Joshua Vandgrift

Criminal Justice / Public Safety I believe our Department (and our county as a whole in some ways) is quite ‘behind on the times’ when it comes to equipment and technology – items that make policing more efficient and safer and will overall enhances public safety. Wages / Job Benefits I believe these items need to change, and a greater emphasis placed on the well-being of the Deputies and Staff to HCSO. We need to bring pay, benefits, and coverage (per population) up to the median standards. Taxes / Budget We need to be constantly focused on ways to keep up with and stay ahead of the curve when possible. This involves a multitude of areas, including: communications (911/Dispatch), vehicles, body cams, automatic vehicle identification systems, eCitation equipment, etc…. There are grants available for upgrading items like these and more (DCSO just announced on Feb 4th that they received nearly 800k in Federal Grants for upgrades) – and I want our Sheriff’s Department to always be focused on keeping up with methods that make our communities safer and keep our personnel safe and secure. Criminal Justice / Public Safety I believe it would be a positive impact on our community to place a greater focus on Traffic Patrols, and even hiring an additional Deputy primarily tasked with Traffic Patrolling. More traffic stops will ultimately lead to more drugs off the street, more crime uncovered, more wanted criminals off the streets, and a safer community altogether. Taxes / Budget My first priority would be to do an administrative ‘Triage’ of sorts – to look closely and evaluate everything. I’m going to take a deep dive into the department’s annual Budget (and every line item within) to see what we’re currently working with and how everything is organized. I’m going to evaluate current Scheduling Practices; the Training Schedule and Training Opportunities; the Administrative Tasks and Processes (and any opportunities for constructive changes); the state of our Fleet.