If there was anyone with negative feelings about the Hall County Sheriff's Office Monday night, they chose not to voice those feelings.

The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies held a public comment session Monday at the Hall County Courthouse to find out what local residents thought about the sheriff's department. The commission is currently reviewing the Hall County Sheriff's Office in its three-year re-accreditation and the comment session was a part of the assessment of the office's ability to meet CALEA's accreditation standards.

All of the nearly 25 people who spoke at the session praised the work, the kindness and the enthusiasm of Hall County Sheriff Steve Cronic and the Hall County sheriff's deputies.
Most of those who spoke for the sheriff's department Monday work in some branch of the local government, but there were a few, like Ruby Brawner, who did not.

Brawner said that the time allotted for each person to speak, five minutes, was not enough time for her to say everything she wanted to say about Cronic. Ten minutes, she said, would not be enough, either.

"You know it's in the Bible, that a tree is known by its fruit," Brawner said. "So Sheriff Cronic is the tree, and his fruit is his deputies. He has some nice officers; everywhere you go they are kind."

Brawner, who said she had lived at her Black Drive residence for 50 years, said her neighborhood was once plagued with a drug problem.

"On the weekends, we might as well forget about sleeping on the weekends," Brawner said.

"Cars would come down that road with their jukeboxes shaking our windows and shaking our doors."

But after Brawner notified Cronic about the problem, the Hall County Sheriff's deputies took care of it, she said.

"We can go to bed on the weekend now, and we can sleep, have a good night's sleep," Brawner said.

Brawner also had the sheriff take care of a similar problem near her brother's home. Brawner's brother was surprised with the speed in which the sheriff's deputies dealt with the two problems after Brawner
reported them.

"He said 'Ruby, since you get things accomplished so well, you ought to run for some kind of office,'" Brawner said of her brother's reaction.

"I said 'long as Sheriff Cronic in the office, I don't need to run for nobody,'" Brawner said. "'All I do is go to Sheriff Cronic ... he'll take care of that for me.'"

Brawner said she was so thankful for the work of the Hall County Sheriff's Office that she wished she could do something for them.

"I can't go in this drug house and help them out," Brawner said. "But one thing I do for them, I gets down on my knees and I pray for them everyday."