As the population of Gwinnett County continues to grow and diversify, the role of the Sheriff’s Office is increasingly important to protect all of its citizens.
The candidates for Gwinnett County Sheriff- Republican Luis “Lou” Solis, and Democrat Keybo Taylor- each claim that they will make a difference in the future of the county.
For Solis, who currently serves as the Chief Deputy of Operations for the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, some of that difference means continuing the policies and programs that he’s helped to put in place.
He has pulled on his experience as an U.S. Army Ranger to help implement a program known as “The Barracks” within the jail system. This program provides structure and discipline similar to the military to help incarcerated veterans.
In addition, Solis said that he has brought in an outside doctor to prepare Sheriff’s Office personnel for handling de-escalation, mental health and diversity.
“We started out with the corporals and sergeants, lieutenants and captains, majors and above, to make sure that we [are prepared for] de-escalation, diversity and mental health,” said Solis.
But Solis said there’s still more that the Sheriff’s Office can do to earn the community’s trust. One plan that he has already started to implement is an ambassadorship program, where personnel go into the community and interact more with citizens.
“The one thing I want to do is not stay in the office but get out in the area like I’m doing now,” said Solis. “Some people don’t want to come to the jail and talk to us, so we understand that, so what they do is they ask you, ‘Hey, can come over here to our place or can we meet somewhere for coffee?’ And then what we do is we go down there.”
Solis’s efforts have earned him the endorsement of current Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway, who announced his plan to retire earlier this year.
But despite the programs that are already in place, Taylor asserts that there is great mistrust toward law enforcement in Gwinnett County communities. He said that spending time in these communities following his retirement from the Gwinnett Police Department in 2009 has helped him to see this mistrust, among other issues.
Taylor said that he decided to run for Sheriff primarily to help restore this trust and he hopes to meet this goal primarily through some programs relating to mental health issues and diversity.
Concerning mental health, Taylor said that jail may not always be the best place for members of the community suffering from mental health issues.
“They may need to go to a crisis stabilization unit rather than going to jail, so we need to provide some other options for people rather than incarceration,” he said.
And as far as tackling diversity, Taylor said that his first step if elected Sheriff would be to change the culture of the Sheriff’s Department.
“I start by making sure my command staff reflects that diversity that you see outside here in the county,” said Taylor. “We make sure that we are diversified and we make sure that we provide the proper training for the command staff and that the training trickles down to all of the staff moving forward.”
Like Solis, Taylor also said that under his leadership personnel would be more active in the community, a policy he refers to as “community policing”.
“We need to be out here and the communities need to see us in a non-enforcement capacity,” said Taylor. “They need to see us when times are good so that when we do have an incident out here…we start to build upon that now, we don’t wait until something happens.”
Taylor’s stance on diversity and bringing the communities together has made him a strong voice of opposition toward the controversial 287(g) program.
This program, implemented under the leadership of current Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway in 2010, allows deputies specially trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify criminally-charged illegal immigrants in the jail inmate system.
Once these inmates are identified, they can be transferred to ICE custody within 48 hours of satisfying any local charges, with the eventual goal of deportation.
Taylor said that if he is elected sheriff, he will end the Sheriff’s Office participation in the program “on day one”. His argument is that the current Sheriff’s Office administration cannot provide data which shows the program helps to reduce crime, but that data instead suggests inmates who are undocumented are non-violent offenders.
Taylor said that instead of allocating money for the 287(g) program, resources should go toward ending violent crime, primarily from gang activity, in Gwinnett County.
“For me, it’s a pretty easy sale, where do we need to put the resources and how do we actually keep the citizens of Gwinnett County safe,” said Taylor. “Do we keep them safe by detaining non-violent offenders or do we put those resources toward things out here that we know [is violent].”
However, Solis argues that the 287(g) program has helped to lower the jail population, therefore saving taxpayers money. A document on the Gwinnett County Sheriff's website states that the average jail population is down nearly 600 inmates from when the program started in 2010.
Solis said that a common misconception about the program is that something as simple as not having a driver's license could get the offender deported. But he explained that the purpose of the 287(g) program is to focus on violent criminals, not minor offenses.
"The 287(g) program is a tool to get all of the hardcore criminals out of the county," said Solis. "You've got your guys they're doing some killings, robbing places, drugs, gangs. Those are the guys that we want out of the community and that's what we're focused on."
Solis, a retired U.S. Army Ranger, served with the Marietta Police Department and as Assistant Police Chief with the Braselton Police Department before joining the Gwinnett Sheriff’s Office as Chief Deputy of Operations. He is a member of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Delegation, as well as the Georgia Board of Corrections and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
In 2019, Governor Brian Kemp appointed Solis the State Corrections Board. Solis has lived in Gwinnett County for more than 20 years.
Taylor is a retired Major from the Gwinnett Police Department who worked his way up to the role from when he first started in 1983. In 1995, Taylor was the first African American in the Gwinnett Police Department promoted to the rank of Sergeant. He retired from the department in 2009.
Taylor currently works as a substitute teacher for Gwinnett County Schools. In his spare time, he coaches youth recreational football in Gwinnett County.
The candidates will face off in the general election on November 3.
