Election for next Bibb County Sheriff underway

The election for the next Bibb County Sheriff is underway.

With Sheriff David Davis currently holding the Sheriff’s Office, contender JT Ricketson wants to earn the title.

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We will have live coverage of the event ... on 41nbc news starting at five.

Elections for the next macon-bibb county sheriff is less than a month away.

With sheriff david davis currently holding the sheriff's seat, candidate j.t.

Ricketson hopes he will become the new sheriff for the next 4 years.

Macon-bibb county sheriff david davis' 2nd term is coming to an end and he hopes to re-claim a third.

Dd: "i have a very deep with the community and during my time as sheriff we really strengthen that bond through all parts of the community" with davis occupying the sheriff's position for 8 years.

His opponent jt ricketson believes it's time for a new sheriff in town.

Jt: "david is a super nice guy but he is still using the same tactics and philosophies of policing and doing the sheriffing in the county that doesn't work for our inner-cities.

Our inner cities are hurting."

Both men have extensive law enforcement backgrounds.

Ricketson served the georgia bureau of investigation for 36 years as a special agent in charge.

He retired nearly 6 months ago to run for sheriff.

His career took him all over the state of georgia- he is also an fbi national academy graduate, with 2 masters and 1 bachelors in criminal justice.

Sheriff david davis, on the other hand--has been dedicated to the bibb county sheriff's office for nearly 40 years.

He began his career as a jailer, to a chief deputy, to finally sheriff.

According to davis- in 2019 bibb county had the lowest number of reported crimes under his command-- since consolidation of the macon police department and sheriff office back in 2014.

Dd: "we have done our neighborhood walks, we have done our outreach, we have arrested serious criminals."

Jt: "i'm not about walking through a neighborhood locking arms and trying to make people feel good.

I want to roll my sleeves up and actually get in the community and do something."

For both davis and ricketson- macon is home-- both say they want to do everything they can to protect bibb county and its citizens.

Jt: "we have very unsafe streets that's number one.

We have a deputy shortage that is around 200 right now, and the third thing, we have too many fugitives that are freely roaming around on our streets that have active warrants and we should be bringing them to justice.

" dd: "some of the issues that we have here.

We have some issues with some violent crime.

But however total crime is down.

" both men say they have plans to help solve the problems. ricketson says for safer streets-he will create 2 task force groups.

One will be a warrant service team with 8-10 people that will work identifying the most dangerous criminals in the area and bring them to justice.

He says the other is a multi-jurisdictional task force where the department will partner with local law enforcement to focus on street crimes.

Rickentson says as far as the deputy shortage-he wants to rehire the retired.

Jt: "i like to bring them back and put them in non-essential roles so i can free up these fulltime deputies to get them back on our street to patrol and make sure our streets are safe again."

Davis says the department has a c1 3 b13 number of outreach programs for youth and adults within bibb and will continue.

He says--but davis says