News : Candidate Resume: Ted Paxton for Sheriff

Experience and Qualifications

* 28/29 years of Law Enforcement Experience - Albion, Eldora, Vinton

* 17 years as a Chief of Police

* 23 years of Volunteer Fire Fighter - combined

* Fiscally responsible with tax dollars

* Benton County Resident since 2014

* Husband and Father of 6 children - Wife BeAnn, Mitchell 28, Stephen 25, Nicolas 21, Haedon 11, Korban 10, Lyndon 6

Priorities and Goals

* Enhance community engagement in rural Benton County

o Assign a deputy to our townships, get to know their trustees and clerks. Create a working relationship, share concerns and bring concerns to the Sheriff. Attend Trustee meetings. 20 townships - Benton, Big Grove, Bruce, Canton, Cedar, Eden, Eldorado, Florence, Fremont, Harrison, Homer, Iowa, Jackson, Kane, Leroy, Monroe, Polk, St. Clair, Taylor, Union

o Show more visible patrol in other incorporated and unincorporated cities in Benton County instead of Vinton and Belle Plaine who have their own law enforcement presence.

o Create satellite offices in the incorporated cities in Benton County.

o Have Sheriff's Deputy if not the Sheriff attend City Council meetings.

o Have open house at the Sheriff's Office for tours of the Jail and Dispatch.

* Increase presence at schools in Benton County

o Re-establish the School Resource Officer (SRO) program back into Benton Community School District (CSD).

o During School year, as a directive, there will be a sheriff's deputy patrolling in each Benton Community campus including the SRO before and after school. (when not handling emergent calls).

o Encourage deputies to visit the different Benton Community school campuses, walk around and be visible to the students and staff. Engage in activities, be a positive role model to students, pass out stickers, high fives, and fist bumps.

o Encourage Deputies to attend any home activities in the Benton Community CSD as well as the SRO.

o Pass on any concerns to SRO if it relates to the SRO.

o During off school year SRO will make every attempt to attend summer activities in the county especially in the Benton Community CSD.

* Increase traffic enforcement to lower fatalities

o Use Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) grant to participate in more multi-agency traffic enforcement projects within Benton County, especially Hwy. 30 and Hwy. 218. GTSB pay for overtime and also approved equipment.

o Increased presence on rural/gravel roads in the county

o Create a program to educate the citizens of Benton County about vehicle safety, occupant safety, texting and driving, impaired driving, and also child safety seats.

o Establishing one or two deputies as certified child safety seat technicians.

* Expanded educational opportunities for residents

o Educate Benton County residents about current scams to major events in the county through the different social media outlets, in person at different events in the County, and always welcome to visit the Benton County Sheriff's Office or a deputy can come to your location.

o Establish a ride along program for citizens 18 and older with a signed waiver and approved by the Sheriff. A background check will be done prior to an approval.

o Establish an active Reserve Deputy program which allows certain citizens the opportunity to experience becoming a law enforcement officer on a reserve basis. Approved citizens would go through the Reserve Academy, all the curriculum is approved by the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA). This Academy would be instructed at the Benton County Sheriff's Office.

o Establish a citizen's academy, which educates citizens in the many deferent aspects of law enforcement through classes and hands on training similar to what a Police Officer/Deputy would experience during a shift.

o Self defense classes would also be available for citizens that want to learn be able to protect themselves or their families. Learn some simple moves to create time and space.

o Offer citizens in Benton County the opportunity to learn basic life saving skills, CPR, AED, and Stop the Bleed.

o Again have open house so citizens can tour the Jail and Dispatch.

* Implementation of strategies to create more personal service from the Sheriff's Office

o Leading by example is big. Community oriented policing is key, not only in a municipality but it can be done county wide. As the sheriff attendance at all major events is a must, supporting all of the different Schools Districts, and being involved in different service organizations. Each deputy is a servant to the county and is a direct extension of the Sheriff. Deputies would be assigned to come up with an event, program, or an activity that is community oriented and serves the citizens of Benton County. The deputies will be expected to donate their time each year to the citizens of Benton County while engaged in their selected event, program, or activity.

o All Sheriff's Office employees would be encouraged to join a service clubs or volunteer fire or emergency medical services within Benton County, which would be a great way to engage with our citizens.

o All Sheriff's Office employees would be encouraged to live within Benton County, look into a program that would make it more beneficial to the employees to live in one of the communities or even in the country in Benton County, keeping Benton County salaries in Benton County.

* Improve use of technology to enhance investigations and community safety

o As we get complaints of some crimes not getting solved by the sheriff's office and we all know law enforcement cannot be everywhere in our county when something happens. Most incidents like burglaries, thefts, assaults, homicides, abductions, missing persons for example happen and are reported to law enforcement after the fact hours or days after the incident happened or when it has been discovered. With improved use of technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) camera system in a community can reduce investigations by countless hours and thousands of dollars, give law enforcement critical leads to solve cases even hours or days after an incident. The technology can for example, able to query search by entering parameters like blue pickup, person wearing a red shirt and brown shorts, in the area of town, and also every license plate on a certain date, at a certain time, giving great leads for law enforcement to investigate. Another great example is the AI camera system around the Elementary school in Benton Community alerts on a sex offender that has been driving by the elementary school several times during the day for the past week as the kids are out on the playground. The license plate of the sex offender is in the system and was able to be detected by the AI camera which sends an alert to law enforcement. Law enforcement could then question the individual's intent or at least let the individual know that they are being watched and to find a different route. Just recently an individual from out of State with dementia was driving through a city in Iowa since the individual's license plate was entered into the system when reported missing and was reunited with their family. The AI camera system also alerts when a stolen vehicle is detected, missing person, and wanted person, these are associated with a vehicle license plate or AI camera can recognize facial recognition if the license plate and or an image of the person was at the time the subject was reported missing or wanted.

o With the concerns of "Big Brother", we are all on camera multiple times a day now. These AI camera systems are only viewed when an incident occurs in a community or if an alert let's law enforcement know there was a alert was detected. Otherwise, no one views the videos and no need to have someone monitoring the cameras. Plus, AI cameras don't complain about working 24x7, working holidays, missing family events, working inclement weather, or working overtime.

o I believe an AI camera system would be beneficial in any community to enhance law enforcement investigations and keep our communities safer as the bad actors will eventually know that they can't get away with anything in our County and move on down the road to the next county that don't have the technology. Something to check into.

o All of this will take educating the public about the benefits of AI as it is all around us now.

-Editor's Note:

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