Harrison County Sheriff’s Race
There could be a new sheriff in town as early as tomorrow night.
Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara will face two opponents in tomorrow’s Republican primary, Troy Peterson and Todd Stewart.
News 25 caught up with all three candidates today, so you can hear from them before casting your ballot in tomorrow’s election.
Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara maintains over the past eight years he’s restored trust in an office once tarnished by a practice of inmate abuse. He wants to finish what he started. Brisolara says the jail will soon be free of federal oversight of the U.S. Justice Department. When the decree is lifted, the sheriff’s office would be able to re-open a work center for non-violent inmates, something Brisolara wants to see come to fruition. “With everything working, the enforcement side, the corrections side, we got a good balance to move forward to the future and take care of the citizens of Harrison County.”
Opponent Troy Peterson has 23 years of law enforcement experience, all with the sheriff’s office, where he focused on narcotics, being assigned to state and federal task forces. One main thing Peterson would like to do as sheriff is make the local drug task forces bigger. “The narcotics world is a nexus for crime, no matter how you look at it. If you look at statistics on any kind of crime, whether it’s violent, homicides, anything else, burglaries, vehicle burglaries, there’s some type of drug nexus to that.”
Then, there’s Todd Stewart, a man with 29 years of experience, including a 20 year Air Force career and 12 years serving as a Gulfport police officer. Stewart says he has trained more than 1,000 law enforcement officials and would like to thrust the way we police into a new era. “We haven’t moved into the future. It’s time to move law enforcement into the future with intelligence led policing. And I’m the guy to do that.”
One thing all three can agree on is they need the public to come out and vote. If one candidate does not secure over 50 percent of the votes tomorrow, the race will head into a runoff between the top two contenders.
The winner of the Republican primary will run unopposed in November’s general election.
Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara will face two opponents in tomorrow’s Republican primary, Troy Peterson and Todd Stewart.
News 25 caught up with all three candidates today, so you can hear from them before casting your ballot in tomorrow’s election.
Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara maintains over the past eight years he’s restored trust in an office once tarnished by a practice of inmate abuse. He wants to finish what he started. Brisolara says the jail will soon be free of federal oversight of the U.S. Justice Department. When the decree is lifted, the sheriff’s office would be able to re-open a work center for non-violent inmates, something Brisolara wants to see come to fruition. “With everything working, the enforcement side, the corrections side, we got a good balance to move forward to the future and take care of the citizens of Harrison County.”
Opponent Troy Peterson has 23 years of law enforcement experience, all with the sheriff’s office, where he focused on narcotics, being assigned to state and federal task forces. One main thing Peterson would like to do as sheriff is make the local drug task forces bigger. “The narcotics world is a nexus for crime, no matter how you look at it. If you look at statistics on any kind of crime, whether it’s violent, homicides, anything else, burglaries, vehicle burglaries, there’s some type of drug nexus to that.”
Then, there’s Todd Stewart, a man with 29 years of experience, including a 20 year Air Force career and 12 years serving as a Gulfport police officer. Stewart says he has trained more than 1,000 law enforcement officials and would like to thrust the way we police into a new era. “We haven’t moved into the future. It’s time to move law enforcement into the future with intelligence led policing. And I’m the guy to do that.”
One thing all three can agree on is they need the public to come out and vote. If one candidate does not secure over 50 percent of the votes tomorrow, the race will head into a runoff between the top two contenders.
The winner of the Republican primary will run unopposed in November’s general election.
Leave a Reply