In his recent half-page campaign ad, Darren Weekly blames Democrats for the increased crime rates in Douglas County. Weekly also offers his plan for more patrol boots on the street by realigning resources.

Douglas County is politically a red county. We have GOP county commissioners and a GOP sheriff. Weekly has been employed by DCSO for many years.

So, those facts raise two straightforward questions.

Firstly, the GOP has been in charge of local DougCo law enforcement and county government, for a long time. Law enforcement against crime is a local jurisdiction responsibility. If party politics is the answer, what's keeping the current set of elected officials from fixing the crime problem?

Secondly, given his long tenure in the department, why hasn't Darren Weekly used his formal influence to make the changes he now suggests, particularly putting more boots on the ground? After all, he's had more than 20 years at DCSO.

Truth be told, effective local law enforcement is not determined by party politics. We either have technically competent leadership in DCSO, or we don't. We either have a healthy and accountable leadership culture, or we don't.

Crime is up in DougCo. It's time to shake things up at DCSO. It's about the man, not about his party.

Lloyd Guthrie

Roxborough