Lowndes County Sheriff Mike Arledge and Democratic challenger Selvain McQueen will face off in Tuesday’s general election.
Arledge, who was first elected to the position in 2011, has served one term as sheriff. He’s worked in law enforcement for more than 30 years, with experience including the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.
Arledge also served two terms as a Lowndes County Justice Court judge.
McQueen has 26 years’ law enforcement experience, including as Columbus’ chief of police — a position he retired from in 2014.
“I want Lowndes County to be a safe place to live, to visit, to work and enjoy,” McQueen said Friday. “I want it to be a place where people can come here and be able to have fun.”
McQueen told The Dispatch that one of his first priorities, if elected, would be to ensure that all deputies are equipped with and use GPS, body cameras and dashboard cameras.
“In my opinion, that protects the citizens as well as the police,” he said. “When you turn them on like you’re supposed to and are recording standard operating procedures, it causes honesty and integrity. In addition to that, it’s a useful tool for documenting crime scenes. It’s a nationwide trend.”
McQueen also pointed out that body cameras tend to protect officers by discouraging poor behavior from citizens who know they’re being filmed.
The Dispatch could not reach Arledge for comment Friday. However, in the 2015 Lowndes County Voter Guide, he said the department has been and will continue to be involved with building relationships with the community.
“The concept of community policing is often misunderstood but in short it is the police working with individual citizens, groups of citizens and organizations to resolve problems,” he said. “It is building relationships with citizens, schools, businesses and community organizations. The sheriff’s department is involved in a majority of major community events interacting with the citizens of the community.”
Arledge pointed to Caledonia Day, Artesia Day, Crawford Day, the Market Street Festival, Relay for Life, Camp Rising sun and other events as examples of events the department has used to interact and build relationships with the community.
McQueen laid out a number of additional goals, including obtaining accreditation for the jail, establishing substations to reduce deployment times, holding regular community meetings and developing surveying methods to gather feedback from the community.
“I want to get a feel from the people of what their concerns and problems are,” he said. “Those things will be documented and we’ll address those issues.”
The sheriff of Lowndes County earns $90,000 a year.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
