Sheriff Matt Moulton reflects on milestones, future goals as he nears 100 days in office

41NBC's Monica Diaz-Meek sat down with Sheriff Moulton to talk about his time in office.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Sheriff Matt Moulton is approaching his first 100 days in office, evaluating his achievements to date and preparing for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

41NBC’s Monica Diaz-Meek sat down with Sheriff Moulton to talk about his time in office.

MONICA- Welcome back. Today we have Houston County Sheriff Matt Moulton joining us. Thank you for being here.

MATT- It’s great to be back.

MONICA- It is wonderful having you here. Last time I saw you was on election night.

MATT- That’s right.

MONICA- And a lot has changed when you’re in your first 100 days. What has it been like being Sheriff of Houston County?

MATT- You know, it’s been great. You know, I truly believe that I am exactly where God’s intended me to be. The community has rallied around me. And, you know, I believe in the community that I’m serving and I’ve got the greatest team in the Houston County Sheriff’s Office to work with. It’s just been great.

MONICA- Alright. And how has it been stepping into the shoes of Sheriff Talton and fulfilling that legacy? I mean, he had such high regards for you. What has that been like?

MATT- It’s been a challenge because he made it look so easy. And I realize it’s not as easy as he ever made it look. But to have the trust that he had in me, you know, and the community that trust me the way they do, it’s been a very smooth transition. I’ve got the best chief deputy in Chief Rape. He is the greatest asset, I think, to law enforcement with his knowledge. He’s now in his 53rd year and his leadership is it just makes what I do so much. He’s taught me so much in three months that I hope I can keep him for a long time.

MONICA- Alright. So I want to talk about it. You had a lot of goals and ambitions as you entered into Sheriff. You have two big projects we were talking about. What is your first one? It’s kind of targeting the youth. What do you have planned?

MATT- You know, one of the things I wanted to do was find a program or create a program that would help children, youth, teenagers make better decisions about life choices. And when I was in the Sheriff Elect Academy, I learned about the CHAMPS program. It was created by the Sheriffs Association, and it’s an acronym for Choosing Healthy Activities and Methods Promoting Safety. It’s geared to be taught at the fifth grade level, but they’re wanting to expand it into the middle schools and then eventually through all of school. But I met with the school board and the superintendent, and we have agreed to start a pilot program next school year, and we’re going to bring the CHAMPS program to Houston County. It will start out in Hilltop Middle School and Northside Middle School and will teach the CHAMPS program next year. And then we’ll measure the success of it next year and hopefully grow that program into all the middle schools in Houston County going forward.

MONICA- Alright. Why is it so important to you to help out youth and target kiddos at such an early age?

MATT- Over the last five, probably eight years, there’s been a growing trend and more serious and violent crime occurring between the age bracket of about 13 and 21/22. And sometimes I think these kids just don’t know how to make better decisions. They’re not taught how to make better decisions, and they tend to follow the path of least resistance. And that leads them to making poor decisions. And they get involved in criminal activity and they’ll get into the juvenile system. And then it’s just it’s like a revolving door, hard for them to get out and by addressing this problem in the sixth grade, we’re hitting them when their minds are still being developed. And hopefully we’ll be able to teach them something that will allow them to make a better decision going forward.

MONICA-  Alright. And then also, you’re getting new outfits. What can we expect?

MATT- Yeah, you know, one of the things that I learned right before I was elected was that our uniform distributor is no longer going to produce the color pants that we wear in our uniforms. So a team from the sheriff’s office got together and we’ve identified the new uniform that’s in production now, and we hope to roll the new uniform out on July 1st. So it’ll be a new look for the Houston County Sheriff’s office. And I’m not going to spoil it right now, but I look forward to that. It’ll be nice and very professional looking.

MONICA- I’m excited to see it. New leadership, new changes with our uniforms. Lots of stuff you have planned. What do you want to tell the folks who elected you and helped you get into office?

MATT-  I just want to thank them, you know, for trusting me and for giving me this opportunity to continue the legacy that Sheriff Talton started, you know, with with the team of law enforcement officers that we have at the sheriff’s office, especially Chief Rape, I can’t I can’t praise him enough. You know, when when I run an idea by him, I can tell by his reaction whether or not I need to do it or go back to the drawing table. And but he’s just been great. And as long as I can hold on to him, I’m going to be all right.