Meet the Candidate: Michael Donnelly – Grimes County Sheriff
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – One race Grimes County voters will see on their ballot is County Sheriff.
All three candidates will appear on News 3 at Six this week.
Don Sowell currently holds the position and is running for reelection. Two other candidates are also vying for the position: Michael Donnelly and Travis Rawls.
Donnelly joined News 3 at Six on Wednesday to discuss why he believes he’s the right man for the job.
“I actually worked at Grimes County as a reserve and then I went full time and saw a lot of problems and several people asked me to run and try and help out and get more deputies on the street,” Donnelly said. “A few weeks ago there was one deputy for 800 square miles. That’s got to change.”
Donnelly says his prior experience will help him recruit more deputies.
“I do have 21 years in the military, 15 of it is an MP, and several of the people I worked with in Iraq and in the military are now civilian police officers in the state of Texas or at TDC who want to come to work for me. So we can get those people back on the street and get some protection for the county.”
He also believes there are ways to incentivize the deputies to stay on with the sheriff’s office.
“Right now there is no incentive for the deputies to try and climb the ladder because right now the sheriff’s office makes appointments and doesn’t have promotion boards. Therefore there is no incentive to stay,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly says he also hopes to install license plate readers in the cars to combat property crime.
“A lot of times the thieves are driving stolen vehicles. With the license plate readers and more people on patrol, you have a chance of catching them before they do it.”
You can watch our entire interview with Donnelly in the player above.
You can learn more about him by clicking here.
