Williamson County Sheriff Candidate Jeff Hughes Addresses Opposition to Permitless Carry Bill in 2022

Williamson County Sheriff candidate Jeff Hughes

Former chief of Brentwood Police Jeff Hughes, who is running for Williamson County Sheriff, addressed controversy surrounding his stance in 2022 against a bill in the Tennessee General Assembly allowing for the permitless carry of firearms.

Hughes said his stance against the bill was coming from a matter of “public safety and officer safety,” specifically regarding the bill’s lack of training requirement for gun owners.

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Williamson County Will Comply with Mass Deportation Order Under Potential Trump Presidency, Interim Sheriff Mark Elrod Says

Illegal Immigrants

Mark Elrod, who is currently serving as interim sheriff of Williamson County amid former Sheriff Dusty Rhoades’ retirement, said his department would assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in carrying out deportations of illegal immigrants under a potential Trump presidency beginning in 2025.

If elected, former President Donald Trump has said he would immediately mobilize ICE to deport illegal immigrants as part of his goal to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in the nation’s history.

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Williamson County Interim Sheriff Mark Elrod Says Narcotics, Fentanyl ‘Biggest Issue’ in County

Mark Elrod, who is currently serving as interim sheriff of Williamson County amid former Sheriff Dusty Rhoades’ retirement, said the biggest issues affecting the county in regards to crime are drugs and fentanyl.

“I would say that probably one of our biggest issues is drugs, narcotics, fentanyl. We’ve had an uptick in that as well as heroin over the last several years. With Williamson County, we’re a transient community where a lot of the drugs and other crimes come in from other areas into Williamson County. It’s not so much your next door neighbor or the people down the street, although there is some of that, but most of it is coming from other places…Davidson County, out of Nashville, out of the city of Columbia. We have four interstates that come through the county, so it could be, you know, really coming from anywhere, everywhere,” Elrod said on Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.

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Authorities Urge Parents to Contact Them if Their Child Played for Alleged Child Rapist Coach

Camilo Hurtado Campos, playground

Authorities in Tennessee do not know exactly which soccer teams or clubs alleged child rapist Camilo Hurtado Campos, but are urging parents to contact them if they believe their child may have had contact with the disgraced coach.

“I don’t know and quite honestly, we’re trying not to be disarming to parents if they don’t hear a club named that their kids were affiliated with,” Franklin Police Public Information Officer Lt. Charles Warner told The Tennessee Star when asked whether authorities had identified which team or teams Campos coached. “We’re urging parents whose kids had contact with Campos, regardless of any program or location to contact us.”

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Williamson County Man Arrested on Child Exploitation Charges

A man has been arrested in Williamson County on child exploitation charges.

The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) reported on its Facebook page that its Internet Crime Against Children Task Force (ICAC) recently completed an investigation that resulted in the arrest of Williamson County resident Phillip Anderson, 50.  Anderson is charged with four counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and three charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.

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Gov.-Elect Bill Lee Appoints Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Long as Commissioner of Department of Safety and Homeland Security

Gov.-elect Bill Lee has named Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Long as commissioner of the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The Tennessee Journal’s On the Hill reported the appointment Monday. The department oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Office of Homeland Security and drivers’ license centers, among other functions. Long, the Tennessee Sheriff Association’s sheriff of the year of 2013, will take over the post from David Purkey, who was named safety commissioner in 2016. Purkey, a former state trooper and mayor of Hamblen County, had served as assistant commissioner since 2011. Long succeeded former Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley, who resigned in 2008 as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in Davidson and Williamson counties over fraudulently obtaining prescription pain pills, the Journal reported. Long previously said he first met and was impressed by Lt. Gov./Senate Speaker Rand McNally (R-TN-05) during Operation Rocky Top, a law enforcement sting of political corruption in the late 1980s when McNally helped prosecutors. Long is a graduate of the University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science, according to his biography on the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office website. He received a Doctorate of Jurisprudence Degree from Nashville School of…

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Report: Illegal Aliens Were On Their Way to Several Tennessee Destinations

arrests

An SUV was apparently transporting illegal aliens to Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Cookeville, Knoxville and even Atlanta, Georgia when Williamson County sheriff’s deputies pulled it over on I-840 eastbound last week. Eleven people were inside. And, yes, arrests were made. Deputies noticed the SUV had crossed the center line several times. They did a traffic stop. “The driver told us they were headed to several different places, so we’re not sure what is correct — if it was lying or the truth,” said Williamson County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Sharon Puckett. “They mentioned several different cities in Tennessee. They said they would drop off some of these men in East Tennessee and then continue on up north and drop off the remaining men before going back to Phoenix, Arizona,” the spokeswoman said. According to WKRN, the SUV was a Hyundai Santa Fe. The driver, Ivan Santana Sanchez, had a drug pipe on him, according to the station. The station reported that two people were up front. Five people were in the back seat. Four more illegal aliens, meanwhile, were laying on top of each other in the rear. Sheriff Jeff Long told reporter Andy Cordan that Sanchez and Mary Louis Perez, 60, smuggled the illegals from…

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