MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A veteran of the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department who also served as the Westover Deputy Police Chief continues to reach out to voters as part of his campaign for Monongalia County Sheriff.
Democrat nominee Todd Forbes is on the campaign trail, where he has made his pitch as an over 30-year veteran of law enforcement to voters ahead of the start of early voting for the 2024 general election. Forbes, who is a lifelong Monongalia County resident who has served in just about every capacity of law enforcement during his career, feels his experience starting as a correctional officer and working up to a lieutenant at the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department has properly prepared him to serve his community as county sheriff.
“I realized that I’ve been learning how to be the sheriff for the past 30 years, taking little bits and pieces from all the sheriffs that I was fortunate to work under,” said Forbes. “It just seemed to be the next natural step in my career,” he said.
One of Forbes’ biggest priorities if he’s elected to be the next Monongalia County Sheriff is to address the number of school resource officers in county schools. This stems from his time with the Westover Police Department, where he served as Deputy Chief for two years and as a resource officer for Westwood Middle School. To address an apparent lack of the number of resource officers on hand for the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department, Forbes stated that he hopes to continue conversations with the Monongalia County Board of Education and explore funding options on a state and federal level to have more officers at schools keeping students safe.
“It would be really easy to assign three or four guys to the school and not worry about it, but you have to have a way to fund the positions or replace what you’ll be taking off of the road,” said Forbes. “The funding is certainly a lot more difficult to come by, but I think we have a few ideas where the funding is going to be made available,” he said.
Forbes also mentioned that he hopes to continue efforts to prevent drug trafficking from growing in Monongalia County if he’s elected sheriff. Using his 16 years of experience on the Mon Valley/Mon Metro Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, the law enforcement veteran plans to continue to support efforts that address drug abuse and distribution in every aspect of the business. While arrests related to out-of-state drugs entering Monongalia County continue, Forbes wants voters to know he plans to support further the efforts made by local law enforcement to prevent narcotics from free-flowing in the county.
“It needs to be addressed at the bottom,” said Forbes on WAJR’s Talk of the Town. “I know the tactics that are being used, and it’s a double-edged sword because we can’t just put all of our addicts in jail, but that’s certainly one of the things (maintaining enforcement of all aspects of the drug trade) that needs to continue, certainly,” he said.
In the 2024 general election, Forbes faces Republican candidate and fellow veteran Monongalia County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Morgan. While Forbes is running in a super Republican majority state, he’s also running under the same party that longtime County Sheriff Perry Palmer has previously run for over half a decade. Despite the support in one of the last remaining Democrat strongholds in the Mountain State, Forbes wants voters to view him as someone ready to serve his community and show the best sides of law enforcement.
“If experience, integrity, and character matter to you, I’m the choice for sheriff,” Forbes said. “I hope you keep that in mind when you go to the polls, whether that’d be for early voting or on November 5th,” he said.
Early voting for the 2024 general election begins on October 23. Election day is November 5.
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