Montgomery County News

Progress and moving forward in the MC Sheriff’s Office April 23, 2008 - No reporter cited

Danielle Cummings

It has been a busy term for Montgomery County Sheriff Wendell Adams. Adams was elected in 2006 and began his term January 1, 2007. Adams set his sights initially on reorganizing and updating the department to exceed compliance in all areas, on a resourceful budget.

According to Adams, the first year was spent doing a lot of cleaning up. Bringing 30 plus years of law enforcement experience into the position, Adams recognized the need for efficiency and improvement in several areas of the department.

An increasingly qualified and full staff have made 24-hour coverage available in the County.

“I’ve got a great group of officers,” said Adams. “This is the first time we have had a graveyard shift and I’ve gotten very positive reception from that effort. I really appreciate all of the help from the 240 Watch program for supporting the graveyard shift efforts as we worked toward that.”

Inside the department, several changes can be found. The kitchen has been updated to reflect Arkansas Health Department standards; computers have been installed, steamlining processes of jail administration; and through grant funding, bullet proof glass will be installed to protect the dispatch office.

All police units are now equipped with fire extinguishers and first aid kits and training has topped the priority list for the rest of this year.

With a staff of seven deputies (including the sheriff) in 2007, over 66 felony charges were made, over 165 moving violations, including alcohol related tickets, reckless driving, speeding and other hazardous violations. Over 150 non-hazardous arrests including child restraint, license, insurance or seat belt violations and over 70 each of juvenile arrests and radar citations. Several orders of protection were issued and over 100 domestic violence calls were responded to.

Over 600 incidents were reported and nearly 200 accidents investigated.

Now with loose ends cleaned-up and in-house improvements made, training is the main focus. Officers this year already have attended several training classes including Criminal Investigation, Firearms, Racial Profiling, SWAT and many more.

“We realized early on that it would be difficult to get firearms instructors down here to qualify our team,” said Adams. This being the case, Sgt. Jarrett Scott and Cpl. John Logan was sent to instructor training to be able to qualify the rest of the Montgomery County team and also to ensure qualifications are kept current. Currently Cpl. John Logan and Officer Joe Quinn have attended SWAT training and more training is scheduled to take place throughout the year.

“The least expensive thing we can give the office that will help the most, is training. The more training, the greater liability is decreased,” said Cpl. Logan.

According to Sheriff Adams, the training regiment will increase and be maintained going forward.

“We are raising the standards for our department. Internal training will benefit the county and all of us,” said Adams.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office currently has seven active members on the Sheriff’s force. They include: Sheriff Wendell Adams, Chief Deputy Gary Hogue, Sgt. Jarrett Scott, Cpl. John Logan, Jeremy Lee, Robby Loudermilk, Joe Quinn and Thomas Goad. 

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