White County Sheriff Rick Kelley made it official Tuesday; he will be seeking a second term in office.
“It’s hard to believe that this term is already winding down,” Kelley said in making the announcement.
He said there were a few challenges during this first term, notably dealing with the effects of COVID and the resulting supply chain issues and labor shortages. Still, Kelley said, “The staff here has done an amazing job. We’ve been able to overcome all those challenges and been able to present citizens with a professional sheriff’s office that they can be proud of.”
Aside from the challenges, the Sheriff said a lot of things have been accomplished. The sheriff’s office has added two K-9 deputies to the Patrol Division and increased the number of school resource officers to six, which puts one in every school in the county.
On the technological side, Sheriff Kelley noted his administration has added body cameras for each officer as well as remote video visitation and educational tablets for inmates in the jail.
Kelley said progress has been made, but there’s more work to be done,
“I told the citizens when I ran for office initially that I would work hard for them and I would present them with a professional sheriff’s office they could be proud of. And I have accomplished that. And I want to continue working hard for the citizens of this county because this is my home county, and it is important to me,” he said.
If re-elected, Sheriff Kelley says he wants to focus on enhancing the programs that are already in place.
“And I want to focus on drug education programs in school, the CHAMPS program, and also want to look at expanding our inmate labor program.”
