The Newton County Sheriff’s Department has been busy.
During the weekend from Friday, Feb. 7, through Monday, Feb. 10, the department made 22 different arrests, mostly for drug charges and alcohol charges. While on the surface it might appear like the department was conducting a round-up of suspects, Sheriff Joedy Pennington said it was nothing more than his deputies doing their jobs around the clock, taking advantage of the recently implemented shift changes to keep someone on duty all day and night.
“There wasn’t a round-up of suspects or anything like that,” Pennington said. “It was just our deputies doing their job to protect Newton County. It’s because we have 24-hour patrols to watch over our county. That’s all we were doing.”
A list of the everyone charged from can be found in this week’s arrest reports on Page 6A.
Pennington said they conducted a few checkpoints over the weekend and caught several suspects during those activities. However, that didn’t represent all of the arrests.
Pennington said most of that was just from regular patrolling around the clock.
“We really didn’t do anything special,” Pennington said. “We just now have 24-hour patrols, and that’s the real reason why we made so many arrests. It’s just our deputies doing their job, and I want to thank them for doing that.
“We have a zero tolerance for drugs in Newton County. We will not put up with it, and we will do our best to investigate it and stop it from happening here.”
