Of the 10 applicants for Hamilton County’s interim sheriff, four never received state Peace Officer Standards and Training certification, a requirement for the job, records show.
“Your name has to be certified by the POST Commission (to be sheriff),” said Brian Grisham, director of the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy.
Sheriff’s Staff Sgt. Tim Akins, James Durkan and former FBI agents William Curtis and Orin Sprague lack the certification, according to POST Commission records.
POST Commission rules state the certification is not a requirement to seek the office of sheriff, but once elected or selected for the office, a sheriff must complete training within six months.
The interim sheriff would serve about five months, until a new sheriff, to be elected Aug. 7, takes office.
Staff Sgt. Akins said he would obtain the certification if selected as interim sheriff.
“I’d have no problem doing that,” he said.
Sgt. Akins said he never got the certification because he has spent his career as a corrections officer and did not require it.
Mr. Durkan said he would get his certification as soon as he could if selected, but noted that he has as much of a right as anyone to the office.
“In a state of emergency, a good citizen should step up,” he said.
The County Commission will decide on Wednesday whether to appoint an interim sheriff. Some commissioners argued that the panel should not appoint an interim. Instead, they should let the department continue running with Chief Deputy Allen Branum as acting sheriff, some have said.
Commissioner Greg Beck said he “didn’t hear anything to change my mind” from that view in the Feb. 21 interviews of the interim sheriff applicants.
Other commissioners have argued the commission must appoint an interim, since state law notes that the county legislative body “shall” name a replacement.
Of the applicants who have received POST certification, four have retired from law enforcement: David Alverson, Richard Thurman, Tom Ratledge, all of whom are former sheriff’s department officers, and Roy Phillips, a former state trooper. Mr. Alverson and Mr. Thurman have been retired more than five years each.
According to POST Commission rules, anyone who has had a five-year break from law enforcement must retake a certification test.
All the candidates, including Chief Branum and sheriff’s Lt. Lenda Clark, the two currently employed applicants with POST certifications, would have to go to a sheriff’s school for training, Mr. Grisham said.
Lt. Clark said she would be happy to take on the required training.
“It would not be a problem if it was required of me to do so,” she said.
On Monday, Jim Winters, a former forensics investigator with the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s Office, announced he would be running for sheriff in August.
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