Aaron Pitts converses with people nearly all day whenever he’s on the job.

As chief of the Hennessey Police Department, he deals with other officers, other town staff members and then the general public who, for whatever reason they’re dealing with the police, aren’t necessarily happy to be doing so.

“So when I’m not at work, I usually just want to be alone,” Pitts said. “I keep to myself for the most part.”

His decision to run for Kingfisher County sheriff threw that out the window.

“The campaign was a rude awakening for me,” he said in a recent visit with the Kingfisher Lions Club.

Pitts won the election Aug. 27 when he defeated Jonathan Riedlinger by just 27 votes.

“I was really proud of how our community got out and really supported either Jonathan or me,” Pitts said. “I didn’t expect there to be 2,200 people to vote in that election.”

He certainly encouraged them to do so. “I made it a big deal to get out and talk to people,” he said. “I talked to a lot of people. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.”

Pitts was a distant second behind Riedlinger in the June 18 primary, which eliminated two of the four candidates ahead of the runoff.

Riedlinger earned 1,321 votes and Pitts 770. “I didn’t enjoy it very much, the first part of the election,” he said about the leadoff to the primary vote. “There was some stuff going on that, to be completely honest, I completely disagreed with.”

There were several online campaigns to discredit the current Sheriff Dennis Banther and some members of his department, including Riedlinger, who is the undersheriff.

In the primary runoff, Pitts garnered 1,157 to Riedlinger’s 1,130.

Pitts noted that he didn’t win a single precinct south of the Cimarron River, but he did make up ground in most of them while carrying the three precincts north of it by a large margin.

Why run?

Pitts took several questions from the Lions Club members and among them was his reasons for running.

“The biggest thing is, I knew there was going to be change,” Pitts said, noting Banther announcing his intention to retire at the end of the year and not run for re-election.

“If we’re going to have a change, let’s have a change - a fresh face. I wanted to be part of that change.”

So Pitts threw his name in the hat along with Riedlinger, Jeremiah Loper and Forrest Smith.

“Without trying to sound cocky, I felt I could be a good change for the sheriff’s department,” he said.

The transition

Pitts will take office in January and expects to work with Banther in the meantime.

“Dennis and I have always gotten along. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a seamless transition,” he said. “I there. My plan is to sit down and talk with every single one of them.”

would like the opportunity to sit down and talk with him, see how things have been done. There is a certain way a place is run and I’m not going to know until I’ve worked there.

“Just like he wouldn’t have any idea how the Hennessey Police Department is run because he hasn’t worked there.”

Staff

The department has its staff under Banther. They aren’t guaranteed jobs under Pitts, but, said the sheriff- elect, that doesn’t mean they won’t have one, either.

“I’m going to give people a fair shake,” he said. “I’m not just going to walk in and fire everybody because that’s what some people want.”

Pitts said he’d be doing a disservice to the current staff and the county as a whole “if I didn’t at least give them a chance.”

“It wouldn’t be fair for me to just walk in and fire people,” he said. “There are good people who work

Staffing

Pitts said he’s still studying the budget to see what he can and cannot do within that budget.

However, he knows what he’d like to see happen under his tenure.

“I think an ideal number of deputies would be 20,” he said. “This county is a lot larger than people think. I’m still a firm believer I need four deputies on each shift so I can spread them throughout the county.”

And then, he said, it’s important those deputies see to the whole county.

“I want to place those deputies where they need to be placed, making sure they’re staying within the confines of that area to be able to respond in a good amount of time,” Pitts said.

Working with county PDs

Pitts said the ability to work with departments in the different communities will benefit both sides.

“I think it’s very important for all the heads of every department in the county to be on the same page,” he said. “I will get with all those guys, try to make sure we’re working together and in the same direction.”

He said he wants his department to share information that may help a local investigation.

“Or we at the sheriff’s department may need help from them,” he said. “Nobody is going to know their area better than them, so we need to be able to work together.”

County jail

One of the biggest tasks - and sometimes headaches - for the sheriff is to run the county jail.

Some county jail operations do fall under the sheriff while others - like Oklahoma County - are run by a jail trust. Pitts told Lions “there have been talks” of the latter being an option here.

“My personal opinion? If that should happen, it’s probably the best way to go,” Pitts said.

He did add that if a trust runs the jail, he would like to see someone from every community in the county on the trust.

“That way every community has a role,” he said.

In office

In putting his staff together - whatever that looks like once he makes his personnel decisions - Pitts said he wants to surround himself with the best possible officers.

“I’m going to try to put as much experience as I possibly can around me, “he said. “That’s very important to me.”