Decision 2024: Meet Jimmy Dunn, candidate for Houston County Sheriff

MONICA- Good Afternoon. Today we have Jimmy Dunn who’s running for Houston County Sheriff with us. Thank you for being here.

JIMMY- Thank you, Monica.

MONICA- I’m glad to have you. The races are almost coming up next week with early voting. I have a few questions for you, just wanting to get to know you more and the voters to know you. First, what do you think is the biggest issue or challenge that’s facing the Sheriff’s Office over the next four years and how do you plan to solve it?

JIMMY- You know, you talk about challenges and you know issues challenges you know, here it is that Houston County hasn’t had another Sheriff, other than Sheriff Talton for 52 years you know. 13 different elections, so this is new. This is something new for Houston County. You know when you look at it, filling his shoes is gonna be tough, you know it’s going to be like following Bear Bryant. I always say following Bear Bryant in his football career you know being a head coach. You know following in his footsteps but I would say staffing. You know but that’s a national problem in law enforcement, but when I look at that I had a preview of going down to the jail and walking around and taking a tour. About a two and a half hour tour. And then going over to the courthouse side with a lieutenant over there and understanding it so probably on the jail side. You’re looking at about 30 something staffing we would have to increase and ’cause state court is added on that side on the other side of state court side on the court system side so you would have to add a couple there because state courts had it enough. So you know I think staffing will probably be the biggest thing to hurdle.

MONICA- Now what data will you consider or will you consider most heavily when deciding if you see Houston County moving towards a safer community?

JIMMY- That’s the number one key. You know when you look at data, I always say it, you know we want to be number one at everything. So, if it’s pulled daily or however it’s pulled or you know, you always want to hit charts on a state level, in a national level. We want to be number one in everything. So, you know whether it’s crime or reducing drugs on the street, we want to be a perfect world. We know this is not a perfect world, this is not Mayberry. This ain’t Blue Bloods either, we in New York City. We have to maintain at a capacity so being at the top. You know, Houston County is the top of everything else. The school system, I mean everything we do is top class, place to retire. So we want to keep our citizens and the numbers low and that’s going to start with our department heads day one. So at day one, we’re going to have a meeting and what’s our pros and what’s our cons? What’s our weakness? What’s our strengths? I’m going to hit the ground running on day one.

MONICA-  How do you plan on making Houston County safer? Any plans you have or what are your thoughts on that?

JIMMY- Want to make it safer. I mean there’s different ways to look at it because you got to remember Houston County isn’t just made up of Houston County Sheriff’s Department. We serve all of Houston County. When you look at it, we have the city of Warner Robins, we got the city of Centerville, we got the city of Perry. So you know, it’s going to take a group effort to make Houston County overall safer. I mean all of them bring a big punch to the table as far as Houston County Sheriff’s Department, there’s different ways we look at it. You know when I look at Houston County Sheriff’s Department , I mean there’s different programs that we can put in place. I mean what are we doing that it’s just coming up. I mean right now we’re talking about summertime coming up. You know we just had a shooting in the city of Warner Robins. When we talk about that, you know what’s the plans put on place other than our churches do such a great job in Houston County. You know put them in Summer camps kids, you know but what are we doing as far as other things? You know we have to find advocates out there to help us. You know, when I talk about we have the mental citizens , the mental behavioral health. You know the addiction, so as a whole you’re looking for you know do we have the clinics? You know and things like that put in place right now and that’s been in the talks and in the works. It’s going to to be the partnership of not just Houston County, but with the city of Warner Robins, city of Centerville, city of Perry.

MONICA- Lastly, why do you think you are the best candidate for this position of Sheriff?

JIMMY- You know, people asked all the time, why you? And I say, why not me? I mean, I look at it like this. 23 years, early retirement Robins Air Force Base. At Warner Robins American Little League from 2006 to 2011 Board of Directors. 2011 I was President. 2010 is when I had the vision and brought back now the first time at Warner Robins League, brought the Challenger league with special aged kids, built that out there with 147 kids and then 15 years coaching middle school sports and then I’m currently at SSAI. It’s a federal government contractor dealing with contacts at Robins Air Force Base. Everywhere I’ve went, I’ve left footprints. I look at it this way as people say I don’t have a law enforcement experience. I say hold on now, are we talking about being a Sheriff or we talking about being a deputy? Because being a Sheriff is being a leader. Everywhere I’ve been I left a footprint at.

MONICA- So you have that ability to be that leader?

JIMMY- There’s no doubt. When I look at Sheriff Talton and you go back in his time and him working on his farm, being County Commissioner and then being Sheriff. 52 years ago, 13 elections. It’s worked this long, only thing changing is the, you know due to him retiring, the name’s going to change to Sheriff Jimmy Dunn.

MONICA- Alright. Thank you for that. Now to watch the full interview and to find out more about the Sheriff’s who are running, head on over to 41nbc.com. Thank you so much for being here.

JIMMY- Thank you.