Farris Said Retention A Major Issue At Washington Conference

Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said retention and recruitment of law enforcement and border patrol issues highlighted his visit to Washington D.C.

The National Sheriff’s Winter Conference happened last week. Farris said the feedback could help with hiring correction officers, which has been a challenge for the county.

“Maybe some thing that I can take to the county commission, and we can get some incentives changed so we can recruit easier, and hopefully retain some of those folks,” Farris said. “They’re very important to the operations of the Sheriff’s Office.”

As for the border issue, Farris said the amount of drugs entering the country remains a concern. Farris said Putnam County is feeling the impact with drug use, specifically fentanyl ,on the rise.

“It’s certainly my job as the sheriff to be proactive and try to look at things down the road and see if we can’t get plans in place to stop and slow some of the crimes, specifically the violent crimes,” Farris said. “That is what we are more concerned about, and so as the flow of drugs increase at the border and I keep going back to that, but 85% of the people in our jail are in for drug-related or indirect-related crimes.”

Farris said he attended the conference as the President of the State’s Sheriff Association. Farris said he heard from key note speaker Gordon Graham, who is a 33 year law enforcement veteran and spent a day on Capitol Hill discussing the issues with Tennessee congressional members.