This past week, I had the opportunity to witness our police officers in action. I had to get up before the chickens around 3:30 a.m. Thursday to follow Sheriff Joedy Pennington and members of the Newton County Special Response team as they were executing a drug search warrant in Newton.
There was another one going on in Union at the same time these officers were headed to Newton.
It didn’t look like what you see on TV when law enforcement officers break down the door and there is a massive shootout between the main characters and the bad guys.
The whole initial drug bust probably took about two or three minutes. Everyone was out of the house as officers were searching the residence. The officers had been investigating this for quite some time. They knew what they were doing and did it in a very professional way.
With all of the things we have witnessed with police brutality on TV, I’m glad that not all officers are like that. Based on my experiences, I would say 90 percent of the law enforcement officers in our county are doing it by the book. They have been trained more than officers in other counties have.
I will admit, I am always nervous when I see these types of search warrants being executed. You never know exactly what to expect when they arrive. They can investigate it and have a good idea, but you’re never certain until it happens.
And they did both search warrants at the same time, which meant one house couldn’t get a warning from the other one.
I applaud all of your hard work last week and the weeks and months before that. And the good news is that we have fewer drugs on the street now than what we did before.
Obviously, police officers are not perfect. I’m not perfect. The Bible says that there’s no one perfect, no not one.
Are there issues we need to address? Absolutely.
But in this instance, I will give our officers a pat on the back for their excellent work.
You can contact Brent Maze at bmaze@newtoncountyappeal.com.
