WSFA sat down with the four men vying for the role of Autauga County sheriff: Nicholas Cognasi, Mark Harrell (incumbent), Kevin McNatt, and Ty Thompson.
) - There are four men vying for the role of Autauga County sheriff: Nicholas Cognasi , Mark Harrell , Kevin McNatt, and Ty Thompson . Since each are running as a member of the GOP, only voters with a Republican ballot will be able to vote in the race on May 19.
I’ve been a resident of Autauga County since 1996, grew up here and went to school here, graduated from college locally. I’ve been in law enforcement now going on 18 years and I just feel like I could do a good job at the sheriff’s office. I feel like there’s ideas that I have that could benefit not just the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office, but also the citizens of Autauga County.
So, I feel I should run to try and implement those ideas to provide a better service to the citizens of Autauga County. I was approached several, several months ago about concerns with the sheriff’s office. I felt like it was time for me to step up and try to make those changes within the department. I think I bring the experience and the relationship to be able to do that.
Well, this is something I love to do. I’ve been the sheriff for the last three years. I just want to continue on the progress that me and my deputies have made. I just love serving the community, love serving the citizens of Autauga County.
Honestly, I never saw myself as a politician. I worked in the county for several, years as a deputy and moved on to the state, but I kept getting asked by citizens would you please run? Would you please run? I come home and tell my wife, hey, you know, I got asked to run again.
Finally, she told me, well, why don’t you? And my response was, well, I’m not a politician. She said, well, exactly what, that’s just what we need. So after a lot of prayer and talking to my other family members, we just decided to give it a go.
I actually graduated with a teaching degree to teach history, but, you know, I graduated during the recession and there wasn’t that many teaching jobs. I had some friends that were police officers. They told me I should apply and I applied with the police academy. For my first day on the job, I was able to help somebody during a domestic violence incident.
Since then, I just didn’t want to do anything else. I switched from a municipality agency to a sheriff’s office agency a little over a decade ago, and I just realized the big difference between a municipality agency and a county sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office is a very unique perspective in law enforcement because the leader of the sheriff’s office is elected by the people. The sheriff himself is a very unique position constitutionally and through the state.
Because of that, I feel that’s why I want to run for sheriff because of my ideas, what I believe I can do for Autauga County and its citizens. I’ve done this for a little over 17 years, almost 18 years. I started in patrol. From there, did six years of patrol, moved to narcotics division and did six years in narcotics.
Went to training for three years. From training, I went to the General Crimes Division, where I currently serve as Lieutenant now. I’ve been in law enforcement for 25 years, well, a little over 25 years. Retired from the city of Prattville as a Prattville police officer, and once I retired, I just want to continue what I do.
It’s something that you, you know, that becomes part of you, something that you love to do serving the people. I was appointed by the governor to be the sheriff, and I love what I do. We’re fully staffed here at the Sheriff’s Office now, which is remarkable because most agencies are way down on numbers. I was able to maintain having enough deputies to serve.
You know, some of the things I’ve done, I’ve created a K9 unit, a training unit, upgraded the sheriff’s office tremendously since I’ve been in office. So I just want to build on that and continue what we’re doing, the progress we’re making. I started my career in the small town of Autaugaville, Alabama. I was their first school resource officer.
I was recruited by the then Sheriff to come to the county. I spent many years at the county. I worked for on patrol, several years in narcotics, and then I left. When I left there, I was the night shift lieutenant for B shift.
I was recruited to go to the state by a guy that brought me into the training side of law enforcement, which I adamantly love training. Teaching other cops how to do it right and go home safe is about the best thing I think you can do in law enforcement.
So he brought me over to the state where I expanded substantially in my investigative skills from working from narcotics, and then on patrol, domestic violences, small things like that, to now multiple homicides, complex financial crimes. I spent two years on a U.S. Department of Justice and FBI task force where everything we tackled was public corruption and the deprivation of civil rights. Like Eighth Amendment type things.
I bring all that training and all that experience to the campaign, and I always tell everybody, I’m the only one that’s actually worked as a deputy in the county and has worked all levels, city, county, state, and federal types of crimes. So, one of my big ideas in my platform is that I would like to try and start an EMT program for the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office.
