News : Election profile: Benton County Sheriff candidate Vince Snyder

Vince Snyder, candidate for Benton County Sheriff

For the second time in a row, Vince Snyder is challenging Benton County Sheriff Randy Forsyth. Below is the candidate profile Snyder sent to area media, including Vinton Today.

My name is Vincent Snyder. I am 40 years old. My wife Gloria and I have a 2 year old daughter Gianna and are expecting our second child this January. We own and reside on an acreage south west of Garrison. I have been employed in law enforcement for 16 years, 9 of them with the Benton County Sheriff’s office. I was appointed as a Special Deputy U.S. Marshal for 7 years out of the Cedar Rapids office. I am currently a Reserve Police Officer for the City of Vinton and work fulltime for the City of Cedar Rapids. As the program administrator of the Litter/ Illegal Dumping Officer position for the City of Cedar Rapids, on a day to day basis I conduct investigations on illegal dumping activities in the city as well conduct surveillance, place and maintain surveillance video equipment, and coordinate litter collection efforts both volunteer and city workers through the Solid Waste and Recycling division to name a few of my responsibilities. I am a 2nd Amendment supporter and an NRA member.

What is at stake in this race to the voters is a simple question. Do residents of Benton County want a higher level of public safety in place or do they want to continue with what has gone on for years now?

If given the chance, I will see that responsibilities of the Sheriff and Sheriff Office employees are held to a maximum level so to provide excellent service, protection, professionalism, honesty and integrity.

A quote I love and feel is so true is: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." (Benjamin Franklin). I worked part time for the Sheriff’s office from 1999-2008 when I decided to run for Sheriff the first time.

I watched the leadership wither away during the current Sheriff’s first term 2004-08. In most cases if a Sheriff is doing a good job no one will challenge them for good reason. Why try to replace what is not broken. I stood up in 2008 against my boss at the time because I and many others felt there were significant shortfalls in his performance. Today I stand up and offer the citizens of Benton County the opportunity to not have the same things done at the Sheriff’s Office over and over again expecting that different result. As I have said before and will say again “I will not disappoint you in your decision to support me as your Sheriff.” If I do, I will expect to be voted out in four years. I will work hard to make Benton County a Safe place to be!

The biggest and most common issue that voters have brought to my attention is the lack of communication/service. Time and time again people inform me that they have called and left messages or e-mails for the Sheriff or his Chief Deputy and never get return communication from them. This simply can not happen!

Open communication between the Sheriff and public as well as to other law enforcement agencies has to be one of the top priorities in the administration. On September 10th this year the Benton County Law Enforcement Center received a bomb threat. The Vinton Chief of Police did not receive a call from the Sheriff until September 11th. Sharing pertinent information with other police departments immediately & not 14 hours after the fact is crucial. If it’s in their city or surrounding area they need to know to protect their citizens! April-early August 2012 Benton County was getting hit on a regular basis by burglars. The Sheriff never released any information on this situation so people took it upon themselves to pass along as much information as possible to each other on Facebook to try to protect their safety and property. In response to the Facebook posts in July the Sheriff finally responded to local media playing the situation down, still not providing information to citizens who may have been helpful in the lookout for the suspects involved. In mid-August the suspects were caught by an Iowa State Trooper just into Linn County after attempting a burglary near Van Horne. To this date there are still victims of the rural burglaries who have not received a call to be advised if the suspects charged were the ones that were involved in their burglary or if the property recovered from the investigation was some of what had been taken from them. I will be kept informed of what is going on in my office and county and keep all means of communications open with the public!

As your Sheriff I will:

- Open up communication with the public by splitting my time between administrative tasks and actually going out on patrol.

- Reduce response times for patrol calls by scheduling adjustment and work area assignments

- Promote our extra jail space to other counties and federal agencies to gain income for the county.

- Work with our schools closer to make them true “drug free zones”

- Place automated external defibrillators(AED’s) in the patrol units to better serve the public involving medical emergencies.

- Set the expectations of the sheriff’s office to a maximum and closely over see all the divisions and services of the sheriff’s office.