The Democrat Party's candidate for county sheriff wants residents to feel better about the sheriff's department.

Jim Bumbaugh, 42, faces William "Rocky" Goshert, 49, in the Nov. 7 general election.

Bumbaugh, a Pierceton police officer, said he would like a highly visible sheriff's department, with deputies visiting the schools and being a friendly presence in neighborhoods.

"I don't think we've recovered the negative opinion of police officers since the 1991 Rodney King beating incident. That's sad because so many men and women are good police officers.

"When I'm out and about in Pierceton, it's easy to stop and introduce myself to people. You leave a positive opinion of a police officer. Show the public you're a human being.

"Often the only image a person has of an officer is his driving by at 80 miles an hour in his take-home car wearing civilian clothes.

"Like Tom Hayhurst (Democrat challenger to U.S. Rep Mark Souder) says, 'If you want a change in Washington, send new people to Washington.' Change should start at the local level, that carries over to the state and national level."

Bumbaugh said the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department has been a Rovenstine-family operation for 28 years.

"Everyone knows Rocky was tapped to keep the seat warm for a Rovenstine return in four years.

"I can't outspend my opponent. I haven't raised thousands of dollars to put up an 8-by-4 foot sign every quarter mile.

"Take a look at how much money is being spent to keep it in the family."

Bumbaugh said he has been going where people are, attending meet-the-candidate events and going door to door.

"If a candidate isn't financially responsible during an election, will they be responsible as the office-holder?"

Bumbaugh said he's not impressed with Goshert's business degree because the former state trooper never ran a business.

Bumbaugh owned and operated the Citgo station in Larwill for about 10 years. The business had annual gross sales of more than $2.5 million.

"The customer base is of primary concern. The customer base for the sheriff are the citizens of the county."

He said the citizens aren't seeing police cars in their neighborhoods and used the Sidney community watch organization as an example

"In Sidney they were told there's not enough 'activity' to warrant a patrol car so they organized a neighborhood watch.

"Community policing is an excellent resource for providing additional eyes, but the bottom line is the sheriff's department is responsible for providing services to the community.

"Can the work shifts be set up differently? Do we need to have so many deputies on the day shift and only two patrol cars at night?"

Bumbaugh doesn't think the KCSD hiring practices are fair either.

He began his law enforcement career as a Whitley County reserve deputy in 1998 and moved to the PPD in 2002.

"There is an organization of reserve officers set up, where people are donating time to the county and the department is hiring from the jail staff.

"If you have no intention of hiring full-time officers from the reserves, let them know."

Bumbaugh sees a need to educate adults about criminal activity.

"If your proactive criminals move out of your community, unfortunately, they move to on to someone else's town, but this is the community we should serve and educate.

"Now is the time to better your community. If you like the same ol' status quo, then fine."

A former U.S. Navy communications operator, Bumbaugh left the service because he was facing five years overseas and didn't want to be away from his children that long.

Bumbaugh lives in Pierceton with his daughter, Sara, a freshman at Whitko High School, and son Andrew, a Whitko Middle School seventh-grader.

He is a 1982 graduate of Columbia City Joint High School and was born in Warsaw. His family moved to Whitley County when he was in the third grade. [[In-content Ad]]