Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway says he has a vision for his second term.

“There are things we started at the sheriff’s office that we have not finished,’’ said Pettway, the 58-year-old Democratic nominee for the county’s top law enforcement position.

‘’We’ve done everything that we campaigned on,’’ Pettway said.

Pettway was the underdog in 2018 when he defeated five-term Sheriff Mike Hale to become Jefferson County’s first Black sheriff. He will go up against Republican nominee Jared Hudson on Nov. 8.

“My trust is in the Lord,’’ Pettway said.

Pettway grew up in College Hills in Birmingham’s Smithfield community. He graduated from Ensley High School, attended Jefferson State Community College and graduated from Faulkner University with a degree in business administration.

He and his wife, Vanessa, have been married nearly 30 years. They have two grown daughters, both of whom graduated the University of Alabama.

In 1991, Pettway began his law enforcement career at the Birmingham Police Department as a corrections officer in the city jail. In 1993, he joined the Fairfield Police Department until moving to the sheriff’s office in 1999. He was promoted to the detective bureau in 2008 and investigated violent crimes.

Pettway campaigned in 2018 on keeping schools safe, providing the best training, bridging the gap between the community and law enforcement and helping those incarcerated get educational and vocational training to get jobs once they get out.

“We now have a deputy in every school in the county and plus some in some private schools,’’ he said.

He points to initiatives including Renewed for Reentry – a program aimed at making inmates employable upon release – and Jobs Not Jail – a program designed to help any interested resident with resume writing, interview skills and dressing for success.

“We also have done some things in the community – to strengthen the community,’’ he said. “It will lower the recidivism rate and cut back on violence crimes.”

Pettway also pledged to improve training and equipment for the deputies and unveiled a new state-of-the-art training center.

“We now have body cameras for all of the deputies outside of the jail,’’ he said.

Pettway, in conjunction with the JBS Mental Health Authority and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, announced the grant-funded Crisis Care Center.

Instead of being arrested, Pettway said, those with addictions and mental illness, will receive care they need.

“We need them to have a place to get treatment other than a jail and it allows the deputies to get back to their beats a whole lot faster, so we’re not tied up with someone waiting in a hospital room for hours,” Pettway said.

Pettway said violent crime in unincorporated Jefferson County is down double digits. He said homicides and violent crime are down 29 percent. His office released crime statistics showing a decrease in the major crime categories, except car burglary and car theft.

“We had 13 murders in Fairfield last year. This year we’ve only had one.”

“The presence of the deputies deters crimes,’’ he said. “They’ve done a really good job being present in many areas, especially the areas where we have violent crimes.”

Pettway’s detractors say staffing and morale is low under his watch. Pettway disagrees.

“We’re only down like 30 deputies,’’ he said. “I would love to have the number of slots to get 200 more deputies, unfortunately the county is not going to do that.”

He said the office is in the process of hiring seven or eight more deputies. He is budgeted for roughly 523 deputies.

As for morale, he said, it depends on who you ask.

“Some people are going to say morale is low and some people are going to say morale is high,’’ he said. “We were able to get the deputies a 5 percent raise …. and we’ve been able to get them all the equipment they need.”

“We have a brand-new training facility, a mobile command unit,’’ he said.

Pettway said his deputies still aren’t paid what they deserve.

“We’re fighting every day to get them a better wage here … we’re trying to make happen so we can maintain good employees and bring in new employees,’’ Pettway said.

“Tuscaloosa pays $51,000 to start off and we only at $41,000. Shelby County pays $55,000 and so does Helena, so we’re way behind in salaries to be able to compete, but yet we’re able to maintain our department,’’ he said. “People love to work for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.”

A priority for his second term is to build a regional jail. The facility would be designed to hold inmates from all of the county’s municipalities, including the sheriff’s office inmates.

“We will be able to house more inmates and have more programs to rehab them,’’ Pettway said. “The facility would include an advanced infirmary that would even allow dialysis to be performed on site.”

The new jail, he said, would also offer more trade and skill training for inmates.

“We don’t mind locking up the bad guys, but we will also try to help those who want to try to turn their life around’’ he said. “Most of all we want to work smart not hard. It costs to have someone incarcerated but we want to make sure we don’t destroy our budget trying to have all these sick people in jail.”

Pettway has faced criticism for his handling of bingo halls amid allegations that he was allowing them to operate, against state law, to help his brother, Bruce Pettway.

“My brother does not own any bingo here in Jefferson County nor is he a partner in bingo nor does he have any investment in bingo,’’ Pettway said. “He was a partner in Greene County years ago but that was dissolved before I even became sheriff.”

“I do not own any bingo,’’ the sheriff said.

Pettway said he will enforce the law as far as bingo halls go. He said he sent cease and desist letters to bingo halls and was informed by their attorneys that they had business licenses.

“We had a bunch of bingo machines locked up in storage costing us money and the cases weren’t going to court,’’ he said.

Pettway said he likes his chances for re-election.

“Mike Hale had plenty of money, name recognition, signs, he had Democrats, he had Republicans,’’ he said. “I was David going up against a giant, so it was a much harder fight last time against a very known, a very experienced opponent.”

“The fight is different this time,’’ he said of his race with Hudson. “I’m going against somebody who is not known. Nobody knows this guy.”