woods said, noting overcrowding and the spending it brings with it are involved in that matter.
“I believe the county is a little understaffed, as far as protecting our community goes,” he said. “We need to build the reserve program back up to where it was 10 years ago. That is a vital asset to the community.
“You have well-trained reserves to do some of the stuff and free up the deputies, that will help in a long way with the budget and spending, and so forth.”
Reservists have the same arrest powers as a merit deputy, but they are not Indiana Law Enforcement Academy certified trained, Woods explained. Training is available, he continued, but it is not as long as that of a merit deputy. In addition, reservists must have the same amount of training throughout the year that a merit deputy has.
Reservists aren’t paid for their efforts, but they are required to put in a certain amount of time in each month.
“The better trained the reserves are,” he said, “the better they can help the merit deputy. Training is key to helping the citizens of Wabash County.”
Woods also would like to see more marked squad cars out in the community.
“The visibility of the cars and stuff is a deterrent,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, we need a couple unmarked, but we need a few more marked cars and less unmarked squad cars.
“That’s not a high priority or anything. It’s a way to make sure people see us in small communities. You hear, ‘I never see a police officer.’ Well, if you’ve got an unmarked squad car, how are you going to know you have a police officer in that area? Whether we’re on duty or off duty, a marked squad car makes people thing something is being done in their area.”
A North Judson native, Woods has owned Tri W Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning for 25 years. He moved to Wabash in 1984 after getting married. He and his wife raised three children in Wabash County.
“I think being 25 years in business, that’s going to help me on the financial and budget side of things,” he said.
This is Woods’ second attempt for the post. He finished second in a three-person race in 2014, falling to GOP-incumbent Bob Land in the primary.
Woods is the forth person to have announced their intentions to seek the sheriff’s post in 2018. Also running are Ryan Short, Ryan Baker and Steve Hicks.
The Primary Election is Tuesday, May 8, 2018.