Christian County Sheriff candidates discuss public safety at debate forum

Christian County’s highest law enforcement position is up for grabs this election season, and the candidates competing to be the next sheriff shared their plans for keeping the community safe at Thursday’s Hopkinsville League of Women Voters forum.

Incumbent Tyler DeArmond is running for a second term, and he is challenged by Hopkinsville Police Department Deputy Chief Erik Pacheco. DeArmond has served as sheriff since 2019 and has around 21 years of law enforcement experience under his belt. Pacheco has served in law enforcement for around 36 years and also served in the military.

At the forum, the pair answered questions concerning public safety challenges, how to expand the department and their plans for their first 100 days in office.

Pacheco says juvenile gun crimes are the top public safety challenge impacting the county. To address youth-related gun crimes, Pacheco says they need to build positive relationships with community members and provide gun safety education to children and their guardians.

On the other hand, DeArmond says one of his top public safety concerns is theft incidents connected to drug crimes. To address drug-related crimes, DeArmond helped launch and expand the department’s narcotics unit, which focuses on drug trafficking crimes.

Both candidates support hiring more deputies, and Pacheco says he would like to resolve what he believes are retention and recruitment issues to lower turnover. During his time at the police department, he says they have experienced retention issues, but by changing the department’s culture, workforce stability increased.

Pacheco states that 18 deputies have reportedly left the department within the last two years, but DeArmond rebutted that claim, stating that eight of those deputies became school resource officers, and some of the departures were terminations related to internal issues.

During his first 100 days in office, DeArmond says he wants to work toward increasing deputy pay rates and expanding their manpower to lower response times.

DeArmond and Pacheco will face off in the primary election on May 19; the pair are running as Republicans. The full forum is available on Facebook at League of Women Voters – Hopkinsville, KY.