LOWNDES COUNTY, GA (WALB) -
The race for Lowndes County Sheriff is on and the candidates are campaigning hard to get every vote they can. Sheriff Chris Prine says he wants people to know he's working to keep Lowndes County a safe place to live.
"I think what we've done in the last four years has really worked, because the crime rate is down. I think its worked and I plan to continue doing exactly what we've done," said Prine.
But Prine's opponent JD Yeager, who previously worked in the Sheriff's Office as 2nd in Command for seven years, says crime is up in Valdosta and the Sheriff needs to protect all areas of Lowndes.
"The Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county, responsible for all the citizens and protecting all the citizens in the county. The burglaries are up, on an average of 300 a year and that's public record on the GBI crime stat website, and homicides have more than doubled in the last four years," said Yeager.
The Sheriff says crime is down in the county and Valdosta is not his jurisdiction.
"They have their own police department, they have their own investigations, their own crime scenes, I'm concentrating on the county," said Prine.
Yeager says he'll reduce crime by utilizing his resources and putting more patrols on the streets.
"If there's a crime spree going on in a certain section, then you've got to take resources from other areas that are not essential at that time and place their focus on that particular crime spree."
But Prine says his administration already does that.
"When we have an area where there's a lot of burglaries, we pull all of our resources off and put them in that area," said Prine.
Four years ago when these two candidates ran against each other, Chris Prine won in the run off election with over 1,700 votes.
This time around Yeager wants people to know he's running for the community and not the title.
"I want people in this community to lay their heads down at night and feel safe for their families and their properties,"said Yeager.
"My whole adult life has been in law enforcement, I have one thing in mind, law enforcement," said Prine.
Early voting runs through November 2nd and Election Day is November 6th.
Both candidates say they're truly passionate about Lowndes County and just want to keep it a great place to live.
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