For the first time in history, the Dallas County Sheriff’s office will have supervisory staff on the clock 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Five employees were promoted during a ceremony at the Dallas County Courthouse Thursday.  Patrol Deputies Tom Peterson and Neal Vanderleest are now sergeants, along with jailers Darla O’Banion and Heidi McKibben.  Heather Renshow-Roll was promoted to lieutenant in the jail.

“We’ve never been a top heavy department, we’ve never had a lot of hands-on supervision.  Now the Board has given us the funds and allowed us the ability to promote a third sergeant in the jail and the ability to promote two more sergeants on patrol.  So that gives us supervision on all three shifts and it’s a piece of mind, really.  We’ve got good people, knowledgable people that have rose to the top to take this positions and have historically always made good decisions.”

That’s Sheriff Chad Leonard who says he’s proud of the new leadership and feels the promotions were well deserved.