Meet the Candidates: Bill Meyerrose

Noelle Maxwell

Bill Meyerrose (R) is running unopposed for Decatur County Sherriff. Meyerrose took office in 2022. The Independent met with Meyerrose recently to interview him for our meet the candidates series.

Decatur Independent: What do you consider to be your top three to five accomplishments since taking office?

Meyerrose: “Number one is the crisis intervention team. The partnership with the Decatur County Community Foundation, getting that five million dollar endowment from Lilly – which we got a large portion of – that has really expedited our crisis intervention team. They’re doing a tremendous job. Mike Eggleston is coordinating that, he was starting it before the Foundation got that grant, so we were crawling and we get that foundation money and now we’re able to run with it. We’ve got a full-time licensed clinical social worker back in the jail, that’s a big deal. Having that and then having our two field officers with CIT going out and interacting with people who have mental health issues rather than criminal issues – we’re getting them resources and finding them help, because, in the past we always just brought them to jail because that was the only resource we had. So, now we have more resources.  We changed our food service provider back in the jail. We saved $40,000 a year from what we were paying, to me, that’s a big accomplishment. We entered into an agreement with Enterprise to purchase our vehicles, again, a money-saving operations. Commissioners and the council were both on board with that.”

Meyerrose: “Probably number two on the list after CIT is we purchased body cams and dash cams. Again, the council worked with us, got us the money to get that purchase. We didn’t have those prior to me coming in and those have saved us who knows how much dollars in lawsuits because we’re able to play body cam video now and show that the way we reacted was proper.”

Decatur Independent: While this is an uncontested race, why should people vote for you?

Meyerrose: “I think we've set a good pattern in this first four years. Our arrests are up. Again, we've developed the CIT, a tremendous asset.  Some of the programs that we've developed and put into place are beneficial to the county. And again, I go back to the dash cams and body cams. That's one big issue.”

Decatur Independent: What do you want to accomplish with your second term?

Meyerrose: “Second term, now that we've got our basic foundation set, is we need to spend the next four years developing leadership around here developing the next group of leaders for the sheriff's department. Because again, in four years, I'm retired, I'm gone.  Not that I'm the savior here by any means. But before I leave, I want to have the next set of leaders in place so it's a flawless transition when I leave here.”

Decatur Independent: What do you consider to be the top three to five issues facing Decatur County?

Meyerrose: “Still meth. Methamphetamine is still a big issue, the drug use, the meth and the fentanyl and of course that ties in with burglaries and thefts because we’ve got to fund our drug habits. Then, number three, probably the mental health issues.”

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