Sheriff reflects on 2025, previews second-year plans

And keeping local roadways safe is a massive job. Adding up all the county, private, city, school, state and federal roads, the Sheriff’s Office is responsible for patrolling 1,292 miles in Union County, with the Patrol Division amassing upwards of 500,000 miles a year, according to Dyer.

On traffic enforcement, UCSO conducted 3,891 stops last year, issuing 1,710 traffic tickets and around 2,200 warnings. The goal, as always, is not ticket revenue but making streets safer for everyone by reducing the accidents patrol deputies must respond to, which totaled 867 in 2025.

“Our Narcotics Division worked hard this past year,” Sheriff Dyer said, switching gears. “They made a total of 96 arrests and seized over $500,000 worth of drugs according to the Drug Enforcement Administration website.”

Furthermore, UCSO officially joined the FBI Safe Streets Task Force in 2025, adding 25 arrests to take even more illegal drugs off local streets, “and we assisted outside agencies with narcotics investigations for an additional 29 arrests in other jurisdictions,” Dyer said.

“Our Criminal Investigation Division has worked really hard and done a great job, too,” Dyer said. “Recovered stolen property was valued at over $120,000 last year, and money recovered in scams or prevented from being stolen has been over $170,000.

“Our solvability rate on cases was very high – the highest I’ve ever seen it. I’m really proud of that. The changes I’ve made over there have worked out really well. Almost every case that comes in, they solve it.”

All told, UCSO answered more than 23,000 calls for service in 2025, served 2,215 civil papers, and booked in over 670 individuals to the 54-bed Union County Jail – without the need to house inmates in other counties.

At the Union County Courthouse, Dyer said the Courthouse Security Division has done “a good job keeping that place safe,” to include use of the most up-to-date technology.

“We got a new X-ray machine and metal detector for one door, and it’s a top-of-the-line AI machine that helps detect objects way better than what we did have,” Dyer said.

The new machine has access to a regularly updated catalogue of shapes to assist deputies in stopping illicit items from entering the courthouse, and Dyer plans on having another one installed as soon as possible.

Also in 2025, the Sheriff’s Office received more than $162,000 in grant funding for things like equipment and salaries – a sizable amount for a small department that resulted in a significant reduction in the burden on taxpayers.

Among other accomplishments, several deputies have received certification to assist with local child safety seat checks, “and we’ll continue doing that throughout the coming year.”

“We haven’t had that in many, many years here, so I wanted to get that program back going,” Sheriff Dyer said. “We’ve partnered with the Fire Department; they’ve got some of their firefighters certified, so we do it together.

“It works out great and gives our agencies chances to work together, so I’m really proud of that.”

Dyer said the public might not be aware, but the Sheriff’s Office regularly transports mentally ill patients from the local hospital to in-patient facilities around the state – a service that, like seemingly everything else, has been trending up amid a growing local population.

“Another thing we’re really busy in is animal calls,” Dyer said. “Not only do we answer all the animal calls, but we maintain a full-time animal shelter that is inspected by the state. So, our deputies have a lot of responsibility there.”

The Animal Control Division currently has two deputies tasked with feeding and cleaning up after animals every day, and the Sheriff’s Office also take dogs and cats on veterinarian visits when necessary.

“Sometimes we adopt the animals out to the general public if they’re adoptable.” Dyer said. “We partner with some of the local animal rescues, like the Humane Society and Castoff Pet Rescue. And we also get with other animal rescues that are not here to pick some of our animals up.”

2026 GOALS

Springboarding from a successful first year in office, Sheriff Dyer has set multiple goals to improve the Sheriff’s Office ever further, including at Animal Control.

The number of animal control calls and duties has continued to climb in recent years, and Dyer said he will be introducing a third deputy to that division. And since the Sheriff’s Office is fully staffed now, he believes he’ll be able to do it in-house.

From a bigger picture standpoint, Dyer has been working toward UCSO becoming a Georgia Sheriffs’ Association Certified Agency, which he is aiming to bring to fruition in 2026.

To qualify for this certification, Dyer has been updating the policies and procedures for the Sheriff’s Office and Jail. He said they are already following law enforcement best practices but are officially updating their manuals to clarify the agency’s policies and procedures.

“It hasn’t been done in many years, and it takes a while to do that, but that will be up to date this year,” Dyer said. “We want to show that we’re meeting the standards of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association.

“That should give us a reduction in some of our liability insurance and things like that. And it should be another tool to help get some grants since we’re complying with the best practices of the Sheriffs’ Association.

“Not a lot of agencies have met that criteria yet, but there’s a lot trying to, and we’re going to be one of them this year, hopefully by June. And we will re-train on all of our policy.”

