Rickey Tumlin, a longtime veteran of Hall County law enforcement, is running for sheriff against two other candidates.

If elected, Tumlin said he plans to trim the fat at the sheriff's office by cutting management and increasing deputies on the street, he said.

"They've gotten kind of top-heavy with supervision, and some of those people could be put back on road patrol," he said.

On his website, www.tumlinforsheriff.com, he wrote he intends to "provide the maximum amount of protection for the least amount of tax dollars possible."

He also said he wants to cut overtime hours by moving from 12-hour shifts back to eight-hour shifts.

Before his retirement in 2004, Tumlin said he spent 32 years with the Hall County Sheriff's Office. He said he applied while working in security with Wells Fargo in Atlanta.

He was hired as a jailer in 1972 when he was 23 years old, and in 1973, he began training at the Georgia Police Academy in Atlanta.

As a jailer, Tumlin said he spent three years managing 65-80 inmates without jail security personnel. He then went to road patrol, where he worked for 11 years.

In 1984, he enrolled at Brenau University to earn a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and public administration, he said.

When the sheriff's office switched to 12-hour shifts on road patrol, Tumlin moved to a job as a court services officer so he could continue taking classes. He graduated with honors in 1988.

Tumlin spent 18 years as a court services officer serving summonses, complaints, and crisscrossing the country to pick up criminals who had fled Hall County, he said.

"I traveled all over to pick up prisoners," he said.
When he retired, Tumlin said, he had the third-longest career as a deputy in Hall County.

Tumlin said he picked up freelance work as a civil process server. He then ran a business, Civil Process Servers of Northeast Georgia, and has given seminars on
collecting judgments.

He also wrote a book, "FI-FAs, Levies and the Collection of Judgments in Georgia," a layman's guide to the legal side of collecting debts, published in March 2006.

Tumlin said he's been waiting for his opportunity to run for sheriff for a long time.

"I've pretty much wanted to run for sheriff and be sheriff ever since early in my career," he said.

"I've probably been wanting to run for 15 to 18 years."

The other candidates are Jon P. Strickland, formerly of the Gainesville Police Department and Georgia State Patrol, and Col. Jeff Strickland, chief deputy of the sheriff's office.

Sheriff Steve Cronic has announced he will not seek re-election to a fourth four-year term. Cronic's third term ends Dec. 31, 2012.