The Fentress County Sheriff’s Office teaming up with a local locksmith to assist deputies with welfare checks while minimizing property damage to residences.
Sheriff Hunter Fowler said the department needed a solution when residents are unable to open their doors. Fowler said the initiative aims to provide a non-destructive alternative to traditional forced entry methods during routine welfare checks.
“On welfare checks or if there’s somebody that needs assistance that isn’t to the point of life or limb, we can contact Willie’s Lock and Key and he’ll come out and unlock the door for us,” Fowler said. “That way we don’t have to bust everybody’s doors down.”
Fowler said the department previously relied on kicking doors or attempting to use cards to bypass locks, which often resulted in expensive damage. Fowler said modern deadbolts have made those older techniques less effective, leaving deputies with few options other than breaking windows or doors. And when doors or windows are smashed, Fowler said homeowners can be left with the bill.
“There’s been a couple of times where we’ve had to do welfare checks and there’s been somebody that has fallen,” Fowler said. “They’re alert, oriented, and I mean doing okay, they just can’t get up and then we we can’t get into them, you know, either their family’s kind of out of town. This way we can get somebody up there to be able to unlock the door. Now we won’t have to won’t have to cause a whole bunch of damage to get in and then apologize over and over.”
Willie Strong has over 40 years of lockpicking experience and can pick locks that deputies are not equipped to handle. Strong said he can gain access to a home in a matter of seconds.
Fowler said Strong’s expertise allows them to easily gain access to modern residences during welfare checks.
“He can actually come out and pick the doors for us,” Fowler. “Sometimes it’s easy to be able to to key some of the older door or card some of the older doors where you just use an old credit card and bump it. But you can’t do that with some of these deadbolts.”
Fowler said the department will utilize a formal contract to outline the locksmith’s role and ensure all entries are conducted under the correct legal authority. Fowler said a senior officer must approve any request for the locksmith to respond to a scene among other efforts to reduce liability for this civilian service.
A member of the rescue squad, Strong said he has no hesitations about visiting houses in the county for welfare checks.
“I’ll be out there with the with the deputies on the road and we’ll be able to get to the people faster,” Strong said. “I’m also CPR certified. We’ll get to them faster and we’ll be able to help our our citizens here in this county.”
Fowler said he foresees additional community partnerships in the future as they continue to build out more community programs.
“We’re not a very big county so we it’s not like we can afford to just send officers through locksmith school and send them to places like that,” Fowler said. “And honestly, reaching out to some of these other people it helps build up that, you know, that well-rounded team.”
Fowler said the department is currently finalizing the mutual aid agreement and expects the program to be fully operational before the end of the month.
“We have one heck of a good sheriff here that loves his community and we have a good community here that’s willing to do what we need to do to help our our community and our citizens,” Strong said. I hope this all of other communities out here around us do the same thing because there’s a lot of folks, you know, there’s locksmiths that’s retired and they can do this type work and we can do this together.”