Altiere to face election opposition
Thomas Altiere
Jim Phillips
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Jim Phillips, 60, a retired 36-year employee of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, announced Monday he plans to challenge Sheriff Tom Altiere next year for the Democratic nomination for sheriff.
Phillips, who served as chief of detectives for 15 years, retired from the department in June 2009 and has worked as a detective for Hartford Township since then.
Altiere, who has been sheriff 19 years, said he plans to run for re-election next year. His current term expires at the end of 2012.
“I’m trying to return the sheriff’s office back into a professional unit,” Phillips said Monday at a press conference in Courthouse Square. “I believe the professionalism of the sheriff’s office in the past few years has lessened, mainly because of morale over leadership, lack of training.”
Phillips said he’s been told that on more than one occasion recently, Trumbull County deputies have contacted victims of crime over the phone to write an initial report rather than take information in person. One of the instances was for a burglary, Phillips said.
Altiere said deputies sometimes make such a call for minor situations sicj as a damaged mailbox, but he doesn’t believe deputies ever handle a burglary that way.
“You can’t blame Sheriff Altiere for everything, but I blame the appointments he’s made,” Phillips said of Altiere’s top assistants. Phillips declined to name anyone.
As for the number of sheriff employees who have been fired and convicted on criminal charges in recent years, Phillips said Altiere has been “reactionary” in dealing with misbehavior after it happens. Better than that would be to more fully investigate potential employees before they are hired, including physical testing, and to provide better supervision to prevent bad behavior.
“Good supervision stops a problem before it escalates,” Phillips said. “Right now the response is reactive.”
Among the most recent incidents involving sheriff’s employees are three corrections officers charged criminally last year for eavesdropping on supervisors by using an intercom system.
Two of the three have been convicted in common pleas court on misdemeanor charges. The third awaits trial.
Altiere said it’s untrue that morale within the department is bad or that the department fails to properly screen employees prior to hiring.
Altiere said guarding inmates for eight hours a day is a difficult job, “like babysitting sometimes,” and can cause people to act inappropriately, but there’s little that management can do to stop such misbehavior.