Speaking of training, 2025 was a banner year for the Sheriff’s Office, which achieved 7,091 hours of training agencywide. There are around 50 deputies, each required to receive 20 training hours, so UCSO went well beyond the minimum of 1,000 hours mandated by the state.

“It makes better deputies and gets our guys out there to bring back ideas that people are doing in other places – it’s really positive and makes sure that we do our job correctly,” Dyer said, and he looks to keep that same high level of training in 2026.

The sheriff has some other big goals for the year, including the formation of a Citizens Academy to educate the public on the ins and outs of local law enforcement, as well as a volunteer Sheriff’s Office Auxiliary.

Auxiliary members would be of great assistance to local deputies, with volunteers trained to help at events in venues like Meeks Park and the Farmers Market by performing duties like parking coordination and generally serving as observers for the Sheriff’s Office.

“They wouldn’t have any arrest powers or anything like that, but they’d be eyes and ears to help us be in more places,” Dyer said. “For example, they could assist in parades by blocking a street, things like that. Basically, they would help with some of our non-law enforcement jobs.”

In addition to freeing up deputies for when they are needed elsewhere, a Sheriff’s Office Auxiliary would also save the county money.

“Like on parade day, we have to pay so many people overtime to just pull up and sit at a street when a citizen can do that just to make sure a car doesn’t pull out,” Dyer said, noting auxiliary members wouldn’t be directing traffic. “Most of them will be retired law enforcement.

“That’s going to be one of my criteria. We have so much retired law enforcement here, I’d like to tap into that resource and let those guys get out and be with us a little bit.”

Yet another goal for Dyer is the establishment of a check-in service for senior citizens, which will be particularly useful in this part of the state that features an above-average number of retirees.

“We’ve got a lot of elderly people that live here, and some of them don’t have any family here and just live by themselves,” Dyer said. “I’m going to eventually have an elderly check-in log.”

Being added to the log can mean a wellness check if the Sheriff’s Office does not hear from a senior by a designated time, or the gathering of contact information for who to call in case something happens, like if an elderly person gets sick and is unable to personally call relatives.

“Sometimes we run into a situation where we don’t know who to contact, we don’t know what to do with their animals, and it takes a while to figure that out,” Dyer said. “But we’d like to have a running log that stays private here at the office.”

Similarly, the Sheriff’s Office will be partnering with the Fire Department to enable families to request wearable tracking devices for loved ones who are prone to wander, like people diagnosed with dementia or autism.

“We want to be able to find those people fast,” Dyer said, pointing to dangerous factors like exposure to the elements and proximity to vast wilderness. “Time is of the essence to get them back home safely, and we’re working on coming up with a device that they can wear on them.

“We get these calls quite often where somebody with dementia has slipped out of the house or went for a walk and didn’t return. They’re hard to find, and it takes a lot of resources from us and the Fire Department. It’s all-hands-on-deck to try to find these people quick as possible.”

Dyer has already applied for grant money to fund such a program, which, he stresses, would only be used for the explicit purpose of tracking lost individuals with certain neurological conditions.

His last goal for 2026 has to do with the operating budget for the Sheriff’s Office. This will be Dyer’s first budget since swearing in, and he is thankful to retired sheriff Mack Mason for leaving office with great budget planning in place.

“Our budget process went really well (for this fiscal year),” Dyer said. “We run a very conservative budget here anyway, but we cut some areas and added some other areas that we needed, so our budget pretty much stayed the same.”

The current budget looks different because the Commissioner’s Office followed a new budgeting procedure for 2026, including employee benefits with each department’s budget for the first time to increase transparency of how money is allocated.

But overall, as Dyer said, the UCSO budget remains about the same as last year, and he looks to save taxpayers money in 2026 and beyond by continuing to seek grants, optimizing services with existing staff, and gearing up to create volunteer roles for responsible members of the public.

“That’s my goal,” Dyer said before reflecting on his time so far as sheriff, which he has been enjoying thoroughly.

He still responds to emergency calls to back up local law enforcement, but as sheriff, Dyer has more administrative duties, meaning he spends more time in meetings and behind a desk now.

And he speaks with the public more frequently thanks to his open-door policy; anyone can come to see him at the Sheriff’s Office, and they have been, which he encourages.

Of course, Sheriff Dyer is no stranger to leadership in law enforcement, having served previously as assistant chief at the Blairsville Police Department and as third-in-command at UCSO, which made for a seamless transition after he won election in 2024.

But this is the first time in his career that the buck truly stops with him, and that suits Dyer just fine.

“It’s really enjoyable being able to help people, not only the public, but my employees,” Dyer said. “That’s what I like to do, is make the public’s lives better and my employees’ lives better.”