Atlanta, Georgia Local News
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat wants to remain your sheriff
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Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat’s current term ends on New Year’s Eve. Long before the peach drops (not actually, since there isn’t an actual Peach Drop in Atlanta any longer) on a new year, there will be an even more important decision day to observe: election day. The general election for a number of high-ranking positions within Fulton County, the state’s largest and most populated county, will take place on Tuesday, May 21. That includes sheriff, a position Labat ran for and won in 2020.
This time around will be different from the 2020 election when Labat received all of the 427,266 votes. This time there are four other experienced law enforcement officers running against him.
Walking into The Atlanta Voice office on Tuesday morning, Mar. 12, Labat gives off the impression that he’s not worried about having to campaign for office again. Wearing his uniform and flanked by members of his staff and security team, he took a seat at a conference table and answered questions about why he believes he is not only doing a good job but should be re-elected as sheriff.
“We came into office after defeating a three-term incumbent with a spirit of change,” said Labat. “We came in at the height of COVID, 3,700 individuals, 600 of them were sleeping on the floor. So our first goal was to treat people humanely.”
The inmates are no longer sleeping on the floors of the jail due to overcrowding, according to Labat. Having spent ten years of his 35-year law enforcement career as chief of the Atlanta Department of Corrections, Labat understands that in order to effect even more change, including the culture at the jail, there are going to be some rough moments.
“Change is necessary, and people don’t like change,” he said. “In that environment, we focussed on how we treat each other, and our goal was to focus on how we provide service for individuals.”
An example Labat gave where change was implemented upon his arrival was the changing of the department’s mission statement from a long paragraph to just one word: service.
“We cannot provide service for you; we are not doing our jobs,” he says. “So ultimately, we are people first and service first.”
Asked what he offers voters who will be heading to the polls in just a couple of months to decide the next leader of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Labat said, “I offer a continued vision people elected me for in the first place. Let’s fight together, and let’s continue to work together.”
Part of the issues that some voters may have with the current regime inside the sheriff’s department has happened inside the jail. Last year, 901 Rice Street became synonymous with death and destruction following the deaths of a number of inmates within the facility. Though inmate deaths due to violence can’t solely be put at the feet of the sheriff, inmate deaths due to neglect and filthy conditions can, in some cases, be something the sheriff would have to address. Case in point is the death of Lashawn Thompson, whose family was recently awarded a $4M settlement. Thompson was found covered in bed bugs and dead in his cell in September 2022, three months after being booked into the jail. There’s a chance voters remember Thompson’s condition and death and thus the association with the jail and Labat than they do the raises, employment improvements, and inmate-focussed programs that have taken place during Labat’s first three years as sheriff.
There was the creation of an inmate advocacy unit that assists inmates with their paperwork and identifying inmates that might get lost in the system and be spending more time in the jail than necessary, on a legal basis. During Labat’s time, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office created a free app that allows inmate welfare checks for families and friends to keep up with inmates. There has also been an employee welfare check. It’s a wellness program that will allow employees to make appointments with a certified psychiatrist in order to unpack some of the things employees within the jail go through on a daily basis. Labat says people don’t understand the impact the facility has on the employees. The employee welfare check is an attempt to combat that stress.
“We have been very successful over the last three and a half years,” says Labat, who added he and his staff are in the “Embryonic stages of creating something that people can be proud of when they come to work.”
The Fulton County Sheriff has three main responsibilities: protect the courts, run the jail, which has 3,700 inmates, and be the chief law enforcement officer for Fulton County. Labat says potential voters may not have a complete grasp of all of the responsibilities of the job and the “challenges” that he faced when he took office in January 2021. He wants to be as transparent as possible about the job he and his staff are doing heading into his fourth year on the job.
Labat says the Fulton County Jail has “outlived its lifespan” and he is realistic about there not being a new jail built. “Anybody that tells you that we don’t need a new facility is out of their mind,” Labat said.
There is also the issue of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office being understaffed, something that many law enforcement agencies across the country have experienced. Labat believes there’s a realistic answer to the age-old question of how to find good help these days. “We have to be the employer of choice, and that starts with having a Board of Commissioners who understands that we focus on people first,” Labat said.
Asked what he would say to the Fulton County voters if given the opportunity, Labat said he would ask for more time because what he is doing is working. “What I would ask the voters is, let’s fight together, let’s continue to finish. We’re just getting started.”
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