There’s Going to be a New Sheriff in Town

The Portage County Primary Election is less than two months away and there are many candidates to choose from. The candidate list and what they are running for can be found here https://bit.ly/2G7kUsm 

What a lot of people are concerned about is who is going to be the new County Sheriff. Right now David W. Doak will not be running for the position again and that begs the question who is going to fill it? 

There are five candidates running for the sheriff position over portage county. You have Greg Johnson (D), P. Ken Howe (D), Joe Kammer (D), Bruce Zuchowski (R) , and Job Barber (D). All of them want to make Portage County a safer and better place to live overall.

One of the major complaints about Portage county is the jails and how inhospitable they are. There have been incidents of the jails not being up to standard for the inmates to have living conditions thus making them technically inhumane.

One candidate on the ballot I got to interview was Joe Kammer. Kammer has been in law enforcement since 1981. He is running for the sheriff position this time around because he didn’t run in 2016 out of respect for David Doak. 

Kammer believes the most pressing issue in Portage County is the conditions of the jail. He said, “We must maintain the quality of the jails and provide safe environments for the inmates. He also believes that he can use the budget left to be able to fix the problems portage county faces.

Another belief Kammer has is that the employees are the most valuable asset to the sheriffs. He said “You can’t treat your employees badly or you’re not going to get good work from them. You have to build trust and be transparent.” 

Kammer also wants to build back trust between the police and students. You need to be as transparent as possible and respectful to connect the police to the students. He says you have to be straight up with the students and you cannot mislead them to trust the police. 

Kammer plans to communicate around the county and outside of the Portage County to develop relationships with the other sheriffs in different parts of the state. He believes this because “Crime doesn’t stop at the borders.” It’s more about making Ohio a way dafer place overall than just one county.

The other candidate of interviewed was Greg Johnson. Johnson has been a sheriff for 24 years. He has many qualifications which you can see more of his backstory here. https://bit.ly/2sJqU7G He wants to continue his career in law enforcement to make Portage County a better place to live.

The most pressing issue to Johnson in the community is the staffing in the workplace. He believes there are not enough bodies in the community to do what needs to be done in Portage County. 

He wants the police and students to be able to understand each other and develop a trusting relationship. His goal is to have a program such as a ride along so the students can see what the officers have to deal with daily. He also plans to have a citizen police academy to also achieve this goal of connecting the students with the police force. 

Johnson definitely plans to form relationships with the other sheriffs outside of Portage County. He said, “You’ll never know what help you’ll need outside the county.” Being able to connect outside your borders as a police force is very important.

The Primary Election takes place on March 17th. There are many other officials running for positions in Portage County but Sheriff is a high priority for this county.