By Helen Burkett Prencke
Over the holiday weekend I got to take a special field trip with one of the Sheriff’s deputies to see just what they do in order to protect and serve the citizens of Appling County. To start the evening, Sheriff Mark Melton gave me a quick summary of the day’s report and a translation of the most commonly used ten codes so I could follow along with the radio transmissions during my adventure— think “10-4” and all those other numeric codes you hear on television. Next, the Sheriff and I visited the jail where two people were being booked for possession of drugs. I watched the detention officer catalogue their possessions in bags—cash, clothes and so forth—and explain what would happen to the people from this point. They would stay here until a bond hearing could take place. Since this incident happened over a holiday weekend they were upgraded to an extended stay.
