To the Editor:

I am a retired law enforcement professional, living in California, with 30 years experience as a police officer and manager.

I am not a resident of Southampton County, but I did want to voice my support for Jack Stutts now running for the position of sheriff.

I met Jack in 1996, while attending the FBI National Academy; we were roommates and really worlds apart.

Me, the southern California born and raised former Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, and at that time the new captain of the Tracy Police Department. Jack was the Virginia-born captain of a county in Virginia I had never heard of.

The first day we met, as we introduced ourselves to each other in a small dorm room at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., little did I know the friendship that would develop, born out of true respect for our shared values.

Over the past 15 years, Jack and I, as well as our families, have become close. We talk on a regular basis and not just about hobbies, but of leadership, values and the challenges faced every day by those in law enforcement.

We speak about the meaning of integrity and how our like careers from SWAT to narcotics to patrol to leadership roles showed us the way we could make a positive impact on an organization.

Law enforcement is no different at any level or in any region. The same basic principles apply, and those are based on treating folks fairly inside and outside an organization.

Jack has that special “it” that many who try to make themselves leaders seek to obtain, but fail because they lack those basic principles.

In Jack Stutts you will get a sheriff that is consistent, dedicated and with the community’s best interest at heart.

Jack is a born leader; you see it in the way he responds to his deputies and to those that he has so honorably served in the Southampton County community.

You also see it the way he lives his life. His family is his priority and the love he has for Alice, Judson and Jess are always foremost in his grounded approach to life.

He is dedicated, and always looks to the future and how best to prepare an organization for the next challenge. His forward thinking and ability to connect to those he deals with is the true value of Jack Stutts.

He is the “real deal” and Southampton County will be a better place to live and work with Jack Stutts as your new sheriff.

Steve Taylor
Tracy, Calif.