Sumter County Sheriff's Office

Most people in Sumter County, Georgia, first meet the sheriff's office through a uniformed patrol deputy, since patrol is the office's most visible division and handles calls across the county at every hour from Americus. Behind patrol, a Criminal Investigations Division works cases toward arrest and conviction, drawing on technicians and forensic specialists and building files meant to hold up when presented in court. The Courts and Courthouse Security Division protects courtrooms for Superior Court, where most criminal and major civil trials are heard, Magistrate Court, which issues warrants and decides civil claims under $5,000, and Juvenile Court, and the same division serves criminal warrants and other orders issued by those judges. Administration oversees records, hiring and training, internal affairs, and the storage of evidence and property, and the Records Division supplies accident reports and criminal histories to the public. At the county jail, inmate labor is put to work in sanitation, food service and laundry to cut idle time inside the facility.