FLORENCE – It was a packed house at the Florence Municipal Center on Wednesday night as a crowd gathered for the Fremont County Sheriff’s Debate.
Three candidates are vying to be the next sheriff: Allen Cooper (R), Skip Moreau (I), and Boyd Canterbury (I).
Several hot topic items were discussed during the hour-long debate including plans for wildfire evacuation, retaining new deputies, and combating potential gang problems.
Before the debate Fremont County resident Burl McCullar said, “I’m very interested to hear what the candidates running for county sheriff have to say about changing things in the county sheriff’s operation.”
Numerous questions were asked by the public with some directed at particular candidates and others seeking answers from all three. One question: how will they deal with the illegal drug problem if elected sheriff?
Moreau said, “We’re not going to tolerate it. We’re going to start getting arrest warrants, search warrants when we find potential drug dealers, and we’re going to prosecute to the maximum percent of the law.”
Canterbury said, “We would try to get in with illegal grows. We would get in with federal agencies along with DEA.”
Cooper’s idea is “to develop a prolific offender program for those people that are committing the most egregious crimes in the drug arena. They need to have some stiff sentences handed down to them.”
Another question from an audience member was how the candidates will create better interagency communication and with the public.
Moreau said, “I plan on having a web portal. I think the sheriff’s got one now, but it’s kind of vague. I want a better one that you can log on to it, find out information on cases, things that have happened in the county.”
Canterbury said, “The community itself is a great asset to any law enforcement agency. You need the community involvement.”
Cooper said, “We need to have that regular contact with those chief law enforcement agency heads so that we can discuss what we’re doing within our respective agencies and arrive at a common goal.”
To watch the entire debate CLICK HERE
