Creel facing challenge in sheriff's race

Incumbent Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel is facing opposition in 2016 from a Tallahassee radio host with a law enforcement and security background.

William Dance, the 41-year-old host of The Will Dance Show on 93.3 FM, has filed to run against Creel, who is seeking his second term as sheriff in the non-partisan race.

Dance, of Fort Myers, started his career as a detective at the Florida State University Police Department at the age of 20 and has also worked at the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office as an investigator.

After leaving law enforcement, Dance worked as an EMT in Fort Myers and then started the West African anti-piracy company Sea Guard LLC before going into talk radio on The Morning Show with Preston Scott in 2012 and hosting his own show in February 2014.

Creel, 62, worked as a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper for 30 years and then another five in the FHP Reserves before being elected sheriff in 2012.

Creel said he would like another term to continue community-based youth programs WCSO has invested in, but also wants to continue to follow through on his first campaign promise to address the county's drug and burglary issues.

Burglaries are down, Creel said, and deputies routinely make drug-related arrests. Using those as examples, he is relaying the message to kids.

"This is what can happen to you," he said. "You risk going to jail."

Creel is currently in the middle of his department's budgeting process, which he has been criticized about in the past for giving out pay raises and merit pay increases. He admits budgeting issues could have been handled differently.

"You can always look back and say maybe I shouldn't have done that and maybe I would do it differently next time," he said. "Being a sheriff, especially for the first time, is a learning experience."

But since taking office, Creel said he has come back year after year with a slimmed budget, returning nearly $900,000 back into the county's general revenue pot.

"I said I was going to create a budget that was lean and efficient and I've done that," he said.

Dance said budgeting issues and pay differentials among WCSO employees, training and morale in the department and public relations with the community are his biggest concerns going into the election.

Dance said one of his charges is addressing the departure of more than a dozen WCSO deputies in Creel's tenure and the sometimes-negative interaction between law enforcement and the public.

"They had public relations nightmares and it's time for a new leadership to take the reins and lead the department in a new direction," Dance said.

WCSO came under fire late last year after two deputies, then-Undersheriff Trey Morrison and Detective Richard Moon, made racially insensitive remarks on Facebook in the wake of the December decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

After that, the two were suspended without pay following an internal investigation and the entire department was launched into mandatory diversity training, which will be completed later this year.

Dance is hoping his background in emergency services, international security and media relations through his radio show can change the perception of law enforcement and make improvements in the department.

"It's going to take a new generation and new type of sheriff to change that," Dance said. "Stop making our community contact to involve only people that are calling for services and get back to restoring honor and value back to law enforcement in general."