![]() But on evenings like this when I’ve got ball games, I like to support the kids in Little League, so I go try to encourage them, attend their games.Īll in all, it’s been a typical day with the same old dose of the unexpected. It’s usually around 5,6, somewhere, sometimes 8, 9, before I get out of here. NEIL: My grandkids are playing ball this evening. He’s hoping to be out of here in another hour or so to make it to tonight’s Little League games. You can see my desk is still full of paperwork. NEIL: I’ve been running receipts back and forth to the county administrator and getting some bills, try to get them paid up today. Back at the office, Neil’s still at his desk. Eh, I’ll let that one go.Ībout two hours later, we’ve passed no more than 20 cars – normal for a weekday afternoon this time of year. It’s 35 mile an hour, and he’s running 47. As he begins the slog, I head out on patrol with Deputy Sheriff Bob Kelly.īOB KELLY: Every 10 days to seven days, I try to travel over every road in the county, keep tabs on what’s going on. So long as another emergency doesn’t break out, he’ll spend much of the afternoon battling his paperwork problem. Neil gets back to the office in Monterey in time for a taco bowl lunch at High’s Restaurant. On his way back to the office, he waves to a VDOT guy who’d been helping direct traffic. He’s Neil’s son. The house looks like a total loss, but the on-scene anxiety ratchets down a bit. Word eventually trickles back that the man who lives here is accounted for elsewhere. You know, something bad goes on, you feel for everybody because I know all these people.Ĭredit Andrew Jenner Sheriff Neil watches as firefighters from several county departments put out the flames. NEIL: That’s what makes in a tough in a small town, too. When you know practically everyone in a community, emergency response often hits close to home. The old man who lives there is in poor health. He knows exactly where he’s headed, and he’s worried. In seconds, Neil’s out the back door and in his truck screaming east. It’s just a struggle in a small county to get revenues to work with.īut no matter how big or small a community is, things change fast in law enforcement. NEIL: I’m very reluctant to go to our supervisors and ask for money. Highland County is not awash in tax revenue, and Neil can’t pay his deputies or dispatchers much. Turnover is a major challenge, and since he’s been sheriff, Neil has collected tens of thousands of dollars in private donations to buy new guns, a communication trailer and an off-road vehicle. NEIL: I don’t think your larger sheriffs, you’ll see ‘em with a paintbrush in their hand painting inside their office and stuff, but I do that here when I can. Neil also picks up the mail, keeps bills paid and fills in as the handyman. NEIL: From homicides down to chasing cattle out of the road.Īnd of course, the loathsome paperwork that piles up no matter how fast he shuffles through it. ![]() With just six deputies, he does a little bit of everything: NEIL: Over here, I feel lucky that we’ve got more time to go out and spend with the public just on routine patrols and keeping everybody safe in their homes. In such a small community, the job has a unique rhythm. ![]() We try to reform people and help people any way we can. ![]() NEIL: I like helping people, and I look at our job as more helping people than hurting people or trying to put people in jail. After 18 years working for the phone company, he became a Highland County sheriff’s deputy. Neil graduated from this same high school in 1976. NEIL: So it’s a little more pleasure for me to walk from class to class – I get to see how my grandkids are doing every morning, too. Neil’s daughter, son-in-law and wife all work here, and for six Highland Elementary students, Sheriff Neil is also Grandpa Neil. There are personal perks to this part of the job. Because there’s no school resource officer, Neil or one of his deputies stops in at the start and finish of every school day – as long as something more pressing doesn’t come up.ĭAVID NEIL: It’s good just to see the smiles on the little ones. Its entire public school system fits in a small building complex in Monterey. With a population of about 2,200, Highland County is the smallest in Virginia. Credit Andrew Jenner Sheriff Neil often visits the county school complex in Monterey at the beginning of the day.
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