Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office Earns “Sheriff’s Office of the Year” Award

Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office captured the “Sheriff’s Office of the Year” award at the annual Tennessee Highway Safety Officer’s Lifesavers Conference Friday in Franklin.

The Sheriff’s Office also earned first place honors in the Law Enforcement Challenge in the 201-500 officers’ category.

Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh said he was proud of the outstanding work of the deputies who participate in traffic safety efforts.

“This shows outstanding work on their part to keep the citizens of Rutherford County safe in trying to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities,” Fitzhugh said.

Sgt. Austin Watson prepared the Law Enforcement Challenge entry including policy and guidelines, incentives and recognition, THSO activities and public information and education.

Lt. Michael Rodgers said Watson scored 760 of a maximum 785 points in the challenge. This was his first year submitting an entry.

Because of being a first-place winner, Watson’s name was submitted in a drawing. He won a sign that displays flashing speeds he can use throughout the county.

Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office previously won the Championship Award in 2018.

Besides the two awards, Cpl. William Travis received the Drug Recognition Expert “Instructor of the Year” award and Patrol Deputy Jonathan Schnereger was recognized for 10 years of service as a DRE.

Rodgers, Watson, Tennessee Highway Patrol Sgt. Shawn Boyd of the Rutherford County Traffic Safety Task Force and retired Lt. Vincent Lewis of the Clarksville Police Department and Clarksville-Montgomery County Traffic Safety Task Force presented a session about forming a task force.

The session, “Taskforce Avengers: Assembling for Traffic Safety,” gave them the chance to discuss how improve road safety and drive impactful change through a united task force.

“Rutherford County has had success with the task force and has seen a reduced amount of crashes and fatalities,” Rodgers said.