Empowering philosophy

At a recent dinner honoring the outgoing Faulkner County Democratic Office holders Chief Deputy Steve Wallace is quoted as saying Sheriff Montgomery has been a "visionary leader" with "the (philosophy) that said, I'm going to empower you." Empowering others is exactly what Montgomery's leadership has done, the problem is this empowerment has been nondiscriminatory.

Under Montgomery's reign criminals have been "empowered" to continue to commit crimes without fear of jail time or fear of having to pay fines. We personally have seen violent acts involving gunfire go unpunished or under punished with fines and restitution going unpaid even after 1-1/2 years. Over the past few years while running this site we have heard many stories of the same sorts of lackadaisical attitudes towards criminal acts.

Montgomery's leadership has "empowered" members of his own department to treat themselves at the county's expense. But this "help yourself empowerment" at the county's expense did not stop with his employees, family members of Montgomery and others also enjoyed this empowerment. Read more about theses empowerments in the interview with the sheriff here.

Yet still after years of controversy surrounding the sheriff's office Wallace is quoted saying "[Montgomery] had a vision to make Faulkner County the most effective rural law enforcement agency in the state. He's invested in so many areas that have helped us succeed." Montgomery may have had visions of Faulkner County being an effective law enforcement agency but from where we are standing we'd have to say that he failed miserably.

But Montgomery's leadership has also "empowered" the Quorum Court to initiate better regulation on the spending at the sheriff's department and could possible lead to stronger regulatory ordinances that will better protect the taxpayer's money.

And Montgomery's empowering philosophy has reached even us inspiring the creation of this site and the lobbying for change we do. Yes we'd have to agree with Wallace when he says Montgomery's philosophy is to empower others but this philosophy has only produced problems. Problems that will likely carry over into our next sheriff's term.

Hopefully our next sheriff will have a different philosophy, one that will put an end to these unwanted empowerments, one that says, "We are taking care of the business of law enforcement". Empowerment is great but that alone will not get the job done, hard work, dedication, and ethics are also required.