The two Republican Candidates for Cooke County Sheriff greeted guests and participated in a moderated forum Monday night to a packed house at the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce building.

The Sheriff candidates, challenger Ken Fogus and incumbent Mike Compton, appeared following GOP candidates for 235th District Judge and District Attorney at the forum, sponsored by the Cooke County Republican Eagle Club. A story on the District Attorney’s and the District Judge’s race will appear in Thursday’s Register.

Fogus and Compton were cordial to one another — Compton calling Fogus “my worthy opponent” and Fogus thanking Compton for his work in bringing the Sheriff’s department up to state standards.

Candidate Ben Thurman did not appear as he will appear on the Democratic Party primary ballot. He spoke to a meeting of the Cooke County Democratic Club recently.

Fogus and Compton were given a few minutes to introduce himself.

Going first, Compton said he has been sheriff “for 11 years and 28 days.” Prior to his election in a Republican sweep in 1996, Compton was a trooper with the Department of Public Safety for 27 years and was in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years.

“So I’ve been serving the public since I was 21,” Compton said.

Fogus said he has 30 years experience in law enforcement and currently works with the Corinth Police Department as an investigator. He has lived in Cooke County for 15 years. Prior to that he worked for 17 years with the Princeton Fire Department.

“At this time I feel that it is time for a change in our Sheriff’s department,” he said. “I have a new vision, and I’d really like to implement it to see if we can’t make things a little better.”

Compton was asked to comment on his accomplishments in office. He noted an increase in staff during his tenure. In 1997 the department had two investigators, a patrol staff of 10 or less and about 14 jailers.

Today, Compton said, the department has about 14 deputies, four investigators and a new jail “so we can quit paying hundreds of thousands of dollars on other counties to house our prisoners.”

In 1998, he said, he proposed a study showing that the Cooke County Jail, then located on the corner of Pecan and Chestnut streets, would be crowded by 2001. By 2001, he said, his projections were proven and the county started sending prisoners to other jails in other counties.

The Cooke County Justice Center was built following a bond approved by voters in 2005.

Compton said his department trained a SWAT team but it only had to be used a handful of times for its main purpose. But the training has come in handy in several drug busts.

Compton said his department strives to be responsive, though his deputies cannot be everywhere in the county at once.

“We’re not always perfect, but try to bat as close to a thousand as we can on this,” he said. “Our goal, and what we intend to do is once again, is to find as many people we can put in jail as we can.”

Fogus agreed there’s room for improvement.

“I think Mike’s doing a fantastic job, and he’s brought the law enforcement here up to standard,” he said.

But he said the department is still “in the 20th century.” He questioned the cost analysis of the jail vs. the budget.

Fogus said crime reporting statistics are lacking, and that if elected he would report all calls to a database.

He said official statistics indicate 310 thefts throughout the county in 2006, which he said sounds fairly low.

“It’s going to take a lot of work to bring this thing up,” he said. “We need to modernize our sheriff’s department and bring it into the future. We need to prepare for what’s coming.”

Fogus called for a drug interdiction program. He said drug busts are down, but mainly due to the demise of the “old fashioned” methamphetamine lab. He said some meth labs are in car trunks today.

“If we stop our drug problem we’re going to tackle our crime problem,” he said. “Let’s put together an effort to where if everyone calls in when something is suspicious, that we can put a dent in this crime problem.”

In rebuttal, Compton said one reason why meth busts are down is due to production in Mexico.

Fogus added that one lab in Mexico, when raided, revealed $200 million in meth. Fogus said the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) brought increased traffic “straight up I-35 and into Gainesville.”

Frank Rust, the forum’s moderator, posed three pre-written questions to the candidates. The first involved what should be done to stop the drug problem in Cooke County, and whether or not education would be a better alternative than adding to prison overcrowding.

“Of course incarceration stamps out the drug problem for the old boy that’s incarcerated. He’s not going to use them very much,” Compton said, meeting laughter.

He called for a “way to turn over a leaf” for those in jail, and said “education and rehabilitation” must precede and follow incarceration.

“The only way you can make that work is incarceration,” Compton said. “It’s the catalyst and the flame that makes the other two work. Now to ask me, the way the question was phrased, that’s like asking the fox not to go into the hen house. I’m going after the druggies, and I’m going to keep putting them in jail.”

Compton repeated his belief in education twice, and called for a “ladder” for those in jail to get out of the drug culture.

Fogus agreed with education as “the best form to get the young people away from drugs. But maybe we should set up some kind of reward for the kids to stay out of drugs ... We have to do something to stop the drugs from ruining our country.”

Fogus hearkened back to the Cold War and said the Russians believed the U.S. would be defeated from the inside out.

“If you look at the drug culture, it’s almost there now,” he said.

The next question asked each candidate their thoughts on concealed carry laws allowing drivers to carry weapons in their vehicles and the recently passed “Castle Doctrine,” which gives a property owner greater rights in defending against a burglar or other intruder without requiring retreat.

“I can see where this is going to have both a positive and negative effect,” Fogus said of state gun laws. “It’s going to get where everybody is carrying a gun, and we’re going to start seeing a lot of needless shootings, especially in road rage type incidents. The law was given to us to protect ourselves and our own property. And it should be used that way. Instead of giving a broad OK for everyone out here to pack a gun, we should have narrowed it down to where a gun should be kept in a place of employment or at the home, and if you’re going to carry it while traveling, and therefore you should have a permit issued, such as we have here in Texas with a concealed hand gun license.

“Everyone should be educated on when where and how to use a firearm,” and about the threat to life a shooting can bring, Fogus continued.

“I think the Governor when he put this in had the right idea, but we just need to narrow it down more,” he said.

Compton said he agrees with concealed carry and the Castle Doctrine.

“I think they’re both great laws, and guns don’t kill people. People kill people,” Compton said. “You talk about the impact it would have if you had to kill someone. Think of the impact it would have on you or your family if someone killed a member of your family while you stood there and watch because you didn’t have a gun. I spent 26 years to 27 years on the road. I was never afraid of a decent, honest citizen with a gun. That was never a threat to me. The ones that were a threat to me were the criminals, which this law readily addresses.”

Compton warned a concealed handgun shouldn’t be kept in the glove compartment with insurance, though. He said if a gun owner could gets pulled over for a traffic violation, the officer would see the driver reaching for his gun and would draw his own weapon.

“An armed man or an armed lady is a citizen. An unarmed person is a subject,” he said, reinforcing his belief that the Constitution’s Second Amendment, which gives the right to bear arms and the regulation of a militia, involves individual rights.

Fogus said he’s had pistols pulled on him and has been shot at.

“When you face that reality, you look at things different. And I’m sure Mike can tell you the same thing,” Fogus said. “Your whole world can change in an instant and a second. Are people, the way the law is written, able to handle that?”

Fogus added it’s his belief that every home should have a firearm.

“Without it, what are we? We’re a bunch of peasants,” he said.

In rebuttal, Compton said he’s been shot at before, and he has shot a person.

“I know the feeling of both. And this is as good of a campaign issue as I could come up with. But I see no problem with an honest, law-abiding with a sidearm in their car, just like the law allows,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re not like Arizona where you can pack it on your hip. But at least now the legislature has taken the step forward to let you put one in your car.”

A second debate for GOP candidates is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 25. For more information on the Republican Party call 665-8683.

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net