Longtime Augusta lawman running for Columbia County sheriff
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Patrick Clayton, former chief deputy of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has announced his candidacy for Columbia County sheriff.
He made the announcement on Wednesday.
“I will be the sheriff for all of the people whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian. I have always felt that the sheriff’s position should be a non-partisan position. As a non-politician and outsider, I am running as an Independent candidate,” Clayton said in a news release.
Clayton has been in the law enforcement profession for 45 years and has served with the Air Force Security Police, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Charleston County Police, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Drug Enforcement istration, Richmond Board of Education Police and the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
Clayton said he would focus on “the lack of accessibility, visibility, ability, fiscal conservatism, and operational tempo from the incumbent,” according to the release.
According to the release, Clayton was the first police executive to initiate a body-worn camera program at the Richmond County Board of Education Police.
Clayton says in the release that he also plans to address Sheriff Clay N. Whittle “[shunning] body-worn cameras saying ‘it only shows one angle’.”
Clayton says Columbia County citizens are seeing more crime and “that almost every major Richmond County Sheriff’s Office drug and narcotic investigation has Columbia County violators charged or indicted.”
“Almost all agencies have followed suit in the region and state except one lone sheriff,” he said in the release.
Clayton says as the sheriff, he would not accept more than $140,000 in salary and would focus on raising the pay of the deputies.
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