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BLOOMFIELD, IOWA -- They might have one of the smallest staffs when it comes to a sheriff's office in the State of Iowa; however, they patrol and are responsible for a county the same size as most.

Therefore, the race for Davis County Sheriff is a critical one. Incumbent Sheriff Dave Davis has been with the sheriff's office for a number of years. We asked him, and his challenger, Buddy Harsch, who is a Bloomfield Police Officer, what the biggest challenge is for Davis County crime wise, and what they are doing or plan on doing to fight it.

"The thing that we seem to see the most is theft and/or burglaries, we have seen that a lot over the years. A lot of the time, it goes back to people's drug habits, not necessarily all of the time, but a lot of the time. People going out here and stealing from other individuals that are working hard everyday and trying to make a living, and somebody comes in their and takes away from them, definitely makes a lot of people feel violated when that happens. So with that, we try to work hard on going out and giving a good investigation. We keep the guys trained as deputies to look into these things. We work with other entities to try to find stolen property. We are very aggressive towards fighting crime and investigating that and with that, we hope to get a good result by bringing somebody to justice," said Sheriff Dave Davis.

"The biggest problem I see in Davis County right now is the thefts, the burglaries. Drug use has picked up quite a bit in Bloomfield. Since 2009, we have had 119 drug charges, I would like to see that number increase out in the county. They have had 34 since then. So, it is not just something that is done in Bloomfield only. If we can work together with the police department, the sheriff's department; we have a total of 10 or 11 officers that will sit here and work together. Combine that with the reserve force and I feel that we can make a huge difference," said Buddy Harsch.