Tuscaloosa County already has a very similar program, so it’s not something that’s reinventing the wheel. It’s already a program that’s very successful in other states and then also in the state of Alabama. In rural counties, people that live in rural areas can wait 30 minutes, sometimes up to an hour for an ambulance to respond.
Our volunteer firefighters do a great job, but, you know, on certain times during holidays, Christmas and whatnot, volunteers may not be able to respond because they might be out of town visiting family and whatnot. Deputies are always going to be on patrol 24-7. So, if we have deputies that are certified as EMTs, they could be able to give that life-saving care for somebody before an ambulance gets there to be able to transport them to the hospital.
Something else that I’d like to try and do is increase recruitment, retention. You know, every law enforcement agency in the state has staffing shortages. Something that we’re blessed with in the state of Alabama is a lot of military bases. We have Maxwell, Gunner, Fort Rucker, Fort Benning right across the state line.
You know, we have people that are already trained and certified as military police, security forces, the law enforcement role in the military. I would like for the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office to be able to go and recruit those people that are getting out of the military and looking to continue that law enforcement career on the civilian side.
So that’s something that we could do here in Autauga County, and Autauga County is a great place to live and raise a family. I have kids that I go to school here, raise my family here, grew up here. So that’s something that we can attract for those people that are coming. Something else that I’d like to also try and bring is a junior deputy and explorers program.
When I was growing up, we had explorers programs that kids could go to, and if they’re interested in that career, they could go and see what that career was about. It’s something that, even if somebody’s maybe not interested in law enforcement, it’s something that they could see what law enforcement- specifically a sheriff’s office - does because it’s not just patrolling and arresting people. It’s a jailhouse, its courtroom security, its civil processing.
There’s a lot more to a sheriff’s office than what most people might think. So, it’s something that can get the children involved. It could foster that new generation of law enforcement that wanted to become a part of that career. And then also it’s something that get the kids to do, be able to get them active in the community.
The first is going to be, or one of the main ones is going to be recruiting and retention. We have to be able to get deputies and be able to keep deputies. There’s been a big turnover in the last three years with the deputies. I believe we’ve got to be able to keep the deputies.
The way we do that is by raising our standards. When I say raise our standards, I mean, through our training, get better training for the deputies, through qualifications, our student qualifications, through appearance, through physical fitness. That’s a big thing with me, physical fitness is, especially out in the county, I mean, deputies may be out there by themselves for 30, 45 minutes without backup.
So implement some physical fitness program, and what that’s going to do is it’s going to create higher morale and a better culture and want to make people stay at the department. Then, just reestablish relationships with the DA’s, the courts, all of our federal partners. We’ve got to be able to work with those people to get our cases presented and prosecuted.
I want to continue to better enhance our Sheriff’s Office, put more of a spotlight on what we’re trying to do over here at the Sheriff’s Office. I do feel that we’re making big strides at wanting to be one of the top agencies here in central Alabama.
I just want to continue to build on that with training and, you know, I can’t do it without the deputies and I’ve got some of the best deputies that you can have, you know, and that’s who I want to recruit to be here serving Autauga County. Top priorities? Definitely more visible, active criminal patrol. When deputies are out there looking for crime, they tend to find it and or drive criminals away.
They like to hide in the shadows. They don’t like to see law enforcement. If we are out there doing our jobs every day, I would much rather catch the burglars on a traffic stop than respond to someone’s house after their house has been burglarized. That’s one.
Two, way more community involvement. The sheriff’s office does not work in a vacuum. We as law enforcement do not know what the individual problems of the different communities are. So what happens in Marbury or what’s needed there is not the same as a Autaugaville, Jones or Billingsley.
If you don’t get out there and actually talk to the people and have communication with them, you don’t know what’s going on and what their need is. So we will have more like town hall style events, not just around election time, but all year long, so I can learn what is needed by these people. That also goes into one of the other things is having an open-door policy. There should not be a locked door there.
They should be able to come into the sheriff’s office and talk to the person they elected to keep them safe to give, it could be as simple as giving gripes. Hey, I don’t like what your deputy’s doing. But it could also be, ‘hey, I have a suggestion on what would make this a better area. ’ Without having those conversations, you don’t know what they are.
