Former Deputy Maurice
Morris is running an effective, albeit under-the-radar
campaign in the race for Lucas County Sheriff. The 13-year
veteran of the Sheriff’s Department deserves a closer look,
though, as the most competitive local primary battle of 2020
unfolds.
I caught up with Morris, a
Public Safety Officer for the Toledo Public Library, to
discuss his determined battle to break through a crowded
field of prominent candidates.
Perryman: Please tell me
about your experience.
Morris: I started off in
corrections in 1994 and worked my way up where I did a lot
of volunteer work in the community. I was a court-appointed
special advocate before I started the sheriff’s office, but
as a part of the sheriff’s office I worked with a lot of
inner city schools, Cherry Elementary, Lincoln Academy for
Boys, before they closed and also Stewart Elementary when it
was co-ed, so I did a lot of volunteer work with the
inner-city youth. With the Sheriff’s Department I did
fugitive extradition, was a part of the fire team, and also
the honor guard.
Perryman: Why are you
running for sheriff and what is your plan?
Morris: I want to make a
difference in the sheriff’s office and I want to make a
difference in Lucas County. How do I do that? The first
thing I need to do within the jail is to address the morale
issue. The second thing I need to address is leveling the
playing field, giving everybody equal opportunity for
advancement in the sheriff’s office. There are officers
that wear the uniform and the badge, they come to the table
with a lot of experience, knowledge and education and some
of them are right in the jail and we need to pick those
people and put them in key positions to help move this
county forward.
My second goal is to
inspire people who may have given up hope on themselves
because I was battered and bruised, but never broken because
of my departure from the sheriff’s office. So, this
campaign is about inspiring those not to give up on
themselves, but also to make a difference.
Perryman: How you would get
the jail’s publicized budget problems under control?
Morris: The first thing I would
do is go line-by-line to find out where the money is going
and how the money is being spent, take a concrete look at it
to see what can be reduced, and what can be cut back. I
know one thing, one of the biggest issues is the overtime.
Why do we have so much overtime? Is it that we don’t have
enough personnel because staff are retiring and we’re not
replacing them? So, the first thing we have to look at
line-by-line is how the money is being spent and why we have
so much overtime.
Perryman: The jail also
appears to have a problem with reoccurring lawsuits.
Morris: I think a lot goes back
to the culture in the sheriff’s office and that culture has
to change. And, there’s a certain way that we have to treat
each individual officer and also the inmates because when
they come in as an arrestee they are still human, they still
have to be treated in a certain way. They cannot be
manhandled, they cannot be abused and taken advantage of.
The same thing with the officers within the jail, we have to
treat them with decency and respect, so we have to find out
why this culture is in the sheriff’s office and my goal is
to change that culture, that culture has to leave.
Perryman: What are your
thoughts on building a new jail?
Morris: Our jail is
overcrowded; it’s outdated and this issue needs to be
addressed and addressed right away. The citizens of Lucas
County have already spoken, they want the jail to remain
downtown, so that means I need to get with the County
Commissioners and have a real discussion about what’s the
hold up, what’s keeping this project from moving forward,
how can we initiate this, get it in process and find a place
to build the new jail? Because, we need to have enough
space for the inmates and we have to have enough space for
the officers to work safely within the jail.
Perryman: Why are you the
best person for the job of Sheriff?
Morris: I worked in the jail
for a number of years, I saw some things that were going on,
I was involved in some things that were going on that I
believed was unfair and unjust. So, I’ve been on both sides
of the sheriff’s department and how things are not run
properly and the morale was low and nobody wanted to address
those issues. I’ve said this for a while, we may work in
the jail, but we’re not in jail and that’s how the
administrated made us feel, that we were in jail with those
that were in jail. No voice, we couldn’t come to the table
to talk about some of the issues that plague corrections and
how we can effectively and efficiently do our jobs. My goal
is to remove that, boost morale, give the officers on the
road, in the court systems, in the jail, what they need to
make their jobs easier and safer.
Perryman: You talked
earlier about what you described as your “painful departure”
from the sheriff’s department. Please elaborate.
Morris: At the time I was a
minister at St. James and also a police officer and head of
security there. There was a 21-year-old man having an
improper relationship with a minor young lady in the church
that I mentored. We knew of the situation because the mom
told us about it, I passed on the information to the
sheriff’s department and we went out to arrest him at a
church and in doing the arrest I was assaulted. Somehow the
story changed from me being assaulted to me assaulting him
and that charge stuck. And I went to court and subsequently
I was found guilty of something that I never did, it never
happened. To back up my story, I took an independent
polygraph test and I passed, so my painful departure was
having to leave a career that I have two undergraduate
degrees in, a career that I loved and I was following in the
footsteps of two of my uncles who were former law
enforcement officers.
Perryman: Are you a Toledo
native?
Morris: I am originally from
Charleston, South Carolina and began my career in law
enforcement as a police cadet in Charleston County Police.
I aspired to be like my two uncles who served with the City
Police and the other with Charleston County Police.
Perryman: Did you bring
your love for Charleston’s great cuisine with you to Toledo?
Morris: Yes, I did!
Perryman: What do you like?
Morris: Okra gumbo, which I
have my grandmother’s recipe. Of course, fish and grits,
low country slow-cooked collard greens, southern buttermilk
fried chicken, the creamy macaroni and cheese, the crab boil
we did on a regular basis. As a little boy, well not too
little, I would go out and catch my own crabs and I would
sell them on the corner with everybody else, that’s how I
made my extra money. So, seafood was huge in my home and my
grandmother was an excellent cook. So, yes, I did bring
that, her pound cake recipe and then also the sweet potato
pie recipe.
Perryman: Good luck with
your candidacy.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org |