Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell admits he doesn’t like running for office, but he knows it’s part of the job as he seeks a fourth term as the county’s top cop.
“I just really have a love of this job, a love of this community. And there's things that I saw that we needed to do here, to improve the quality of life for our residents. And, you know, I still have some goals that I want to achieve,” said Prummell.
Those goals include continuing what he calls a balanced approach to law enforcement—something he says he has learned over the years is more effective in fighting crime. He points to his tough stance against drug dealers while also offering more support to those struggling with addiction. Prummell has strengthened partnerships with organizations such as Charlotte Behavioral Health.
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“All these programs that we're doing here in Charlotte County, they do reduce overall costs. And one of the big things is we have deferred so many people away from our jail who in the past, when they do something, where they're being disorderly or they commit a low-level type crime, we would just lock them up,” said Prummell.
Prummell is also proud of the new sheriff’s office administrative headquarters and new district offices under construction that will offer employees more secure facilities to work from, especially during hurricanes.
Prummell’s competitor, Ryan Barber, a former Walmart store manager, questions the millions being spent to build the new headquarters.
“Why are we building something like that?” said Barber.
Barber questioned how the sheriff is allocating his budget.
“I see a lot of different things that could be cut. And I say, when I say cut, doesn't mean I'm going to eliminate jobs and put people on the street. It's different areas, different moving things around, and adjusting departments and combining different things and looking at reasons why these certain departments require so many people in this department.”
Barber is now launching a new seafood business and says his decades managing multi-million-dollar budgets and employees prepare him for the job despite not having any experience in law enforcement.
“A lot of people don't know what the position of sheriff actually does. The sheriff’s duties are to manage the activities of the department. They're not the ones out there, unless they need to be, but they're the ones that manage the activities of the department. You have people patrolling, you have dispatch, you have different things. It's a leader that runs a department. It's a business. It's a conglomerate,” said Barber.
Barber says while continuing to manage his new seafood business with his partners, domestic violence and child neglect would be his top priorities if elected sheriff. But Barber is facing an uphill battle to say the least. Sheriff Prummell has bigger name recognition — having worked with the sheriff’s office since 1992 and having raised nearly five times the amount of campaign dollars.
Because there is no Democrat running in this race, the winner in the primary becomes sheriff.
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