Our biggest job is court security, so we need to do it well and take pride in the officers who do the hard work of keeping our criminal justice system safe, on track, and on time.

To do that we need to make sure our officers have up to date training.

That also means taking officer wellness seriously. The people responsible for keeping our courts safe need leadership that looks after their physical and mental health, and long-term well-being.

Our ACSO needs to provide safe and effective services to the courts and litigants in Atlantic County. Some of the most important work in people’s lives goes through our courts, and the services we provide, from legal process and prisoner transport to warrant execution, have to be top-notch.

In our Warrants Division, that means focusing first on priority offenders and spending the time necessary to locate and arrest the people who pose the greatest threat to our communities. I want to prioritize the quality of warrant investigations over simply counting the number of warrants closed.

Reliable service also means treating people fairly and professionally. Procedural justice should guide how we interact with everyone who comes in contact with the Sheriff’s Office, whether they are coming to court, receiving legal process, being transported, or being taken into custody.

That same approach should extend to how we communicate with the public. Published arrest information should serve a legitimate public-safety purpose, not simply put someone's name on social media. We should highlight serious offenses and meaningful law-enforcement work while reconsidering the routine publication of people arrested primarily for failure to appear or failure to pay.

Whether it’s finding ways to collaborate to surge crime-suppression resources into neighborhoods or providing other operational support, the ACSO needs to be the first phone call when a local chief is looking for help.

With countywide jurisdiction, ACSO should be the place you go to create the task forces and partnerships needed to get the job done when resources are scarce. Taking responsibility for prisoner transports when appropriate is one practical way we can get local officers back into their communities faster.

We should also look for opportunities to share resources that individual departments may struggle to provide on their own, including specialized capabilities and officer wellness programs.

All of this will require a deep review of posts and practices to see where we can find efficiencies inside the Sheriff’s Office, move officers outside, and create the flexibility to meet the evolving operational needs of our departments and communities.

It will also require a qualified leadership team chosen for experience, judgment, and the ability to lead. I pledge to build a bipartisan executive team, bringing different perspectives to the table and making sure we are thinking through the best approaches for all of Atlantic County, not advancing a political agenda.

The Sheriff’s Office belongs to everyone. Our decisions should be driven by public safety, professional standards, and service to the people of Atlantic County.

The goal isn't to do more for the sake of doing more. It's to focus our people and resources on the most important work and do that work well.