Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 4, 2011
Sheriff tempers justice with mercy as top law official
David Laprad
Sheriff Jim Hammond spends a lot of time dealing with the political components of being the top law enforcement official in Hamilton County, but says he never loses sight of the importance of dealing with individuals in a way that can bring about positive changes in their lives.
- David Laprad
Jim Hammond doesn’t bear much resemblance to the iconic image of the sheriff propagated in movies and literature. He doesn’t wear a cowboy hat, a leather vest, or boots caked with dust. He never hangs killers at sunrise, shoots bad guys at high noon, or patrols for cattle thieves. No one has written a song confessing to shooting him, either.
Instead, Hammond wears a suit, spends time in meetings, and wrestles with his budget.
Despite the modern trappings of his position, Hammond does have one thing in common with the sheriffs of the Old West: he’s the top lawman in town.
“I’m mandated under the state constitution with certain duties. I’m the keeper of the jail, the server of the process, a provider for the courts and a protector of the people. All pre-trial and post-conviction prisoners fall under my authority; the officers you see in our courts are under my jurisdiction; and the cars you see on the roads are there as protectors of the people,” he says.
Hammond oversees about 425 employees in 18 divisions, including mounted patrol, narcotics, SWAT, CID Intelligence and more. He’s also the senior officer over nine police districts. Together, this cadre of law enforcement deals with juvenile deliquency, gang violence, the drug problem, and lesser known but growing categories of crime, such as abuse of the elderly.
While Hammond calls the drug problem “the number one scourge of our times,” he considers juvenile deliquency the most important issue with which his department deals.
“I’ve seen what can happen when you get at-risk kids at a young age but don’t address their problems. By the time they’re 18, they’re in jail and almost unredeemable. We don’t tackle the problem soon enough or interact with our at-risk kids in way that makes a difference. We could change that, but it would take time and money,” he says.
While Hammond could use more time and money, he has enough passion for justice to fuel his efforts. But to him, justice involves more than catching criminals and locking them up in the county jail. He says as a Christian, he must temper justice with mercy.
“I have to follow what I consider to be the precepts of the Word of God, which tells me to treat all people, including bad people, with respect. I don’t like what they do, but they’re a creation of God, and I must treat them accordingly,” he says.
To Hammond, mercy is not about going soft on someone who deserves punishment, but treating them as human beings even as he deals with them for breaking the law. For example, during his off time, he teaches a fathering class at the county jail in an effort to counsel men who have taken the wrong path.
“I don’t go in as Sheriff Jim Hammond; I go in as Jim Hammond, the father, the husband, the man who’d be sitting where they are if I’d made different choices. Most of those men will leave jail at some point, and they need to know they can make different choices, too,” he says.
To Hammond, being merciful does not require him to mince words when he believes something needs to be said. On the contrary, the sheriff is known for sharing his thoughts, even when they don’t line up with what others are thinking. This becomes apparent as he discusses the trend in some northern states to appoint rather than elect sheriffs.
“A lot of people think the head of law enforcement should be kept out of the political process, but that’s a terrible idea. The sheriff should be elected and serve at the will of the people. It would be too easy for a mayor to control the sheriff like a puppet,” he says.
Hammond is working hard to make sure the next election for sheriff turns out as well for him as the one last August, when he took 84 percent of the vote – the most of any elected official on the ballot.
Hammond’s history with law enforcement in Hamilton County goes back to his days as a student at Tennessee Temple University in the early ‘60s. Although he’d planned on studying to become a history teacher, he fell in love with psychology while taking an elective and changed direction. To pay for school, Hammond worked nights in juvenile detention, where he could see firsthand what happens when a young person is moved through the system without someone steering him onto a better path.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Hammond began working toward a master’s degree in the same field at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. However, he changed course again when he took a criminal justice elective and, once more, fell in love. While earning a bachelor’s and then a master’s in criminal justice, he served as a parole officer for the juvenile court.
Hammond completed his third degree toward the end of the Vietnam War. He knew his number would come up as soon as he had his diploma in hand, so he joined the Navy in an effort to remain in control of his destiny. Hammond served six years in the Navy, including two on Submarine Flotilla Six in Charleston, S.C.
Upon completing his time with the Navy, Hammond resumed his duties in juvenile court. Then, in 1978, the sheriff promoted him to chief deputy. He remained with the office until 1992, when he ran for sheriff and lost by 800 votes. When his opponent cut him loose, he accepted an offer to teach criminal justice at UTC. While there, Hammond read an article about the Justice Department’s search for cops with an academic background to train police in foreign countries.
Hammond made contact and got the job. His first assignment: a year in Port-au-Prince training Haitian police. The experience whetted his appetite for the work, so Hammond spent 13 more years training police in 20 different countries. His longest stint was three years in Jordan, on the border of Iraq.
“We trained over 45,000 Iraqis. On any given day, we had at least 3,000 cadets,” he says.
Then came the day he and his wife, Jeannie, woke up thinking in Arabic.
“We realized it was time to go home. My children were already grown, but our grandchildren were growing up, so we decided to transition back here so we could spend more time with them,” he says.
Right about that time, the previous sheriff “messed up and had to go to jail,” Hammond says, opening the door for him to run in a special election. Unlike the previous vote, his name came out on top.
Between eight grandchildren clamoring for his attention and his responsibilities at work, Hammond has no trouble filling any given day. But he still takes time to read, contribute to his community and stay active at Woodland Park Baptist Church.
“I keep four to five books going at the same time. Sometimes, I want to read something heavy; sometimes, I want to read something light,” he says.
Hammond especially enjoys biographies. He says he appreciates the historical details and, when it’s evident, the honesty.
To help others understand his motivations in life, he’s willing to share the knotty details of his own past, including the death of his adult daughter.
“I have three children, one of whom is deceased. She died at 32 of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. She got hooked when she had a serious operation and she never got off of them. She could have stopped, but she didn’t, no matter how much intervention she received,” he says.
The death of Hammond’s daughter, combined with his Christian values, casts a revealing light on his belief in the virtues of mercy. From his forthcoming effort to join forces with area businesses partner to improve the technology and training available to local law enforcement, to his volunteer work with the Fellowship of Christian Police Officers, to the paternal lectures he gives incoming police officers, mercy underlines everything he does.
Hamilton County is seeing results under Hammond’s watchful eye. For instance, when he took office, there were less than 20 neighborhood watches, most of which he says were ineffective. Today, the county can claim more than 100 neighborhood watches, with more being added monthly. In addition, Hammond has hired a full-time coordinator for the program. The sheriff says crimes have been solved as a result.
Putting criminals behind bars is one of the components of a good day as sheriff. But Hammond says he’s never had a bad day on the job.
“Most men live lives of quiet desperation, which means they hate their job, but they have to make a living. Police work is a man’s man, action-packed job. I love it. And at the end of most days, I feel like something has happened that’s made a difference in this community.”
As a parting thought, Hammond quotes Micah 6:8, which says, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Perhaps a new iconic sheriff will emerge someday, one based not on classic Western movies and pulp fiction, but on these words, which the top officer of the law in Hamilton County speaks, and walks, with absolute conviction.
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