Local elections are gearing up and Thursday the Downtown Tallahassee Business Association hosted a debate for the four men vying to be sheriff. Among the topics, crime, homelessness, and ongoing concerns about the county’s emergency dispatch agency.
Charlie Strickland says he believes in body cameras and a review board for the sheriff’s department. While Tommy Mills says he thinks the county first has to address crime before anything else. And Walt McNeil believes deputies should have the ability to input warnings into the dispatch agency’s premise alert system. All three men are challenging current Sheriff Mike Wood for the job. Wood was appointed after longtime Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell died. Wood says most of the city’s crime is coming from a few places:
"They’re places like 509 East Magnolia, 2525 Texas, 2502 Holton, in the law enforcement circles, the Frenchtown area is known as the D-Streets, Dewey, Dunn, Delaware and Dover."
Strickland is retired from the Sheriffs Department and runs the Talon shooting range. Mills, a former sheriffs deputy has run in the past three election cycles. McNeil is a former City of Tallahassee Police chief and Wood served as Under-Sheriff for Campbell.
