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Health & Fitness

Sheriff Phil Miller - The Absentee Sheriff

The Absentee Sheriff

 

Who is in command?

Douglas County voters may have received a mailer from Sheriff Phil Miller claiming he is the best candidate to make “Command Decisions” and he has trained our deputies to be “among the best in Georgia”.

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Derrick T. Broughton, the Democrat candidate for sheriff said Miller has a history of not being available to make command decisions.

“Sheriff Miller has a history of being an absentee sheriff. When life and death decisions needed to be made he put the burden on his staff”, said Derrick Broughton. “Miller has failed to communicate with his staff much less the public. The public only sees him when he wants their vote.”

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Earlier this year, Phil Miller was in the news when it was revealed several inmates have died under his watch. One case involved a young man who had a serious medical condition. In spite of pleadings from his family, Miller’s staff failed to render medical care that would have saved his life.

Miller has never explained where he was during the 4 days this man was dieing on the floor of the jail cell. The man’s death resulted in two of his staff being indicted on manslaughter charges.

Miller has never explained why his staff allegedly failed to notified Miller of the man’s medical condition or where he was during this time. Miller offered this explanation to the media, “We dropped the ball on this one.... I wish Mr. Graham (the father of the inmate) had gotten in touch with me and I bet he does too. I’d like to think that if he had this may have been different,” Miller said. “My home phone number is even in the book – I encourage people to call me. The family did what they thought they should do to get the information to the right folks and it still didn’t happen.”

It took Miller 12 years to implement a new medical policy and allegedly train his staff how to handle life and death situations. Miller’s policies have cost several lives and taxpayers millions of dollars in lawsuits, legal fees and insurance rates.

As Sheriff of Douglas County, Derrick T. Broughton will immediately seek accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., (CALEA®).

“I believe accreditation is essential to improving the professionalism of the sheriff’s department. It will bring Douglas County up to national standards, instill public confidence, improve moral and provide better policing policy to protect the public, better service delivery and reduce liability”, Broughton stated. “I will train our deputies and staff and not allow them to be scapegoats for failing policies.”

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