VIENNA — Belle Police Department Sgt. Mark Morgan, 46, is one of three candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Maries County sheriff in the Aug. 6 primary. Each of the candidates participated in lengthy interviews about their policy goals for the sheriff’s office. The first part of those interviews appeared in last week’s edition.

If Morgan is elected, he said he expects the hardest challenge for the new sheriff to be the transition to a new administration in the sheriff’s office. He described a “learning curve” he expected to experience if he were elected and began leading the staff.

“You have to find out what this administrator wants,” he said. “I have to learn the problems with my staff. These are the areas where they feel like they’re deficient, and these are the areas that they’re excelling. And I think there’s going to be a lot of learning to kind of work with each other. We’ll have to develop and change policies depending on the situation and how effective that we’re being or ineffective that we’re being.”

Morgan said he planned to gain the staff’s trust with his “lead from the front” approach.

“I’m not going to be a guy that says, ‘Well, I’m the sheriff, so I can break this rule or bend this rule, but you guys have to follow the rules’” he said. “I think that’s a huge thing to the staff. They don’t want to see that. They want to see that there’s equal opportunities for everyone in the staff for advancement or promotion.”

Morgan also mentioned getting the budget in order and taking accountability for high-value property.

“Standard practice any time you have a change of command, or a change of leadership, would be to do a 100 percent accountability for any kind of high-value item,” he said. “Firearms, computers. I think there is going to be a huge challenge tracking all that stuff down. I’ve seen some poor accountability of equipment or property, things that belonged to the sheriff’s office.”

Morgan said he supported the recent decision by the county commission to purchase the property on Highway 28 for storage, but he had reservations about developments at the property.

“I’m totally behind having a lot and having the improvements with the fencing and the lighting to be able to store things,” he said. “It’s just the additional expense of adding a gun range and all this stuff here to where we’re spending $80,000.”

Morgan said one of the most important things he has learned during his time in law enforcement is the importance of connecting with people in the community.

“People really do want to know their police officers,” he said. “They really want to know who we are. It really falls back in line with the community policing mindset of you’re not just a guy wearing a badge. You’re also a part of the community.”

In last week’s edition, Morgan mentioned taking a zone-based approach to policing the county that would give deputies a focused coverage area. He said that plan would help the sheriff’s office build ties with community members.

“(Deputies) are going to go into the same convenience stores,” he said. “They’re going to see the same farmer out feeding or watering his cattle every evening. You’re going to get more of ‘That’s Deputy So-and-So,’ when he’s coming down the road. I really think that’s one of the biggest things, assigning deputies to areas.”

Morgan said a priority for his time as sheriff would be to rework how the county handles drug crimes.

“I think we need to attack the drugs a little harder than what we have,” he said. “I think the county is due for a new drug task force that works equally with all the law enforcement agencies in the county, that has the same mindset essentially as I do. That hey, we’re all on the same team. We all want to work together. And I don’t think we’re currently getting that out of our current drug task force. I think we can do a lot better in that area.”

Maries County is part of the Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group (LANEG), one of many task forces around the state contracted by local government agencies to assist with the investigation of drug crimes. Morgan said he does not believe the county is getting its money’s worth from its contract with LANEG.

“One of the biggest areas that they’re lacking is they’re completely loyal to the sheriff’s office, whether the municipalities are contracted with them or not,” he said. “That’s a huge issue. It shouldn’t be that way. It shouldn’t be picking one agency over another. We all pay dues to them. We all have to pay to contract with them.”

Another problem Morgan said he has with LANEG is the types of cases it seems to handle.

“It seems like we’re continually targeting (drug) users,” he said. “We’re continually doing search warrants and going into people’s houses, and they’re typically only coming out with user amounts of dope. I want to target the traffickers. I want to target the people selling it because you’re always going to have users if you always have people selling. You’re never going to get rid of the users if you don’t get rid of the source or the supply.”

Morgan’s proposed solution is to explore some of the other options for drug task forces in the region.

“There are three or four different task forces that are all in this area that I would be interested in looking into and researching and reaching out to them and kind of finding the one that their ideology matches up with mine,” he said.

In last week’s edition, Morgan discussed his plans to separate dispatchers from supervising activity in the jail. He discussed how doing so could limit the county and sheriff’s office if an incident were to happen in the jail. In May, Maries County settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of a detainee who died in 2020 after experiencing medical problems at the jail. Morgan said his plan for preventing that from happening again ties into his plan to separate the jail and dispatch center.

“If somebody’s not taking their prescription meds or insulin, for example, then that needs to be documented every single time as soon as it happens. Not a few days later. All that stuff needs to be done on the spot. Once it comes to a point where there’s a medical emergency, we have to have a plan in place to get them to the ER. Have EMS come over and take them to the hospital. We can’t wait on that kind of stuff.”

Although Morgan has heard from individuals interested in serving as his chief deputy if he is elected, he has not made a decision about who he would pick.

“I’ve not promised anybody any positions yet,” he said. “I’ve told everybody, ‘Hey if I win, if you’re interested in a position, I want you to apply. Send me your resume.’ I’m looking for the most qualified people, especially for a role like that. I want somebody qualified and educated and has the experience to back it all up with.”

