Campaign announcement
I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself, my beautiful family and tell everyone what has driven me to run for the position of Winn Parish Sheriff. My name is Dylan Womack. I grew up in Sikes and attended Dodson High School. My interest in law enforcement started with my job at the Winn Correctional Center where I worked for two years before taking a position at the Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office in 2014. I attended the North Louisiana Criminal Justice Academy, graduating in 2016. I then went on to become a certified K9 handler at the Tarheel K9 School in Sanford, North Carolina. I worked at the WPSO until 2023, when I left to pursue the position of Sheriff. I married Starr Womack in 2021, and we welcomed our baby boy, Walter Womack, in 2022. I chose to run for sheriff for many reasons, but I will highlight the most important below.
First, I would like to address a problem at the sheriff’s office that must be remedied to achieve the other goals I have set for the Sheriff’s Department. That first goal, is increasing patrol. While understanding the management of money is essential to running the sheriff’s office, we must also address employee management. If we are operating with an abundance of funds but can only run a skeleton crew on the road, we can not claim to be successful. If we are going to be serious about lowering our crime rate in Winn Parish we have to increase the number of deputies on patrol. In Winn Parish, there are nights with only one deputy on patrol. If the patrolling deputy is on one side of the parish, they cannot effectively and efficiently respond to a call on the other end of the parish. Not only is this unsafe for the deputy on patrol, it in unfair to the taxpayers. My goal if elected, is to have 16 full time patrol deputies. Go to 12-hour shifts and have 4 deputies on shift. That will dramatically lower our response time. Lowering response time will help with lowering the crime rates in Winn Parish.
Next, we must address how to recruit new officers and retain them. The first step in that direction is to look at is our turnover rate and try to understand how to keep our younger deputies from leaving. Having been employed by WPSO and being present at shift meetings, I have first-hand knowledge of the issues that kill morale. Eighty percent of it is easy fixes that can be made in administration.
Last but not least, we must start recruiting and sparking interest in the job with the younger generation. I believe to do that, we have to begin increasing our presence in the community and increase it positively. Increasing our presence in our schools, trying to build better relationships with our youth and educating them on what we do as police officers is the only way this will be achieved. I have many ideas on how to do this if I am elected.
My young age has been presented as a negative to my campaign, yet Thomas Jefferson was just 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Craig Webre in Lafourche parish was 29 when he was elected sheriff and after 30 plus years, is still the Sheriff today. Pucket Willis from Sikes was in his early 20s when he was elected as a state representative. Like these men, I will use my youth to make a positive difference in our community. As a leader, you can’t just throw your hands up and tell everyone what’s wrong with this world without a plan to fix it. If elected, I will start right away helping our parish solve the problems at hand. Thank you, and I ask you to vote for # 48 Dylan Womack on October 14th.
