• Duties of the Sheriff The office of Sheriff is the only law enforcement office directly accountable to the people, the ultimate authority in a democracy. It is an elected position this makes them unique among other law enforcement. With the position of Sheriff comes a tremendous amount of responsibility that many citizens of Oklahoma do not realize. The Sheriff must be a professional law enforcement officer with a deep desire to serve those citizens in his county.
• Patrol Services Pontotoc County consist of 720 square miles with over 825 miles of rural roads that are patrolled by the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff will be called upon to assist many smaller communities and cities with law enforcement. They are often called upon to provide security and crowd control at special events in the county.
• Courts The Sheriff is responsible for coordinating and administering courthouse security.
• Jail The Sheriff shall have charge and custody of the jail in their county and all of the prisoners. They must provide the meals, medical and general welfare of those prisoners.
• Training The Sheriff is responsible for providing or acquiring all state mandated continuing education hours required for themselves, deputies and detention officers.
• Transports The Sheriff is responsible for transporting inmates to court, medical facilities, Department of Corrections, mental health facilities, juvenile facilities. The Sheriff is also responsible for extraditions of inmates from across the country.
• Civil Process The Sheriff is responsible for serving warrants, subpoenas, civil lawsuits. The Sheriff is also responsible for evictions, seizure of property and the disposition of property through Sheriffs sales.
• Livestock The Sheriff is responsible for collecting, boarding, and the disposition of any abandoned livestock.

Some content may be extracted from OSU Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet AGEC-802 and/or the County Training Program website. More complete information is available from these sources.