[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We are joined for the first time.

It will not be the last time, talking law enforcement with one of the top law enforcement professionals in the state nation.

He's Amir Jones.

He's the sheriff of Essex County, New Jersey.

Good to see you, Amir.

- Good to see you as well, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Sheriff, we were together at a recent 9/11 ceremony at Eagle Rock Memorial up here in Essex County.

You spoke, I'm honored to be a part of that event with a whole bunch of other folks led by the county executive Joe DiVincenzo.

You spoke about law enforcement professionals and the heroes that they were on 9/11, and they are every day.

To what degree do you believe we still, as a society, respect and admire our law enforcement professionals and see them for the heroes they are?

- I think we do.

You know, that's one of my goals here, you know, Steve, as a sheriff is to, you know, bridge that gap and, you know, engage with our community.

Community engagement is very important to me.

That's something I'm passionate about, and that's something that's one of my main priorities here as the sheriff.

- But, you know, along those lines, there's some degree of, there's a chasm, there's a disconnect, and some are not just critical of the police, but distrustful of the police.

You've talked about your son, you told our, one of our producers in a pre-interview about your son.

Talk about your relationship with your son, teenage son, right?

- He's 17 years old.

He's a senior in high school right now.

I tell you, you know, about five years ago, you know, just having this conversation with my son during the George Floyd era and COVID at the same time.

You know, I remember picking him up, you know, from school the day that that happened.

He was 12 years old at the time.

And, you know, he expressed his disgust and concern for law enforcement, which, you know, truly hurt me because, you know, I'm his father, number one, and I'm a law enforcement officer.

And, you know, we live in the same home.

And I felt if my son, Amir Junior, felt this way, then there's thousands of other kids that feel the same way.

So, you know, it was very disheartening.

It was very hard to hear that coming from my own son.

- What'd you say to him, sheriff?

- I said, you know, I said, "Amir, don't judge the, you know, 99% by the, you know, the 1%, the one bad percent that we have here.

You know, that guy made a mistake, you know, and he-" - And other officers did not step in.

- No.

- Go ahead.

- And that was a mistake that they made as well.

I explained to him, I said, "Listen, you know," and I, you know, I expressed a quote that, you know, from Dr.

King.

I said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

You know, what happened in Minnesota does not happen here in New Jersey.

We police differently here, and you know, it won't happen here, especially while I'm here.

And at the time, I wasn't the sheriff.

I was an undersheriff, but, you know, still a symbol of authority here in this county.

So, you know, I explained to him that that won't happen here.

And he's still, you know, he's still having a hard time, you know.

- That's not easy.

- No, it's not.

- Let me ask you this.

As things get tighter, more intense as it relates to who's, quote, in control, I've asked some of your colleagues in the law enforcement community, if the feds come in, if ICE comes in, and they're dealing with a situation regarding immigration or someone who they're trying to take off the street, or they go into a whatever it is, and they're looking for folks and, but your folks are in charge, or the local folks in the municipality are in charge, and the feds come in.

Who's got the lead on this, sheriff?

- It's, you know, it's, listen, ICE is a federal law enforcement agency.

Their focus is to enforce immigration.

We do not assist with them at all whatsoever.

They haven't asked for assistance.

We cannot interfere with an ICE investigation.

Like I said, they're under their federal authority.

We don't assist.

We don't interfere, so they are the lead.

- They're the lead.

But when the president talks about going into certain urban communities, Newark could be one of them, Paterson could be one of them, but Newark is the largest community in the state and obviously in Essex County.

President comes in and says, "National Guard coming in, gotta clean up Newark because they don't have it together.

Mayor Baraka, plus he's been critical of me, so I'm gonna go in and send our guys in and women."

Really?

Who is responsible for law enforcement in the community?

- To us, it's to me it's the local municipalities, it's the sheriff's office and the local municipalities.

And quite frankly, I don't, you know, my opinion, I know we don't, we don't need, we don't need the National Guard here.

We do a great job here.

You know, crime is down here.

You know, we have, we, you know, we have, you know, a great law enforcement community here.

We have great chiefs, we have a great prosecutor.

We don't need help here.

- Let me ask you something.

The statistics often show what you just said, that crime is down.

Why do you believe, sheriff, that there's a perception on the part of many, that that is not the case?

I've got the horrible case that happened recently down in North Carolina of a 22-year-old woman who was attacked on a train by someone who was in and out of the mental health system, in and out of the criminal justice system, and stabbed her in the neck.

And the president says, "You see?

There it is, out of control."

Incidents like that, high visibility, horrific murder like that, and the statistics don't match up.

You know where I'm going with this?

- Yeah, listen, I think, you know, that's the world we live in and, you know, everyone wants to point out the negative, you know, you know, there are things that happen, you know.

Yeah, things are gonna happen.

But listen, there's so much good that happened in this community, especially in the law enforcement community.

And here, I can only speak for New Jersey and Newark, you know, in Essex County, we have a great relationship with our community.

You know, knock on wood, we don't have those incidents to happen.

We can, and I'm sure it will, and we, you know, we deal with it accordingly.

But we are, you know, the officers here are highly trained to deal with high crisis intervention, deescalation, our Attorney General mandates those trainings.

So listen, I hope, you know, we don't have these issues that we see around the world.

- Yeah, before I let you go, you have a, what is the public awareness initiative that you have?

It's called Ask the Sheriff.

What is it real quick?

- So Ask the Sheriff is something, again, where I can, you know, engage with community.

It's something that where, you know, you can go on our social media platform or askthesheriff.com, ask any question related to the Sheriff's Office, ask any questions related to me.

We've had several questions about, you know, simple questions about what does the sheriff's office do?

What's the difference between the sheriff's office and the local municipality?

Can you come to our building for a meet and greet, which, you know, we're setting up by the end of this week.

So, you know, it's a great way to engage with the community.

- Amir Jones is only 37 years of age.

One of the youngest sheriffs, not just in the state, but in the nation.

He's a sheriff of Essex County.

The most populated, I think.

- 41, 41, Steve.

I gotta correct you, I'm 41.

Not that young, I wish I was.

(Amir chuckles) - Oh, I'm changing my age too.

Okay.

Good to see you, my friend.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- All the best, Amir.

- Thank you.

- You take care.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's 41-year-old sheriff of Essex County, Amir Jones.

See you next time.

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