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Grimming Would Like To Set Up Citizen Advisory Board

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2008

Ron Grimming, 63, has three things in common with his opponent: he was a state trooper, he taught at Miami-Dade College, and he's spent 33 years as a career law enforcement officer. Grimming moved to Lake Placid three years ago.

He started in 1970 as a special agent for the Illinois State Police, and worked his way up to deputy director, supervising more than 2,500 officers in the investigative and patrol divisions. In 1993, he was appointed director of the Florida Highway Patrol, where he managed 1,740 troopers and 529 civilian personnel. The budget exceeded $135 million.

In 1998, he was named director of Miami-Dade College's School of Justice, where he was responsible for law enforcement, corrections and security officer training. While there, he was appointed the Homeland Security director, and chief of campus police. He is the author of three college textbooks.

Q: Describe your management style and how that will be seen or demonstrated in the county?

I strongly believe in participatory management and working in partnership both inside the organization and with the community. An "open door policy" will exist with employees in the sheriff's office, and the public to resolve problems and concerns. A Citizen Advisory Board will be established consisting of a cross section of citizens, business owners and community leaders from all areas of the county to review and provide input on the sheriff's office budget, operations, and programs. My philosophy is the sheriff's office belongs to the community and the sheriff's office services should directly reflect the community's values and concerns.

Q: What can you do, or have done, that make the biggest impact on public safety?

First of all, it should be pointed out that serious crimes like homicide, burglary, robbery, auto theft, gang activity and drug crimes have increased significantly since 2005. There are a number of enforcement initiatives that I believe are critical to reversing this trend.

We need to increase the number of deputies patrolling our neighborhoods so that we can deter crime and provide faster response times. We must eliminate unnecessary administrative positions and assign them to law enforcement duties to increase patrol and investigative capability. We must stagger shift starting times so that not all deputies are beginning and ending their shifts at the same time, creating gaps in coverage and delayed response times because deputies aren't available. We need to implement a countywide Burglary Task Force whereby all law enforcement agencies in the county participate in both intelligence sharing on burglaries, as well as operationally share resources to target the significant burglary problem we are experiencing.

I would refocus the sheriff's office drug enforcement efforts to address crack cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and other drugs that are more dangerous, and directly responsible for much of the county's serious crime problems.

I would initiate a citizen police academy and auxiliary deputy program whereby citizens after completing a training program can volunteer to assist in patrolling their communities as a deterrent to crime. I would create a School Safety and Gang Task Force composed of law enforcement, the school district, community college, emergency management, mental health and counseling services to cope with school emergencies, crime and gang violence. I will expand mutual aid agreements to extend more authority to city law enforcement agencies when traveling outside their jurisdiction to address crimes they may encounter, and to encourage their greater participation in countywide enforcement efforts. It is also essential to expand the agricultural deputy program to address the increasing agricultural crimes, fuel and equipment thefts.

I will create an electronic neighborhood and business crime awareness program whereby citizens and businesses would receive daily crime information updates on crime activity in their neighborhoods via an e-mail from the sheriff's office. This information will not only provide a timely and excellent early warning system for families, businesses, and neighborhood watch organizations, but will also create an opportunity for citizens to communicate back to the sheriff's office electronically information they have on crime in their neighborhoods.

During the course of my career I initiated a number of other enforcement and public safety programs some of which can be found at www.flhsmv.gov/fhp/html/story5w.html.

Q: How should a sheriff's office be measured by the public?

There are a number of important ways to measure the success of a law enforcement agency which include crime rate, crime solving capability, response times to calls for service, responsiveness and follow-up to citizen contact, demeanor, attitude and friendliness of officers during their interaction with the public, along with the integrity, ethics and professionalism standards demonstrated by the agency. Another important measure is how good a steward the sheriff is with the public's tax dollars to ensure that tax money is spent prudently and not wastefully.

To address the issue of the public's satisfaction with the sheriff's services, I would advocate creating a customer satisfaction card to be distributed to each citizen who calls the sheriff's office for assistance as a means to provide feedback to the organization as to the services rendered. I would also implement a Citizens Advisory Board to review the sheriff's office operations, programs and budget in order to maximize citizen input and evaluation of the sheriff's office performance.

Q: What gives you the most satisfaction in law enforcement?

Being able to help those in need, and to create a positive impact on the quality of life in our community. To provide a safe environment for families and businesses to thrive with the goal of establishing a public safety environment that will protect and preserve the Highlands County lifestyle for future generations.

Q: Why are you the best choice for sheriff?

I believe my 35 years of diverse law enforcement background, and my more than 25 years of senior management and leadership experience, make me the most qualified candidate for sheriff. My patrol, investigation, homeland security, drug enforcement, gang interdiction, budget and management experience while serving as deputy director of the Illinois State Police, director of the Florida Highway Patrol and director of the School of Justice /Police Chief Miami-Dade College will assist me in providing modern and unique solutions to Highlands County's crime problems.

I have developed well thought out enforcement programs to address our increasing burglary, robbery, gang, and drug problems. I believe my management and budget experience will provide a fiscally restrained approach to spending tax payer's money in these difficult financial times.

I will find common sense alternatives to spending nearly $90 million on a new sheriff's office building and jail. I will increase patrols in neighborhoods, and improve school safety without increasing the budget by eliminating unnecessary administrative and command positions. I have a less expensive plan to address jail overcrowding by establishing a work camp/barracks style facility which will result in inmates working to lower food costs while providing labor resources to city and county governments to reduce government's labor costs. I am committed to a more fiscally prudent way to operate the sheriff's office, and to stop government waste and irresponsible spending.

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