Jonathan Branson and Chris Shelor began the Kiwanis Candidate Forum by telling a bit about their law enforcement careers started.
Candidate Interim Sheriff Salem Jonathan Branson started“ I actually grew up in Salem, went to Salem High School, graduated in 2004. Big into sports there, concentrated on lacrosse my senior year. After that, I graduated and went to Radford University. Got my four year degree, actually in biology. Originally went into biology because I wanted to do some kind of medical profession. I worked in the pharmacy industry throughout my college days. And realized that this really isn’t for me,” Jonathan Branson said. Eventually Branson started his career in law enforcement when he found a job at the Western Virginia Regional Jail. After doing that for a few years Branson returned to Salem “I always wanted to come back to Salem. This is where I knew I wanted to be. When I married my wife, we bought a house in Salem. Salem means a lot to me,” he continued
Chris Shelor followed with his story, “I started my career with the City of Salem at the Water Department in 2002.I had kind of focused on trying to get into the law enforcement profession. Kind of followed some footsteps of some previous coworkers and my brother. And we both actually started law enforcement in 2004.” “I got hired on the sheriff’s office here at the City of Salem. Attended the Jailer Court Service Academy. And did a little bit of everything in my time there at the sheriff’s office. I was the deputy sheriff, master deputy. My ultimate goal has always been to be the sheriff of my hometown where I grew up,” Shelor said.
One of the first questions asked was whether the Sheriff’s Office should get trained to be similar to the police department in their law enforcement capabilities. A follow up to that question asked whether it is imperative for the Sheriff’s Department to have police powers? And if this was so, why hasn’t previous police chiefs pushed to have this done?
“The Sheriff’s Office is very specific,” said Branson, “We handle court security, civil process and transportation. This includes all cases back and forth, transport inmates from the county jails or anywhere across the state.” In terms of training Branson would not be opposed. “I’m not opposed to that. I think it’s a great, you know, any training that you can get obviously is great. But the core responsibilities that we have at the same Sheriff’s Office are more in tune with the general court security academy. Now, the law enforcement academy is a little bit longer. You get 22-ish weeks in law enforcement academy, which are also concentrated on things that we don’t typically deal with. We have a memorandum of understanding with the police department to where they handle all the criminal investigations, all the traffic incidents, all those things.
Now, we do cross-train with the police department, active shooter, regional response to those type of things. We are always training with the police department. So do we need a law enforcement certification? In my opinion, no, I don’t think you need that,” explained Branson.
Chris Shelor started, ”So this is kind of where I differ for my opinion a little bit compared to Interim Sheriff Branson here. I believe that it is crucial for the city of Salem being as small structured as it is. Yes, the main role of the city of Salem Sheriff’s Office is to function the courthouse and the security of it. But there is a lot of times that the deputies are out in the public eye. And God forbid one of them get flagged down in a certain situation in distress and need to help support until a law enforcement officer from the police department can come along and not be certified or not be trained on how to do so. It is a 21-week program. And yes, it will take some time to try to get some of the deputies back through this program” Shelor explained.
And lastly candidates were asked: If you were to have more staff that was law enforcement certified, how do you both plan on retaining those people? Shelor responded, ”So one, you keep a positive, maintain an office. Keep a good morale, a good rapport with those people, and just stay initiated with your employees.”
Branson responded, “It would be wonderful to have law enforcement and, dually certified people. The problem you run into is once they come into the sheriff’s office, how are we going to field-train these people? I’ve already reached out to the chief of police, and obviously with the election coming on, we’re kind of in a limbo. But we’re trying to work out something where if we did send these people through law enforcement academy, how could we get them field-trained?
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Chris Shelor and Sheriff Jonathan Branson are running for Salem Sheriff
