White County Sheriff Q11 Candidate Responses

The Main Street Journal – Sparta has been listening to the community. Over the past several weeks, readers have submitted questions they want answered ahead of the 2026 election—and we’ve taken those directly to your White County Sheriff candidates.

Here is your eleventh question, and answers from those candidates who chose to respond.

What do you believe is the biggest public safety challenge facing White County today, and what specific steps would you take to address it?

STEVE PAGE: The biggest public safety issue in White County is the same as every county and that would be combatting the drugs that enter our counties every day. I have assembled a team of Law Enforcement Deputies to combat the drug crisis in White County. We are continuously investigating known drug locations and getting drugs off the streets daily.

DANIEL TRIVETTE: The biggest public safety issue we are fixing to face in our county is dealing with the issues surrounding the growth in our county. Healthy growth is important for the citizens of our county and we are growing daily. With growth come issues that the sheriff office is not currently ready for. Preparation for large scale events change drastically when our population expands and our tourism promotes large scale events in our county. Public safety should be proactive in dealing with these issues, not reactive. We do not wait until an incident occurs at an event to deal with it. We prepare for the “what ifs” and make sure we are ready to truly meet the needs of our county. With growth comes a bigger concern for traffic safety. An increase in population brings in more traffic on our roadways. As I travel across this county, I see first hand the amount of speeders and careless driving habits occurring on our roadways. We must stay on top of these issues by education, enforcement, and exploring and implementing traffic safety tactics. These are only a few issues that need to be addressed quickly as we continue to grow quickly.

My experience provides me with the knowledge on how to use data driven methods to efficiently prepare for and deal with these issues. I know I won’t have all the answers but I know the importance of networking and where to find resources to handle each issue as we move forward in the season of our county’s rapid growth. I have worked for a law enforcement agency in a city that experienced rapid growth. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, I will be ready to address these issues as we move forward.

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