Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck seeks a third term

Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck (D) announced Wednesday (Jan. 22) that he will run for a third term as sheriff. The terms are for two years.

With 30 years in law enforcement, Hollenbeck is a graduate of Northside High School. He began his career with the Dallas Texas Police Department in 1982. Hollenbeck joined the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Department in 1990. He worked patrol, became a detective and then promoted to Captain over the Criminal Investigative Division as well as SWAT.

Hollenbeck is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and has a bachelor’s degree in organizational management. He is a commissioner for the Fort Smith Church League Baseball, volunteer football coach for the Boys and Girls Club, executive board member of the Arkansas Sheriff’s Association, board member of the Arkansas Association of Counties Risk Management, 911 Board member, Fair Board, FOP member, past board member of Camp Hope for Heroes a military veteran support agency. Hollenbeck is married to Dr. Karen Hollenbeck and has five children.

In his re-election statement, Hollenbeck said his tenure has seen an increased “training tempo of the department’s sworn personnel.”

Following are some of the department improvements Hollenbeck listed in his re-election statement.
• The adult Detention deputies have received on average 101 hours of training per deputy in 2013. The online training has increased from the years past of an average of 40 hours per detention deputy. The detention center as a whole has received more than 6,000 hours of training from various topics such as advanced supervision, cell extraction, first aid professional ethics, escorting and transporting prisoners and much more.

• The department implemented a community service program supervised by the Sheriff’s Department. This program has been successful through the coordination and outstanding cooperation with District Court, Circuit Court, Drug Court, Probation and Parole and in house staff. This program identifies nonviolent misdemeanor offenders as well as individual who owe fines. This program places individuals into this alternative sentencing program by performing community service in lieu of jail time. In 2013, these offenders worked 1,842 days of community service projects instead of being incarcerated at the cost to the taxpayers.

• Working with other elected officials and the Quorum Court, the Sheriff’s Department now has updated technology such as computer aided dispatch and automatic vehicle locator on all patrol cars. This allows dispatch operators to immediately identify the closest units to any given 911 emergency call or identify the closest unit if deputies need immediate assistance. The Patrol Division is in the process of replacing old mobile computers with updated and less expensive tablets for all patrol vehicles.

• The department now has on line sex offender tracking system. Offender Watch allows the community to receive email alerts by signing up on the Sebastian County Sheriff’s website to any sex offender that moves near their residence. The community members can also access all registered sex offenders being monitored by the department.