Sheriff’s deputies no longer face the risk of being out-gunned on the streets of Johnson County.
A healthcare provider is curbing the chance of an inmate in the Johnson County jail dying while behind bars.
Residents are more informed than ever about the latest scam tactics that threaten their savings accounts and thieves breaking into vehicles.
Doug Cox spent eight years as Johnson County sheriff working to make sure residents knew about the crimes happening next door, putting taxpayer dollars to use making the community more safe and advancing the technology, equipment and manpower of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryHe took office in 2011 after serving as chief deputy for eight years under then-sheriff Terry McLaughlin. He was re-elected in 2014 to his final four-year term.
He retired at the end of the year. Still, he is not quite ready to give up police work and is still wearing the uniform that has marked his lifetime of service.
“I still love what I do,” Cox said.
He is now a full-time school resource officer at Franklin Community Schools and is primarily working at the high school. He hopes to do more mentoring than police work, and bridge the disconnect between children and police officers.
“Is there anything sad about this?” Cox said, referring to the end of his tenure as sheriff. “No. Because I’ve had a great career.”
He was known as a compassionate but straight-forward sheriff who read every police report every day, was aware of how each deputy was performing and monitored deputies’ work to make sure they were held accountable. At the same time, he was in charge of overseeing the overcrowded Johnson County jail.
He listened to the police radio traffic all day long, wishing he could have spent more time on the road, but running out the door when a major incident occurred and often being the first deputy on the scene.
“I think that’s the way you gain respect,” Cox said. “You get out there and help.”
He still knew how to complete accident reports, and he would personally notify family members of a death due to a crash or crime.
“I think that’s the sheriff’s responsibility,” Cox said, noting it was a terrible task.
When the sheriff’s office made mistakes, they admitted it.
That work was noticed by the public, Cox realized. Residents would note that they never heard anything negative about the sheriff’s office. Such a reputation reaches back to previous sheriffs as well, Cox said.
Cases involving child victims or the elderly were particularly disturbing for him, and weekly, if not daily, he did all he could to alert the public of scams, of cars being broken into, of guns being stolen. Still, he wishes he could have done more, he said.
“I’m a big believer in protecting the public,” Cox said.
If shots are fired in a home, the neighbors have a right to know. If a woman is beat in her home, the public has a right to know what’s occurring next door and can protect her by calling for help if she can’t protect herself, Cox said.
Cox started his career at the Franklin Police Department, and after six years moved to the sheriff’s office for a 32-year tenure. He credits his parents with giving him the proper upbringing and discipline that made him the police officer he became. His dad always told him to do what’s right, and to never let the power go to his head.
“I thought that was great advice, and I still try to live by that today,” Cox said.
He also gives credit to the Lord, the U.S. Marine Corps and good role models at the Franklin Police Department and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
Thrill of the hunt
Cox has known since he was 5 years old that he was destined to be a police officer, and remembers being consumed with sirens. His 1977 Franklin high school yearbook notes that he could imitate the sound of a police siren.
That initial obsession grew into the thrill of the hunt — the hunt for clues or evidence to lead to a suspect when the trail appeared cold; the hunt for justice; the hunt for a little bit of help for a victim.
Investigating cases was always his favorite part of police work, he said. When he was a patrol officer for Franklin police, he went to every convenience store looking for change that had been stolen in a burglary. He found it.
He became a detective after nine months as a sheriff’s deputy, which was a rare accomplishment. He spent the next 12 years investigating cases, including all homicides.
In 1991, he helped investigate a murder in the Bargersville area. Danny Simpson and John Vance had killed Vance’s mother using seven or eight household items, such as a toaster and casserole dish, as weapons. They fled to Tennessee.
The defense attorneys brought in a consultant to examine the evidence, with the goal of poking holes in the police investigation. The consultant, who had been a state trooper, said their evidence, which numbered more than 100 items, was outstanding, Cox remembered.
Cox also recalls investigating a case where a man asleep in his home was beat by an intruder. The victim fled his home in his underwear and detectives had very little evidence. But the victim said he could identify the suspect from looking through photos, and he did. The case was solved.
A burglar he helped convict in another case later thanked him, and told Cox that he had straightened out his life.
Progress
As sheriff, he embraced what he sees as technology that can help police officers do their jobs and keep the public safe. For example, he watched the Bargersville Community Fire Department use drones at vehicle crashes, and purchased two for the next sheriff to put to use. They’ll be used at crashes or crime scenes and could help find missing persons or monitor crowd control situations and active shooter incidents.
The improvements to the sheriff’s office that he is proud of touch all lines of police work.
One of those improvements came when he arranged for the county to get the MRAP, which is a large armored vehicle formerly used by the military that can be used to get SWAT team members safely in and out of calls. The cost to taxpayers for the military surplus item was minimal.
The county’s explosive ordinance disposal team has a new truck and trailer that can transport all its needed equipment to the scene if a suspicious package is discovered. The truck was purchased with money earned when jail inmates buy items from the commissary; the trailer was previously owned by an area fire department.
The scuba team has two boats, and one has a jet motor to allow for rescues in fast-moving water.
And police and fire vehicles county-wide will be equipped with a vehicle locator system so dispatch can see the location of all public safety vehicles and more efficiently send officers to calls or monitor pursuits, while cutting down on radio traffic. The devices are being installed in cars now, Cox said.
A new mapping system shows where crimes, such as break-ins, are happening, which helps police officers be proactive in preventing crime, he said.
Each shift has its own K-9 now, and each of the department’s four dogs can track and subdue suspects and detect narcotics.
With the tools he has brought in, Cox has tried to put a halt in the devastating impact of drug use, especially the opioid epidemic, on residents’ lives. The investigators pursue all drug-dealing leads and tips that they can, and in some cases have been able to arrest dealers whose drugs led to an overdose death.
The sheriff’s office narcotics investigators have become extremely effective and have a county-wide partnership with investigators from other police departments in an effort to get drugs out of Johnson County. Still, Cox said he knows the issue will never be resolved.
“We’re still going to lose young people,” he said.
The community must find a way to get treatment for people, because some can be saved through addiction services, he said.
The money the sheriff’s office has been able to use from seizing a criminal’s money or possessions has paid for an x-ray device that scans people being booked into the jail and for body cameras for sheriff’s deputies. The sheriff’s office now equips all deputies with county-owned rifles and an exercise room helps them stay in shape.
He’s tried to have an impact in other ways, as well. A drug take-back box in the lobby of the sheriff’s office has collected pounds and pounds of drugs from the public, keeping them from being flushed into the water system, taken by addicted family members or stolen.
And residents can meet in the parking lot to exchange children for custody visitations, or if you are selling an item to a stranger through a deal arranged on the internet.
Managing jail issues biggest challenge
Cox has been helping the county navigate a plan to expand the Johnson County jail, which has been overcrowded for years .
In 2017, the state put the county on notice that the crowded conditions at the jail must be addressed after an inspection. At the time, the jail was housing more than 100 inmates over its capacity.
Cox said the hardest part of being sheriff was coping with the number of people who died in the jail due to medical issues or suicide.
In 2013, he hired Advanced Correctional Healthcare as the medical provider in the jail, which increased the amount of time doctors and nurses spent at the jail. The change was credited with reducing the number of inmates who tried to kill themselves, got into a fight or damaged jail property due to mood swings in the years that followed.
A mental healthcare worker is also in the jail 40 hours each week, Cox said.
