Veteran lawman Richard Dixon has watched the downfall of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office for years and has seen no plan to fix it.
So he’s stepping forward to do it.
“I don’t see that Sheriff (Richard) Roundtree has done anything wrong, but it falls on his shoulders,” Dixon said in an interview this week. “So, he has to take the responsibility of it.”
Dixon is a former Richmond County deputy, serving on the Road Patrol, as a Property Crimes investigator and member of the Crime Suppression Team member and SWAT Team. Dixon has spent the last 20 years of his career working for the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC).
Running as an independent, Dixon has to gather an estimated 6,700 signatures to make it on the ballot. With success, he would then face Roundtree next November, but only if the incumbent sheriff makes it past the Democratic primary in May. Currently, there are two other Democratic challengers, including Bo Johnson and Eugene “Gino Rock” Brantley.
Most of the sheriff’s office problems stem from a shortage of personnel, and Dixon believes he can solve that problem with getting the academy system back in this area to gain more cadets.
In 2011, Dixon negotiated with two sitting sheriffs to maintain the academy presence in the C.S.R.A. amidst major budget cuts across the state. For 11 years, Dixon directed both academies in the C.S.R.A. and Athens, servicing 37 counties. Dixon’s duties included managing the two state budgets for each academy, supervising six staff members and over 80 cadets and coordinating with the many agency heads to ensure top tiered training for the officers across the regions.
During these years, Dixon graduated thousands of cadets who went on to become law enforcement officers in the state. Dixon finished his career with the Peace Officer’s Standard and Training (POST), retiring in March of this year.
Since retiring, Dixon developed a Criminal Justice Pathway program for the Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics in Hephzibah. He has since taken a position teaching the course to high school students wishing to enter the field of public service.
“The youth must be reached to fill the void being left in law enforcement,” he said on his Facebook page. “(I am) instilling in the youth a sense of civic responsibility to better serve our communities in the future.”
The veteran lawman, who worked alongside Roundtree on the SWAT Team years ago, said he has heard people say that Richmond County will never elect another white sheriff. But race does not play into his thinking when it comes to servitude.
“It is my belief that all of us, regardless of race, culture or religious belief, wish to live a trouble-free life,” he said. “I believe the far extremes of the right and left to be the biggest problem we face and those of us in the middle (whether a little left or right of the middle) can and will make the difference in our community. It is past time to lay racial tension aside long enough to improve our community.”
This is why he chose to run as an Independent.
“This doesn’t speak well of us as a community if we cannot see past our differences and pull together to improve our community,” he said.
Drastic personnel shortages has brought about increased crime and violence the community and the jail, he said. Dixon intends on using his years of experience and relationships with other sheriffs and police chiefs in the C.S.R.A. to increase the recruiting of cadets for the police academy. Dixon’s mission will be to open the office of sheriff back to the community, fill the shortfall of personnel and build a strong relationship with the C.S.R.A. leaders.
“The mantra of ‘YOUR office; OUR community’ will echo across the county as we all work together to make the Sheriff’s Office and the County a safe place to live and work,” he said. “This is not a one man effort but a county wide endeavor.”
