BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – West Virginia House of Delegates member Eric Brooks paid a visit to the newly completed Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department Offices on Friday for the presentation of a check which will go toward the acquisition of a new bullet retrieval system for the department.
The system, Sheriff Canaday says, will allow Deputies to conduct on-site analysis of weapons and ammunition casings involved in ongoing investigations, leading to the potential for exponentially expedited investigation processes.
“After years of investigations and seeing the things that are available today like this, I can tell you that the decrease in the non-investigative workload will translate into an increase in the ability to put more resources into the investigation itself as opposed to what goes on behind the scenes,” Canaday explains. “It’s a significant help to any investigation involving guns.”
The contribution was presented by Delegate Eric Brooks, who detailed the origins of the funding and the potential impact of this acquisition on the Raleigh County area.
“This is good for our county, it’s good for our community and it’s obviously good for my district. So, I was glad to be able to do it and that we made it happen,” he said. “We have a what’s called the Local Economic Development Assistance program. It’s basically a grant program that’s made available to Delegates and Senators, and we can request funding for projects for things that would help the community.”
Sheriff Canaday noted the significance of the support of state and community leadership for the department, acknowledging the efforts not only of elected officials in Charleston, but also of the County Commission, who facilitated the establishment of the new Sheriff’s Office location.
“I think it’s very important to have the assistance of Delegate Brooks and other Senators and Delegates, because we’re kind of doing the same thing,” the Sheriff remarked. “Delegate Brooks is helping us from the standpoint where he’s able to and he’s given us the tools we need to do our job; not only him, but everyone else that’s contributing to this, from the Commission giving us this facility to the Deputies that are working the road, to the other agencies that might use these facilities.
I think it’s just another example of how being on the same page helps us. We’re all focused on the common goal, which is crime reduction, to make our community a better place to live and raise a family, and to make it more attractive economically. So, those are all things that are common goals, and we’re just working together to accomplish those.”
Echoing the sentiment of teamwork amongst community members and leadership being paramount in the facilitation of effective progress, Delegate Brooks notes that citizen safety is a key priority in the work of not only the House of Delegates, but of the Sherif’s Department as well.
“Public safety is number one,” he declares. “We know we have some issues going on in our communities – not just this community; it’s the state; it’s the nation. But to be able to tangibly help the Sheriff’s Department acquire some equipment that they need that’s going to help facilitate the prosecution of these crimes and to help decrease the amount of crime in our community, I’m so glad to do it, and it’s great working with the Sheriff.”
Additional LOOTPRESS coverage of the Raleigh County area can be found here.
