Meet Arthur Lee Harris: Democratic candidate in Sheriff’s race

HOUSTON COUNTY – The race for sheriff has been an eventful time for the citizens of Houston County, but the race’s lone Democratic candidate, Arthur Lee Harris, is prepared to make a change.

Harris was born and raised in Bonaire and grew up in the Houston County school system. After graduating from Northside High School, he attended Middle Georgia College and Georgia Southern University.

He also served in the Army where he spent two years of his life. Harris said during those eventful years he was stationed in Fort Benning, California and Germany. He also said he was in the division that came back under NATO to Fort Riley in Kansas.

Harris was honorably discharged as an E5 Seargeant. 

After his time in the Army, he came back home to Warner Robins and started his career in law enforcement. Harris started working as fireman under the late Chief Ernest Wood and a police officer at the same time. 

Harris worked with current Sheriff Cullen Talton at the Houston County Sheriff Department. He stayed in the department for 23 years and retired from law enforcement in 1996 as a lieutenant.

After retiring, he coached at the Warner Robins Recreation Department for 30 years. He coached the recreation football team, and the Warner Robins Jets baseball team, which won nine state championships.

Harris said he always tried to communicate with people, which is what he aims to do if elected sheriff. 

“I think that’s one of the things that I will bring to the sheriff’s department, if the people of Houston County decide in November that I should be their next sheriff: the ability to communicate,” he said.

Regardless of who is elected sheriff, Harris believes communication between all the county’s agencies is needed. His main priorities include:

• Stopping violent crime in Houston County
• Creating a mental health system for those who need it
• Addressing drug and alcohol abuse

 “Everybody got to communicate, nobody have no ego, nobody touching on anyone’s territory. It’s for the betterment of Houston County that what we do and how we do it is a team, not as an individual. It’s our community and our county,” he said.

Harris’s inspiration to run was a shooting involving teenagers near the Galleria Mall back in February. He said he thought of how the event affected the families involved and believes officers being more involved can prevent those incidents from happening.

Harris said he wants everyone to understand the magnitude of youth violence in the county, and he has a plan to solve it. 

“We have a problem affecting everyone in the community. Our juveniles’ behavior, our crime is up with young adults between 13 to 25. We have got to come up with a system and communicate with everybody, get everybody’s ideas, and everybody pulled together to start [getting] our juvenile behavior under control,” he said.

Harris plans to create a Junior Deputy program for children to become more involved in law enforcement. This program will be geared toward children who are displaying bad behavior and once teachers see an improvement, they will celebrate and give them a certificate.

“Put some pride back into them. Some of these kids need some pride because they come from a one-family home,” he said.

Harris also wants to create communication between the sheriff’s office and the school board. He said he wants to get sheriff deputies more involved in the schools.

He also shares there are few nearby counties that have a juvenile division, and he feels a juvenile officer will be more involved with the youth. Harris hopes Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Scott and the school board will keep officers informed and invest in a program where they can monitor children more.

Harris said there are a lot of single parents, male and female, in the county who work two to three jobs. However, he believes they should be held more responsible and be more aware of their children.

“They could keep up with their behavior, not necessarily bad behavior, but what’s going on at school by just looking at the computer,” he said. 

Harris’s goal is to also enforce a curfew to prevent children being on the streets late at night. He also wants more police presence in neighborhoods, especially those with higher criminal activity. 

If elected, Harris wants to meet with every police chief, including surrounding areas like Fort Valley and Byron to work together to build a program. He said since the cities are close together, children often travel to other cities which spreads more crime.

He also wants to address drug abuse and stop street dealers, who he said are selling drugs to youth. Harris’s plan to address the issue is to meet with the police departments and create a countywide drug squad.

“Regardless of who might head it up, it doesn’t matter who’s going to be the chief of it, as long as we stop drug abuse in Houston County streets, street drug sales and people bringing drugs in,” he said.

On the topic of gang violence, Harris said he has heard of an increase in the county. He said he will aim to prevent the issue from increasing and find out who they are. 

Harris also wants to work with local churches and ministers, encouraging them to create visible youth programs and homeless outreach programs. He hopes this will lead them to God and help them avoid negative situations.

Harris also said there is also a lot of criminal behavior in north Warner Robins that should not be there. He added he has noticed people underneath buildings and sidewalks

“We are going to control that, we are going to be in the neighborhoods. I am going to demand more from the deputies that they go out and perform their job in a respectable and communicative way. We can help bring this crime growth under control, we got to, we don’t have a choice,” he said. 

Harris also wants to create more emphasis on mental health and put more counselors in jails. He said a lot of the problem stems from their mental health and it has been an overlooked issue. 

If elected, he wants to include more mental health, drug abuse and alcohol abuse counselors to help address those issues. He said there are a lot of resources in the area that are not being used, but he wants those resources to feel comfortable coming to him and telling him what they can do to help.

Harris also wants to create more neighborhood watches and believes this will help more people in the community and create a stronger relationship with deputies. 

“Our citizens are the main and important part of our community. We are the most progressive county south of Atlanta, the growth is there, and our county is growing every day. There’s a new subdivision going on everywhere, so we got to have attract good people and people that might need a second chance to become a part of our organization,” he said.

He said he wants to create a better way of recruiting law enforcement officers. According to Harris, there are currently 40 vacancies in the county jail, and he wants people to stay in the department. 

He said if he is elected, he will make sure to fill those positions and improve the patrol division. Harris also shares he will talk with the county commissioners and aim to receive grants to fund the divisions.

 “Nobody wants to pay more money in taxes, none of us want to, but if we got to be competitive with our salary for our deputies and we going to demand they leave home not knowing whether or not they are going to come back. We got to pay them the best that we can pay. If we’re going to the progressive county, we got to have good salaries for our deputies,” he said. 

Harris shares a story from his time in law enforcement, which he considers one of his prime moments. He said he met a teenager whose brother was in trouble; one day, he saw the teenager walking from Northside High School. While he was driving, he recognized him and stopped to talk to him. 

He told the teen he would give him a ride home, while on the car ride, they started to talk about life. They started talking about his goals and his plans for next year, since that was the year he was graduating. He replied that he had no idea of his plans and Harris told him if he needed anything, he was there to help.

The teenager later became a police officer in Macon and became Captain. Harris shares that at his retirement, he came and talked about how he inspired him. He believes that if he could do that, anyone can inspire young adults if they listen, trust and believe.

“I want to be a servant, that’s what I strive on. I don’t want to have any glory, I just want to do what’s best for the community,” he said.

Harris also spoke about the Sheriff Cullen Talton, who served for 51 years. He said no one can be another Sheriff Talton and no one should try. Harris also said he first started when the county needed him, he performed the job and he considers Talton a legend who always had an open door and encouraged responsibility to Houston County citizens.

“We can’t follow a legend, it’s just not possible to do. I’m not even going to attempt to try to be Sheriff Talton,” he said.

As a servant leader, Harris said he has the experience to understand the community.

“I’m the best candidate to be Sheriff of Houston County. I don’t have no agenda except serving the people of Houston County. That’s my only agenda to serve the people of Houston County,” he said. 

Harris will face Republican Candidate Matt Moulton; Election Day is Nov. 5.