Hartselle man, Mike Swafford, took a position with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office early February. Swafford is serving as the public information officer for the department, a role that had not existed before him being hired.

Swafford said as the public information officer he handles both external and internal communications for the department. In addition he works with community members to build partnerships.

According to Swafford he was first approached by Sheriff Ron Puckett after helping with his campaign. “The sheriff approached me, obviously I worked with him through his campaign and through that we built a strong relationship to where he can trust me. When you are speaking for an organization, there has to be trust with that person,” Swafford said.

Prior to taking the position with the department, Swafford ran his own public relations business on the side in which he helped local companies and organizations with social media and press releases. He said he felt that it was this background that helped prepare him for the new position. “I think understanding it is not just press releases. I think my background, I have a minor in communications, aligned me for this position,” Swafford said.

In addition to managing all press releases and social media for the Sheriff’s Department, Swafford said he is working on a way to keep the roughly 200 employees informed as well as build community partnerships to help with things such as body cameras and new bullet proof vests.

Swafford said he has never anticipated working with the sheriff’s office, but that it all seemed to fall into place. “I have always liked speaking for someone. I always liked that role, but never thought I would be in one, but there was a plan all along. I am a big fan of law enforcement. Even now seeing more of what they put up with I am even more thankful that we have them,” Swafford said.

As part of taking the position Swafford says he has been working to familiarize himself with the many facets of the department. “It’s a big organization that has a lot of moving parts. One of the biggest being the jail. Not much outside the jail prepares you for the jail. That had been an area that I had purposefully worked to absorb what goes on down there. Whether it is visiting booking and just seeing how the process goes, or going through the jail and the multitude of classes we offer and seeing baptisms and GED graduates. That has been a big learning process, but also one that I have been able to pick up fairly easy. There is a need for this position,” Swafford said.

Since beginning the position in February, Swafford said he has been welcomed into the department. He says some of his favorite moments have been people coming to him with information and trusting him with it. “It’s a very good organization full of smart intelligent people that ultimately wake up every morning and do a good job. That has been great to see. Until you are part of it, you don’t know,” Swafford said.