Meet the Night Shift Deputies
(Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of meeting the community’s public service employees who take care of the residents and businesses in Jasper County and the city of Monticello. This week, Kim Joris introduces us to the more of the staff at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.)
Night shift with the Jasper County Sheri?’s O?ce (JCSO) is 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. On this particular ride along night, Sgt. William Brett Smith, Brett to most of those who know him, was the night shift supervisor.
Assigned to the City Zone for the evening, I rode with Sgt. Smith the first few hours of his shift. The city limits encompass 4.28 square miles and the 2021 census count has it home to approximately 2,645 residents. Though the area might be small compared to the overall size of Jasper County’s 373 square miles, its concentration of people keeps the Sheri?’s O?ce busy, especially during the evenings.
Born in Rockdale County, Sgt. Smith has called Monticello and Jasper County home since he was four years old. He first put on his uniform for the JCSO in 2016, after graduating from Jasper County High School (JCHS) in 2015. Now the father of a four year old son with a baby on the way, he enjoys working in and for the community he grew up in.
He and his wife Brianna, a paraprofessional in Newton County and in school pursuing her education degree, like living in Jasper County. It’s home to Sgt. Smith and he likes being able to take care of the community he grew up in.
Sgt. Smith trains new deputies. “We run to every call when I have a recruit,” he said. With running every call comes “lots more paperwork,” Smith added. And according to Sgt. Smith, training doesn’t cover everything. “Part of this job is baptism by fire,” he shared, explaining that as a law enforcement o?cer you never quite know what a call for service will be or what a tra?c stop might result in.
Tra?c stops always have the possibility for surprise. It might be a warning ticket which is Sgt. Smith’s preference. He believes warning tickets can often cause the same desired e?ect needed to change a person’s driving behavior that a ticket can without the long term ramifications a ticket might have for a person. But a stop might also result in a ticket, an arrest or a chase, o?ering that “sometimes something as simple as someone throwing a cigarette out the window might result in chaos.”
“It’s not stagnant. You’re not sitting at a desk. Your desk moves. I’m always learning,” Sgt. Smith said when speaking about some of his favorite things about his job as a deputy. He was a part-time dispatcher for awhile but found it too hard to stay put. In addition to training new deputies, he also hopes to get his Instructor certification to teach others in law enforcement.
He’s right. The job is not stagnant. We started the night o? with a call of someone possibly armed and threatening to harm himself and others in his family. Domestic violence calls, one of the most dangerous type calls for law enforcement o?cers, always have the deputies on guard. This call was no di?erent, with the deputies cautiously walking onto the front porch standing aside while knocking on the front door and keeping their heads on a swivel sweeping the area around them as they talked to the home’s occupant.
Responding with back up provided by Deputy Jerry Thompson, they found the call to be unfounded.
Deputy Jerry Thompson, a five year JCSO veteran who spent time in the military and who worked as a plumber and a hauler for trailers, also works at night. “Nights is where it’s at,” said Thompson. From Monroe County, Thompson is married and has three children, all boys, ages five, eight and 10. He’s ready for the inevitable that his boys might want to work in law enforcement. One son already has a badge with his name on it.
From the domestic violence call we went to the Sheri?’s O?ce after a tra?c stop by deputies of the Jasper County Crime Suppression Unit resulted in a drug arrest. The arrest included marijuana, drug paraphernalia, unknown white powdery substance in folded dollar bills, suspected THC pens and gummies and open bottles of alcohol in the vehicle all possessed by subjects under the age of 21.
Next we were on to the Ingles parking lot to assist someone whose keys were locked inside his truck. “We try to be a full service Sheri?’s O?ce,” Sgt. Smith revealed as we pulled into the parking lot. It was easier to unlock the truck with two. Standing on the truck’s front tire that stood almost up to my waist and using a flashlight to see through the truck’s tinted windows, Deputy Molly Walker guided Sgt. Smith using the Big Easy Lockout tool to unlock the truck.
The familiar click of a car door unlocking soon filled the air, along with a happy yell of glee from the truck’s owner.
With six months on the road as a patrol deputy, Deputy Molly Walker is one of the JCSO’s newest patrol deputies. She worked as communications o?cer in the 911 Call Center and as a detention o?cer in the jail for two months prior to going on the road as a deputy. An Augusta, GA native, she graduated in 2019 with a degree in Criminal Justice and Political Science from Pensacola Christian College where she met her husband, Ben Walker, also of the JCSO.
Deputy Ben Walker, currently assigned to the JCSO CSU is also the sheri?’s o?ce K-9 handler. He spent two weeks training at a law enforcement dog training facility in Louisiana with his K-9, Kylian, a Belgian Malinois. Known for its keen scent, high intelligence, obedience and protectiveness, the Belgian Malinois breed is often trained for law enforcement work. Kylian is trained in drug detection, is the newest deputy of the JCSO, coming to the JCSO a little over two months ago and is already responsible for several drug arrests.
Back in the patrol car with Sgt. Smith driving around the downtown square, a tra?c stop for driving the wrong way on a one way street was next. Something that happens regularly late at night Smith said. Tonight’s wrong way driver, like most who end up backwards on the square was driving through Monticello for the first time while trying to get home and found herself driving the wrong way on South Warren Street.
While on patrol we, and the other deputies working, were also on the lookout for a vehicle from another county suspected in a crime from a few nights before. “People going through here (Monticello) are committing most of the crimes, not locals,” stated Sgt. Smith. The small Monticello town square is home to four Georgia highways, 11, 212, 83 and 16. They all converge in town, bringing all sorts of vehicles and people from all over as they cut through downtown, driving through Monticello as a shortcut to get to their destinations.
Sgt. Smith’s wish list for the City Zone is to be able to address the blight areas that exist to help improve the quality of life for all of Monticello’s and Jasper County citizens. Many cities and towns throughout the United States and Georgia have blight task force units, created to reduce crime and beautify towns and cities. The blight is addressed by enforcing ordinances related to everything from dilapidated buildings, litter, trash, junk cars, property maintenance, storage, and ensuring proper zoning and use of homes and businesses.
Addressing blight in towns requires a partnership and a concentrated e?ort and strong working relationship between law enforcement, code enforcement, city government and the courts that hear the code enforcement and blight cases.
On a return trip to the Sheri?’s O?ce to check on a deputy’s vehicle with a brake problem, I met another deputy around for the evening, four year veteran Deputy Devonte Crawley. From Palatka, Fla., a city of about 10,000 residents located on the St. Johns River, Crawley, a Marines veteran, and his wife, a nurse, live in Macon.
Sgt. Smith sums up his job nicely. “I can talk to people really well,” he said. And he can. Most importantly, he added, “I try not to take it personally. If someone is screaming and yelling at me, it’s not you they are yelling at, it’s what you’re wearing.”
The Jasper County Sheri?’s O?ce is located at 1551 Ga Hwy 212 West, Monticello, GA and can be reached for emergencies by dialing 911 and for non-emergency calls and information at 706.468.4912.
