For your consideration: Gonzales County Sheriff’s race

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GONZALES — There are two things you learn after visiting with Clay Allen. First, he wants to be your sheriff. And second, he wants to be your friend.

The retired Army lieutenant colonel, justice of the peace, chief deputy, school board member, science teacher, businessman and single father says that a lifetime of experience and understanding will be valuable if he is elected as Gonzales County’s top cop. He points to many examples as how he will run things if voters put him in charge on March 1.

“I was a chief deputy in the early 80s,” Allen, 71, said. “Before that I ran three businesses, knew everybody. School teacher, judge — and frankly — the way they do law enforcement today is not the way I did it. I run on personal service, that’s why when you see my card, you see my personal phone number. When I was in law enforcement and judge, everyone had my number and came to see me. It was an open door. You engage everybody.”

His personal brand of justice would tilt toward an old-school way of lawmaking. Citizens would notice a kinder, gentler Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office to work with, something he fondly recalls from his earlier days as a deputy.

“Sometimes arrest isn’t the answer,” said Allen. He would look to get involved with many pastors and build relationships that extend into the community. If a youth got out of line, a quick call to their religious leader or a parent would be a better alternative for him than throwing them in jail.

And in dealing with adults, he wants to make sure the entire department addresses everyone with the care and concern that they would if they were their own parents or grandparents.

“When Sheriff [Curtis] Parsley hired me, I walked out of his office and he said, ‘Stop,’” Allen recalls. “He said, ‘You take those dark glasses off and you put a smile on your face. Your family has lived here since 1853, you know everybody, they know you and you’re related to a lot of them. You put a smile on your face, wave to them from your car, wave to them when you’re downtown.”

That is the behavior that he says will transform a police force in need of a makeover. Want to get results? Put down the aggressiveness and turn on the kindness, he explained. Threats and intimidation only make enemies where the one thing that an investigator needs at the time of a crime is a friend.

“I spent 36 years in the intelligence service,” he said. “And because I taught school and because I was the judge and chief deputy and I knew everybody, when people have problems and they want a friend, they usually call me. And the things I have heard about the sheriff’s department are not the way I would run it. You cannot pull people over and talk to them like they are dogs, pull guns on them, rip their cars to pieces — you don’t get anything. You may catch somebody doing something right on that moment, but if you want information, you treat people right.”

“If you run on fear and intimidation, then someday you’re going to get hurt,” Allen said.

His brand of law would be what he calls “personal service.” Allen would not be content on staying put in his office. He wants to greet citizens and go to businesses, letting people know that he is out in the community working and listening.

“I don’t want to hide down there,” he said. “I want a truck where I can go to a restaurant that says, ‘The Sheriff Is Here.’ And go have coffee and have people walk in like when I was justice of the peace.”

If elected, Gonzales County residents can expect to see some noticeable changes. For one, he wants to use technology to keep his deputies honest. Body mounted video and audio recorders will be used in every instance one of his employees has an interaction with a citizen. It not only protects the officer but allows someone to understand their rights guaranteed by the constitution.

And if a deputy fails to turn on their recorder, it’s big trouble for them.

Second, he would issue performance cards to deputies. After each stop, a deputy would hand them a card that read, “The Sheriff would like to know what you think.” This is so that he can get a report on what his officers are doing in the field and if he needs to take action. Everyone will get a report card to give to him, he said.

Allen also wants to create a citizen’s sheriff’s auxiliary to help in crime prevention. Those who sign up would receive background checks and would do services like neighborhood watches and leading classes on theft prevention and recovery. 

As for schools, he looks to find out what is going on be once again treating people right but by also engaging parents and clergy in the lives of youth that may be at risk of falling into crime or drugs. Behavior will be corrected by involving people of character to intervene in problems. 

Lastly, he says that there are many things you can do besides arresting people to get corrective action. He has a big problem with “locking people up like animals,” but if you have to, you do it the right way.

“This is how it needs to be done,” he said.

Early voting for the March 1 primary runs Feb. 16-26 with locations at Nixon City Hall, Waelder City Hall and the Gonzales County Annex. The winner — be it on Election Day or after a runoff — will be the next sheriff because no Democratic candidates filed for the position.

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