The Tri-County Journal
& Chattahoochee Chronicle
PO Box 850, 71 Webb Lane
Buena Vista, GA 31803
229-649-6397
tjournal@alltel.net

By RICHARD HARRIS
(From the July 12, 2006 issue)
   The results of an online survey titled “Chattahoochee County Sheriff’s Office Satisfaction Survey” were recently released. The survey was only completed by 29 respondents, so the results should not be interpreted to necessarily be proportionately representative of the community as a whole, but it does provide an interesting “snapshot” of what some residents think.
   It also makes one thing clear – there are widely differing opinions on issues such as the effectiveness of the Sheriff’s Office and whether or not the Commission of the Unified Government did the right thing when it voted recently to establish a new county police department that will operate separately from the Sheriff’s Office (while also voting to significantly cut the sheriff’s budget). The comments made by respondents to the survey (who were not required to give their names) were so different that an outsider would probably wonder if they were really all talking about the same county.
   The survey asked several multiple-choice questions, but also posed one open-ended question: “What specific things can we do to improve our local law enforcement?” Of the 29 people who responded to the survey, a majority of the ones who answered this question seemed to believe that the Sheriff’s Office was doing a pretty good job with law enforcement, but others felt the opposite.
   One of the people in favor of the job the Sheriff’s Office is doing wrote the following: “Form a good relationship between the department (Sheriff’s Office) and the local government and stop trying to politicize everything. The community voted him (the sheriff) in, so obviously a vast majority of the county is satisfied with his services and his department. The turmoil that is being created over this situation is not helping the people of Chattahoochee County; rather it is dividing our community. The last thing we need in this time of growth is to pull apart groups. The money being spent on this new department would be better spent on infrastructure needed to promote the healthy growth of our community.”
   At least a couple of respondents who view the Sheriff’s Office in a favorable light also accuse those who have criticized him of doing so for merely political reasons. One said the Commission’s vote to establish a separate police department was “stupid and childish … like a Donald Duck tie.” The same respondent vowed that local residents would vote Probate Judge Ken Van Horn and Commission Chairman Larry Dillard out of office.
   On the flip side, some pretty strong opinions in favor of the creation of a separate police department were expressed, too.
   One person wrote: “Greater presence of law enforcement officers with 24-hour patrolling. Enforce all laws. Cooperate with the school to provide security. Remove the sheriff.”
   Another respondent wrote: “Have a police force that will work as a part of the overall Cusseta-Chattahoochee County team to make it a better place to live, instead of holding the county hostage by refusing to let officers write tickets to offenders.”
   As for the multiple-choice questions, a list of them and the results are below.
   Have you or someone you  known been the victim of a crime within the last five years?
   * Yes = 65.5 percent (19 votes)
   * No = 34.5 percent (10 votes)
   Did the Sheriff’s Office respond in a timely manner?
   * Yes = 55.6 percent (10 votes)
   * No = 44.4 percent (8 votes)
   Was the perpetrator caught?
   * Yes = 44.4 percent (8 votes)
   * No = 50 percent (9 votes)
   * Not Sure = 5.6 percent (1 vote)
   Please rate the following statement: The sheriff provides effective law enforcement for the county.
   * Strongly Agree = 35.7 percent (10 votes)
   * Agree = 10.7 percent (3 votes)
   * Strongly Disagree = 39.3 percent (11 votes)
   * Disagree = 10.7 percent (3 votes)
   * Neutral = 3.6 percent (1 vote).
   The survey was conducted by www.cusseta.net , a website that provides general information about the Cusseta-Chattahoochee County area, as well as online links to locally-related news articles on various media websites. Cusseta.net is operated by the Chattahoochee County Probate Judge’s Office. The probate judge recently asked the governor to reconsider his decision to not investigate the Sheriff’s Office. That request had previously been made to the governor by Commission Chairman Larry Dillard.