Morgan said he would consider choosing a current employee of the sheriff’s office as his chief deputy if they were interested in the role. He said all they would need to do is apply, and he would consider them like any other applicant. More than anything, he would want his chief deputy to have experience.

“I want them to have a good understanding of the Constitution,” he said. “They need to have the same kind of mindset I do. A lead from the front mindset. A lot of people when they get into a position of power, it’s kind of an excuse to coast, so to speak.”

Another factor Morgan said he would consider when selecting a chief deputy is grant-writing experience. He said he had applied for and received one small grant in the past.

“Rural law enforcement, they can’t hardly survive without those grants,” he said. “It’s not just Maries County. A lot of the other counties are constantly applying for them as well. It’s pretty competitive.”

Morgan said he has a “professional acquaintance” with the Maries County Commission. He said he thinks the sheriff should regularly attend commission meetings to stay informed about the latest updates in the county government.

As for keeping the public informed about activity in the sheriff’s office, Morgan said he would use resources such as the newspaper and the Maries County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page to keep people updated.

“I know there are a ton of people in the county that follow that page,” he said.

Morgan also repeated that he would make himself available to answer questions from the public.

“I’m a big believer in transparency and accountability,” he said. “If we make a mistake, we’re going to have to own it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I think the people want that. They want that accountability.”

Morgan’s campaign slogan is three words he wants to exemplify as sheriff: honesty, integrity and accountability. He explained how he plans to implement those qualities into his potential administration.

“I believe as a law enforcement officer, our integrity should be above and beyond reproach,” he said. “I always tell the truth. That’s a really huge thing. Doing the right thing when no one is looking. I think that’s huge in law enforcement. I think people when they look at a police officer or a deputy, they look for them to set the standard. If you have a deputy doing, let’s say something minor like rolling a stop sign, then that same deputy stops you for rolling a stop sign, I think that really turns people’s stomachs. We have a lot of that going on.”

When Morgan discussed transparency, he said he welcomed questions from the public.

“Ask me anything you want,” he said. “My whole campaign has been putting myself out there and allowing people to come to me. There’s no question off-limits with me. I shouldn’t be hiding from any questions.”

After inviting tough questions, Morgan answered one about how he would handle the employment of an officer under ethical investigation, such as a fellow Belle Police Department employee who has been a supporter of his campaign.

“I think it really comes down to how these investigations are taking place,” he said.

Morgan criticized the sheriff’s office’s initial investigation of the officer and said there was “bias” and “bad blood” involved.

“When you have an issue with two employees like that, that may eventually somehow turn into a criminal investigation, as an administrator, as a leader, that’s not something you want to investigate internally,” he said. “That’s something you want to send to an outside agency and have them come in. Somebody that doesn’t have anything to do with it (and) doesn’t know either party. If I have a scenario like that happen under my administration, I will have an outside agency come in. I’m going to go off what they (say). If they say ‘Hey, I’m going to be filing a probable cause statement, then I’m going to look at that as long as the investigation has been completed. I feel like if the investigation is accurate, and it’s impartial, I think suspending the officer until the courts can determine whether they’re guilty or not.”

Morgan discussed making sure deputies stay accountable with sensitive information related to cases, including the identities of alleged victims.

“Privacy and protection is all about really proper training,” he said. “We’re exposed to a lot of personal things. We get involved in a lot of people’s personal lives. Sometimes it’s some really, really low points in their lives. It really comes down to just having sound policies and good training that won’t be disclosed.”

Morgan said sound policies for handling sensitive information would include having social media policies that limit the amount of information available on sensitive cases, such as not posting identifying information about domestic calls.

Throughout this election cycle, the Facebook page formerly called Maries Countians for Accountability has been the subject of discussions throughout the community. Rumors circulated that Morgan or his family may have something to do with it when it was an anonymous page because it often posted favorably about his campaign. The owner has since come forward and denied that the Morgans have any involvement with the page. Morgan also denied the rumor.

When asked if he believed someone supporting and opposing political campaigns through an anonymous account exhibited honesty and accountability, Morgan said he understood why someone would do that.

“I think that there are a lot of people in this county who are afraid to publicly give their opinion about our current sheriff’s office,” he said. “I’ve had people who support me say ‘Hey, man, you’ve got my vote, but I can’t put a sign up in front of my house.’ It’s kind of scary to me that people would be afraid to reveal their identity because they’re afraid of the sheriff’s office, and to me, that’s a huge problem. This is the United States. We shouldn’t ever be afraid about voicing our opinion about our local government, or any government for that matter. There are a few (pages) that are keeping their identities secret, and I don’t have a problem with that. If you don’t want to put your name out there, but you still have some very strong feelings and opinions, I think it’s all protected under the First Amendment. I don’t think there’s any obligation for you to disclose your identity. I don’t condone anybody getting on there and just intentionally trashing someone without any kind of evidence or anything. But if there’s evidence, and your opinions are all based on incidents you’ve either witnessed or you’ve been a part of, I feel like it falls under the First Amendment.”