And then last, because you only gave me three, fiscal responsibility. Every program, every piece of equipment, every bit of training comes off the backs of taxpayers, right? The county cannot print its own money. You need to be a good steward of the taxpayer dollar.
So I want fiscal responsibility on the budget, and let’s rein in the money a little bit. We can’t just spend money willy-nilly, right? We have to make sure that we are getting the best bang for the buck for the taxpayer’s dollar. One of the biggest moments of the current sheriff’s tenure was the closing of Autauga Metro Jail due to concerns with mold, and it has created a dispute with the county commission.
How do you feel the sheriff handled that situation, and would you have done anything differently? I believe that any county office and county leader, whether it be the sheriff’s office, highway department, whatever it may be, I believe that they all have to work together. That’s something that I am wanting to do. I’m not saying that there’s a strained relationship.
I don’t want to speak ill of anybody, but I believe that it’s best for the citizens of Autauga County when all of its leaders are working together. That’s something that I want to bring to the Sheriff’s Office. I’ve heard both sides of the story on that. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
It’s not for me to say what the truth is. I think the important thing now is just to move forward, cut expenses where we can and try to save the taxpayers some money. : I have looked at both reports. The sheriff had a company that did an inspection and the commission had a company that did an inspection.
Now, all of us are outsiders other than those people that were there, right? But it appears to me that there’s a huge disagreement between the two inspections. So just like when you go to an argument between two people, there’s usually three sides to the story. In the middle is usually the truth.
I think that we did spend an exorbitant amount of money on the transportation alone of inmates. So when you are transporting inmates to north Alabama, south Alabama, east and west, far, far away, you are creating several issues there, not just the money of transportation, because you may bond out in 12 hours and I have to send somebody else back. But you are also creating a hazard both for the community and the arrestee.
Anytime we get on the roads as people, we stand the risk of getting in an accident and getting hurt, or you also have the risk of an escape. We as law enforcement are responsible for those people once they’re under our custody. And I think we could have done a far better job of keeping both the inmates safe and the community safe while spending less money.
Now, there are many jails and many places in the state of Alabama, including our own homes, that end up getting a mold issue. Okay? It’s a humid state that we live in. You have people taking hot showers and etcetera, etcetera, especially when you have that many people in a small area.
OK, but we don’t move out of our house when we detect a little mold. We clean it. We mitigate it right then and there. I think it could have been handled a lot better for sure.
Why should voters trust that you can take care of what needs to be done if the relationship with the county commission isn’t there? Where does that relationship stand? I always hope to repair the relationship, the rift that’s been going on. It’s just because I wanted to be open and upfront with what’s going on with the jail.
So I’m hoping that we can build on that, you know, build our relationship back up and be able to move forward and you know, to better serve the people of the Autauga County. I believe something that separates, other candidates and myself is that from the beginning when I announced I was running, I had a set plan on what I would do to make the sheriff’s office better for not only the sheriff’s office deputies in the jailhouse correction people, but also the citizens of Autauga County.
That’s something I’ve started from day one. If you go back and look at social media or my website, what I pushed out, my plan has been the same. This is what I plan on doing. I just would like the people to know this is what I’m planning on doing with your vote May 19th.
If this is something that you’d like, you can vote for me in the Republican primary. I believe my experience, and a lot of people may not agree with this statement, but I don’t think years of service equal experience. I think it’s what you do in those years of service, the situations you put yourself in, and the scenarios that you’ve been a part of that really equal that experience.
A 20-year patrol officer doesn’t have the same experience as somebody that’s been through several different divisions and been exposed to different things. So I believe that’s my experience is going to kind of set me apart. My experience. I mean, I’ve been the sheriff.
I’ve retired from the city of Prattville. I was a I was a supervisor there. There’s many things that I’ve done at the Police Department that never was handed to me. I was able to work hard and get what I needed.
I was a DEA task force officer for four years. I was in Drug Enforcement 14 years. I supervised patrol units, traffic, homicide units and stuff like that. So, it’s just been great.
Honestly, not just my experience in training, but my heart. My heart is in this. Somebody asked me the other day, what would you need to guarantee a win? I said, if every voter could see the heart of every candidate, I’d win hands down. Because my heart is in it. I love this county.
Mcnatt Cognasi Thompson Harrell Sheriff Autauga County Autauga County Decision 2026 Elections
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