Re-Elect Sheriff Jonathon W. Horton

BIOGRAPHY

I, Sheriff Jonathon W. Horton, was born at the Holy Name of Jesus Hospital, now Riverview Regional, and reared in Etowah County, where I have lived my entire life, except for my time deployed serving our Country in the United States Navy after graduation from West End High School in 1991. Since graduating High School I have served continuously my Country, State and Community.

My career in Law Enforcement began at the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office in 2002, in the same year I graduated from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Academy, Class VII. While serving at the Sheriff’s Office, as a Deputy, I served as a Patrol Deputy, Criminal Investigator, Evidence Technician, Crime Scene Investigator and Narcotics Agent, as an original member of the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit, where I am Honored to currently serve as a board member. Across my career in Law Enfocement I also served as a part-time Police Officer for the Town of Mountainboro (2003-2004) and the Town or Steele (2010-2011). I became the Assistant Chief of Police for the City of Glencoe in October of 2011 and was appointed Chief of Police for the City of Glencoe in February 2012 and served until March of 2016 at which time I was hired as Deputy Chief of Police of the Rainbow City Police Department, where I was later appointed as Chief of Police in May of 2016 and served until Elected Sheriff of Etowah County in 2018 and began proudly serving as Etowah County’s 31st Sheriff in January of 2019.

U.S. Navy Active Duty 1992-1996

I am an Honorable Veteran of the U.S. Navy and Alabama Army National Guard. I served my country in the U.S. Navy from 1992 until 1996 as an Aviation Electronics Technician stationed at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, CA. After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Navy, I returned home to Etowah County and went to work for my father in the family-owned funeral business at Village Chapel Funeral Home. After receiving Funeral Director Licensing in 1998, I missed serving in the Armed Forces, in 1999 I enlisted in the Alabama Army National Guard as a member of the 152nd Armor Division and later 258th Chemical Company, Gadsden, AL and served until 2003.

I have served my Community as a Licensed Funeral Director in the State of Alabama since 1998 and currently practice part-time at Glencoe-Hokes Bluff Funeral Home which, until 2020 was my Family’s Business. I began, owned and operated Mortuary Transport Services from 2007-2012. I also have had the pleasure of being an active participant in many civic organizations and have held offices to include being a Member of Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police (AACOP), Past President of the Alabama City Lions Club, Past Chairman of Alabama City Merchants Association and Past Chairman of the Clayton Cemetery Committee.

"Serving as Glencoe Police Department Chief of Police 2012-2016 with Grandson, Aiden"

I currently serve on various Boards to include the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit Board, Etowah County Community Corrections Board, Etowah County E-911 Board and the S.P.A.N. (Special Programming and Networking) Advisory Board. I am an active member of the Alabama Sheriff's Association. I earned an associate degree in Criminal Justice from Gadsden State Community College in 2007, majoring in Criminal Justice. I am a Certified Arson Investigator and Evidence Property Technician and in addition have completed extensive training in courses to include Narcotics, Criminal Investigations, Homicide and Death Investigations.

"Served as Chief of Rainbow City Police Department 2016-2019"

What We Have Accomplished

• Purchased and replaced over 40 patrol cars with 15 purchased form Law Enforcement Discretionary Account, saving the County General Budget, replacing over 25 maintenance-ridden

vehicles with over 175,000 miles on them resulting in reduced maintenance and safer vehicles for Deputies to patrol in.

• Added “In God We Trust,” the same as is on our U.S. Currency, to the back of every patrol vehicle provided by 911 Solutions, at no cost to the taxpayer.

• Purchased all new duty weapons, tasers, body cameras, and newly designed “outer-carrier” duty vest to reduce stress, fatigue, and weight of duty belt for Deputies.

• Facilitated surplus of unused equipment that provided for the purchase of over 40 new Digital Radio’s giving each Deputy a new radio. This also allowed us to donate, for community use, 6 trucks to: Sardis City (Dodge Crew-Cab Truck); City of Altoona (Ford F-150 Crew-Cab Truck); Ivalee Vol. Fire Dept. (Chevy Tahoe); Egypt Vol. Fire Dept. (GMC 1500 Crew-Cab Truck); Gallant Vol. Fire Dept. (Ford F-250 Crew-Cab Truck); and Whorton’s Bend Vol. Fire Dept. (GMC 1500 Crew-Cab Truck).

• With funding from County Commission, purchased “LEXIPOL” for guidance in completion of “Policy and Procedures Manual,” to be in line with President Trump’s executive order “Safer Policing, Safer Communities,” while giving us consistency and efficiency while significantly reducing liability in joint ventures with surrounding Agencies, such as J.S.O.G., Dive Team, etc.… by having like policies that govern multi-agency teams or cooperatives.

• Purchased “Virtual Academy” from Discretionary Funds to provide C.E.U.’s for Deputy’s virtually and increase training retention.

• Purchased a much needed new “Trash Pick-up” van to allow inmates to work to give back and clean litter from the highways, with the exception of during the “COVID-19” Pandemic, to help minimize inside facility infection for safety of Correctional Deputies and Inmates.

• Facilitated a much needed 15% additional raise in pay for the Patrol Deputies.

• With the help of the local delegation and the ratification of our Citizens, accomplished a Local Constitutional Amendment allowing Etowah County to use 100% of left-over food funds to fund School Resource Officers and Law Enforcement Purposes. (Act 2019-165)

• Added 5 additional School Resources Officers:

• providing one for Hokes Bluff Elementary School, in addition to the one at Hokes Bluff High School for the next 2 years while new school is built. This project and funding are in-conjunction with the City of Hokes Bluff.

