Local & State Headlines

There’s a new sheriff in town

• Kevin Sproul will replace Jamil Saba as the next Dougherty County Sheriff.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Kevin Sproul, a veteran sheriff’s deputy, will replace his boss and outgoing Sheriff Jamil Saba after narrowly avoiding a runoff and beating Albany Police Department lieutenants James Williams and Benita Child’s Tuesday with 52.3 percent of the vote.

“I feel real good about everything,” Sproul said. “We’ve worked for more than a year on this campaign and I’m glad where we have ended.”

“Now it’s time to put our hands to the plow, so-to- speak,” he said.

Across town, Williams garnered 41.2 percent of the popular vote and coming within 2,000 votes of Sproul.

“We started this campaign and prayed that we would do God’s work and I think we’ve done that,” Williams said.

Benita Childs, who received 1051 votes and 6 percent of the total vote, said that she was disappointed in the outcome, but grateful to the voters who supported her.

“I’m so grateful,” Childs said. “This is obviously not the outcome we had hoped for, but I’m proud of what we’ve done and I will continue to serve this community however I can.”

Childs said that her future at the APD, a place she called a “hostile environment,” is uncertain.

“I will head back to the APD, but I’m not sure how long I can work there...it’s a hostile environment for me,” Childs said.

With more than 75 years of law enforcement experience split among the three, Childs, Sproul and Williams each campaigned on their record as law officers and promised a renewed focus on investigations if elected.

For Sproul, much of his campaign centered around his experience in the department, although he wasn’t shy about distinguishing between himself and Saba, saying early on in the campaign that if elected, he would put his stamp on the office.

Childs touted not only her work as an investigator with the APD, but her leadership experience as a district commander as indicators of her preparedness to tackle the sheriff’s job.

Williams, who ran in 2004 and missed defeating Saba by 11 percent of the vote, pointed to his work both in the office and out in the community as evidence of his qualification for the job.

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