Published: August 06, 2008 11:21 am      

Coal County sheriff looks to the future

Coalgate — Despite being reelected by a wide margin to his third term, Coal County Sheriff Roy Deck said he is already campaigning for the next election in 2012.

“I campaign everyday,” Deck said. “I’ve been campaigning everyday since May 2000. I started again Tuesday night after the election.”

Even though Deck never put out a campaign sign or accepted donations, he won with a little more than 51 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

“I’ve never taken a penny in campaign contributions,” Deck said. “Everybody kept asking me if I was running because they didn’t see any signs. I tell ‘em I’ve never had any signs.”

Deck beat fellow democrats Brian Jump and Bill Langdon. Jump, currently the chief of police in Kiowa, had 28 percent of the vote. Langdon, a retired Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and current Coal County juvenile officer, had 21 percent.

Deck said he won’t change his work ethic but does want to find a way to fund a new jail without raising taxes. He’s hoping to construct a new jail through a budget restructuring.

“We’re looking at trying to spend somewhere between $350,000 and $400,000 to build a facility with enough square footage to hold 40 people, but just putting 20 beds in because I don’t want to go over 20 capacity,” Deck said.

The current jail only has four cells—one of which is a drunk tank—and Deck said he wants the new jail to have special cells for inmates with medical problems or who are unruly and combative.

Deck said the county sales tax revenue recently went up considerably, and this has allowed his department to buy new vehicles and new equipment, and add new officers. Many other entities are benefiting from the sales tax, including the courthouse, fire department and EMS, Deck said.

In January 2011, Deck will become the longest running sheriff in the history of Coal County. The current record is held by the late F.R. Heck who held the position for 10 years.

As sheriff, Deck feels peace officers are the backbone of a safe society. When he first became sheriff in 2001, Deck was insistent that his deputies move from traffic officers to investigators. He slowly moved them off the highways of Coal County and into the communities.

“I don’t really think I have changed a whole lot about the concept of the law enforcement for the county, with the exception of being more oriented toward working crimes than traffic—working cases, burglaries, deaths, robberies, rather than just traffic, which is more the mission of most sheriff departments, having the deputies be more investigators than traffic officers,” Deck said.

Born and raised in Lawton, Deck said as a youngster he wanted to be a farmer and rancher when he grew up, but as time went on and Lawton grew in population, he was given the opportunity to train as a police cadet.

“I felt like by accepting that job I was maybe bettering myself and doing a service for the community, that I might enjoy making a career out of,” he said.

That was back in the day and now at the age of 56, Deck still enjoys providing that service to his community.

“I have done the best, I feel like, I could possibly do,” he said.

Being in law enforcement for so long, Deck has seen a lot of changes over the years, some good, many not so good.

“The biggest thing I think I have seen in my life is the change in people. We have lost a lot of respect and people have just changed,” he said.

“I am not degrading anyone. I am just saying that we all have changed and we are not the same as we were even 20 or 30 years ago.

“I think the biggest thing I have seen change is people are not as respectful, honorable or dependable as they were several years ago when a man was as good as his word.”

Deck believes these changes have greater consequences than most people realize.