Andy Lee running for county sheriff in 2008
Posted on Saturday, November 3, 2007
BENTONVILLE — He’s running for sheriff again, former Benton County Sheriff Andy Lee announced.
First elected in 1988, Republican Lee served seven consecutive two-year terms as sheriff, then lost a 2006 bid for the GOP nomination for sheriff to incumbent county Sheriff Keith Ferguson, who was re-elected.
Not about Lee personalities, Lee’s campaign is about his conviction that he can best lead the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, he said.
In 2006, he ran on dealing with the problem of street gangs — including related problems with drugs and violence — and on dealing with illegal immigration, Lee said.
Ridiculed when he first noted the presence of gangs in the county in 1993, he’s glad to see many law-enforcement agencies in northwest Arkansas acknowledging the problem: A Rogers city official recently said there are more than 40 gangs in that city alone, Lee said.
If he is elected, he would immediately lead, he said.
“ When I am sworn into office at 12: 01 a. m. on Jan. 1, 2009, gangs in Benton County will feel my presence. By the end of my first two-year term, it will be difficult to find gangs or their members in our schools, cities or county. Gang members will either be in jail, in prison or on their way out of our county, ” he said.
Dealing with the gang problem won’t be easy but can be accomplished, Lee said.
His 2006 campaign also highlighted the problem of illegal immigration and brought up Section 287 g of the 1996 Immigration and National Act, under which local law-enforcement officers may be trained in immigration and customs enforcement. Law-enforcement agencies in Rogers and elsewhere in northwest Arkansas have taken up the program, he said.
“ Today as we speak, there are five agencies in northwest Arkansas … becoming involved in that 287 g program, ” Lee said.
The practice of holding in the Benton County jail both federal prisoners and prisoners from other county jails began when Lee was sheriff and when the jail had space. But the county shouldn’t even think about expanding the beds in the jail while holding prisoners from outside the county, he said.
If he is elected, the candidate said, he will work to give the county jail the reputation of being one of the toughest in the country.
He will also work for construction of a new juvenile detention center, with his wife of 34 years, Holly, working unpaid to garner support for the project, Lee said. The center will be dedicated to helping troubled youths before they become hardened criminals, he said.
Also on an unpaid basis, his wife will work to support both the Children’s Advocacy Center and the Benton County Women’s Shelter, Lee said.
If the problem of adult crime is ever to be overcome, the problems of juvenile crime and domestic abuse must first be overcome, the candidate said.
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