• Added 3 County-Wide School Resource Officers allowing us to give each campus an SRO, prior to taking office there was 6 County School’s sharing 3 SRO’s (Highland and Duck Springs, Ivalee and Career Tech, and Whitesboro and Sardis). With the distance between these schools, it was a blessing to provide each school with their own SRO. This was in-cooperative efforts tri-part with the Sheriff, Board of Ed., and County Commission, with the Sheriff’s portion funded from Law Enforcement Funds derived from Pistol Permits and left-over food funds.

• Added another School Resource Officer, by sharing the salary with the City of Altoona, to provide an SRO at West End Elementary School on HWY 132 in addition to the Deputy at West End High School in Walnut Grove, based on the distance of travel between the two schools.

• Hosted the First D.A.R.E. Conference held in Etowah County to certify all Municipal Officers (Rainbow City, Southside, Altoona, and Attalla) and Sheriff’s Deputies in Gadsden, Alabama to teach the 10-week Curriculum in all 5th and 7thGrades in the Etowah County School System.

• Hosted the First D.A.R.E. Camp for over 100 fifth Graders since 2014 and the First D.A.R.E. Graduation for over 600 fifth Graders and 700 Seventh Graders County-Wide, where now these students get the 10-week D.A.R.E. Course taught in their Schools at these critical times, right before middle school and right before high school, with the hopes of influencing students in a positive direction and deterring them from making bad decisions.

• After being blessed to reinitiate D.A.R.E. certification, as Chief of Police of Rainbow City, in 2017 for John Jones, Rainbow Middle and the Addition of an SRO at Westbrook, Sheriff Horton also added Coosa Christian to the list to receive D.A.R.E. Instruction for all 5th and 7th Graders beginning in 2021.

• Purchased (13) new School Resource Officer Vehicles to include (11) Ford Explorers and (2) Chevy Silverado’s to facilitate Home Visits and transport equipment and supplies such as the New Added “Drunk Mobiles” that teach our Children the dangers of Driving under the Influence.

• Purchased and installed “Gun Safes” for each school, for added protection to prevent weapons from being stored in parking lot in vehicles by SRO’s for added protection and ease of access for the SRO in the unfortunate event of a crisis.

• Facilitated the completion of a renovation project that restored over 212 broken Unit Door Locks and Interior/Exterior Cameras that had been in-operational within the Detention Center for several years prior to taking office.

• Facilitated the completion of the “Jail Annex” Building that houses the new “IMPACT” program, which provides 112 beds for inmates to have an opportunity to gain basic life skills and coping skills as well as preparation for education and gainful employment. Prior to taking office, the building was originally planned to house inmates to help facilitate the renovation of the Main Detention Center. The Renovation was completed before the building was built, creating the opportunity for the IMPACT Program.

•Significantly increased the revenue of the Detention Center Agreements to include Municipal Contracts (over double the income and lowered the Average Daily Population), , Communication Commissions for use of phone and messaging systems (a minimum increase of over 3 times as much as when took office, to help purchase more needs for the agency from Discretionary Funds to save the General Budget.)

• Added (2) Tek-84 Body Scanners, significantly reducing the contraband within the facility, both units valued at over $150K each. One was purchased via the help of the County Commission and the other via CARE’s Funding. One is stationed at the Main Detention Center and the other at the Annex where the IMPACT program is facilitated. Each Inmate and Authorized Persons entering Detention Center is Scanned

• Purchased New Radio System for Detention Center, saving “Radio-User Fee’s” and providing each Deputy with a Radio.

• Created a new position of “Court-Liaison Deputy” to cooperate between the Circuit Clerk, Judicial System and Sheriff’s Office to help ensure that all inmates get mandatory hearings within constitutional time constraints.

• Facilitated largest Correctional Officer Raise in Pay, increasing pay by 25%, raising starting pay from $11.99 to $14.98 per hour ($2.99 per hour raise to starting pay). Largest pay raise for Detention Deputies in over two decades, collectively.

• Purchased and replaced over $20K in new computers that were out of date, increasing efficiency, from the Sheriff’s Discretionary account, saving the taxpayers and General Budget of the County.

• Facilitated and purchased the “Sheriff’s App” for citizens to download for free from there smart device to provide “emergency updates” and give an avenue for the Citizens to not only receive emergency information but submit electronic tips to include location and images. This valuable tool provided from Sheriff’s Discretionary account saving taxpayer and General Budget.

I have been honored to serve my first term as Your Sheriff. It has been the pinnacle of my law-enforcement career. My first term as Sheriff of this Great County has been humbling, educational and successful in many arenas. We have increased our School Resource Deputies and invested in Our Children in many ways to help educate our children and our future to the rewards of making good decisions. We have been successful in getting an Act signed into law by the Governor and Ratified by the Citizens to allow us to use 100% of Left-Over Food Funds each year toward School Resource Officers and Law Enforcement Purposes (Act 19-165). We have purchased and upgraded our equipment for Patrol Deputies and replaced many delipidated vehicles. We have made our Jail much more secure and added much needed technology such as X-Ray machines to deter contraband. We have invested in Training and New Policy and Procedure Manuals to increase our effectiveness and efficiency as Law Enforcement Professionals. We have worked to obtain the largest increase in pay for our Correctional Deputies in over two decades collectively to increase our retention. We have increased our outside contracts with the Detention Center and funded the IMPACT program to reduce jail recidivism and give individuals the tools to become productive citizens. I am now asking humbly for a Second Term to SERVE as YOUR Etowah County Sheriff and to continue to fight Drugs and Crime while Educating our Youth and providing opportunity for ALL Citizens of Etowah County to enjoy this place we call Home. I will continue to work hard for every citizen and put the safety of our communities as my highest priority. I ask that you Prayerfully consider our campaign and VOTE on May 24, 2022, in the Republican Primary.

Sheriff Jonathon W. Horton