WASHINGTON, D.C. – 20 members of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office are back home after assisting with security for the Inauguration of President Donald Trump.
According to the FCSO, the deputies were sworn in as special deputies in the District of Columbia for the historic occasion.
“It is a tremendous honor to support the safety and security of our nation and the Office of the President during this significant event. We are proud to represent Franklin County in service to our country,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Facebook.
The deputies arrived in Washington on Saturday and quickly learned their assignment had changed due to the decision to move most of the inaugural festivities indoors.
“We were initially on a parade route, it got changed so we were providing security at Union Station, dropped off at that assignment at 11 a.m., there till 2 a.m.,” said Lt. Joseph Knight, with the sheriff’s office. “Standing outside in that cold that was the hard part about it, but it was an awesome experience.”
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington reached out to Sheriff Bill Overton in March of 2024 - months before the general election. Capt. Paul Crandall was charged with making it happen.
“There was a lot of moving parts. I never would have realized when I was tasked with organizing this that were was so much involvement, the logistics the red tape,” said Crandall, who leads the office’s patrol division. “From March when I started the process through the 20th, Inauguration Day, there was quite a bit that went into it.”
Adding to the logistical challenge for the Sheriff’s Office was figuring out how to keep people at home in Franklin County safe with so many deputies away at the inauguration.
“We still had to maintain the services here in Franklin County, so we pulled from our school resource deputies. They were able to come and help,” Crandall said. “Patrol units, we organized our shifts a little differently to try to cover those gaps, but it went very well and everything worked out just fine.”
Crandall said it was the first time Franklin County had assisted with a presidential inauguration, and hopefully, it would not be the last time.