Sheriff's candidate Roger Cunningham wants to be proactive problem solver

Apr. 27—FAIRMONT — Roger Cunningham sits inside Cantoni's Pizza, going over a list of talking points he prepared for his campaign for sheriff of Marion County.

The pizzeria is almost like an unofficial campaign headquarters. Outside sits a sign promoting Cunningham for sheriff. In front of him are a plank of three major themes, each hammered out and refined throughout the 22 months Cunningham has spent campaigning.

"As their sheriff I'm going to go out and be proactive and get into the communities," Cunningham said. "I want them to trust me to get information. That's a powerful tool. Information is a powerful tool, so we have to gain it — more information — but they have to trust us first. So that's my goal."

Cunningham is one of two Republican contenders for the role of Marion County Sheriff. By focusing on three key areas, Cunningham hopes Republican voters will pick him as their standard bearer for the general election in November. Since there are no Democratic competitors, whoever wins the primary on May 14 will most likely be the next sheriff.

The key three themes are protecting children, substance abuse and integrity and accountability. The last two come packaged as a set.

Cunningham's insights about protecting children come from his experience working as a substitute teacher teaching K-12 in Marion and Taylor County schools, or as he put it, inside looking out. What concerns him is the potential for an active shooter event in a school. He said clear communication between the school system and law enforcement is important, so that the proper plans and strategies can be implemented to ensure an active shooter situation can be confronted appropriately.

"We have to have good transparency with our teachers, faculty, staff, principals, we need to see what their needs are," Cunningham said. "Observe and look at what their weaknesses are. Training is very important on both ends, law enforcement and with the schools. I think the schools need more training as far as if anything bad would happen."

Schools and substance use issues can overlap because addiction has a widespread effect on a community. One way to approach the issue is by looking at resources as well as sources, Cunningham said. Individuals facing addiction need access to resources that can help them and their families deal with substance use issues.

"There's families suffering and there's not a person I believe that either knows someone, who has a family member or whatnot that has died or overdosed on drugs," he said. "It's a major problem. We gotta get the resources to them. That's the first step."

At the same time, law enforcement needs to go after those providing a source of drugs within the community.

"If you complete a program, go through everything, you do everything correct, but then you have a source lying out there and waiting on you, then you go back to that source," he said.

Cunningham is a 27-year veteran of law enforcement. He has a bachelor's degree from Glenville State University, is a graduate of the West Virginia State Police Academy, is a trained SWAT member and carries multiple law enforcement certifications.

Throughout that time, he's developed his understanding of what community policing is. He defined it as developing communication with the community to be kept aware of what is going on and determine if there is anything suspicious that law enforcement needs to be made aware of.

"Just getting out and shooting basketball, talking to people, that's good community policing," he said. "That shows them you're human and they see you rather than the uniform. That's important because they trust you more."

Part of building that trust is maintaining accountability. Ensuring the sheriff's department is one that maintains its integrity is important to Cunningham. Ensuring deputies treat residents with respect is important, as is holding officers accountable when they make mistakes.

"You gotta talk to them, they need to be talked to," Cunningham said. "That's good and bad. We all make mistakes, that's human nature but it needs to be confronted."

That said, Cunningham wants to be proactive and build a department based on best practices, with an eye toward precluding the need for any such interventions. What's more, Cunningham holds the officers who currently work in the sheriff's department in high esteem. His preference is to work with junior officers to help them to address whatever potential mistakes arise.

"I know we have a good group of guys that want to work," he said. "I just want to bring that to the table and be able to implement some different strategies as far as our drug abuse problem and making our schools safe."

Working with other officers extends outside the four walls of the sheriff's department. If elected, Cunningham wants to increase communication and transparency with surrounding counties, such as Harrison, Monongalia and Taylor to achieve more of their goals together.

Cunningham also wants build a more open relationship with the press.

"We want to be good and transparent," he said. "If there's any situation that's fluid, still under investigation, we won't divulge details. But that's what we need."

Westerns and action movies are the genre of media Cunningham usually favors. Although he has no favored pick, Westerns were a formative element of his youth. Part of it was the lack of choice back then, but part of it is that Cunningham describes himself as old school.

Ultimately, Cunningham wants to be sheriff because he wants to bring his own vision of what policing can be to the department. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in the community. After all, residents pay taxes to have the laws enforced.

"Child abuse, sexual perversion, road rage, there's a lot of issues that need to be handled by law enforcement," he said. "We just need to be more proactive and enforce the law."

At the same time, Cunningham recognizes how important it is to build a relationship with the community it serves.

"Our world can be divided, even families can be divided with different issues," he said. "But, hopefully I can make a difference."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com