It's the very first day on the job for LeFlore County Sheriff Rob Seale. After what he calls a tedious campaign, Seale took over the department beating out incumbent Bruce Curnutt.
"Getting sworn in and getting all that paper work taken care of," Seale said. "Getting uniforms to my deputies coming on board, getting vehicles taken care of. It's been a busy morning."
Seale said it's going to be a busy four years.
"We got the third largest county in the state," Seale explained. "We've got 1,680 square miles to cover and I've got ten deputies to do it with."
Both Seale, and his new undersheriff, Kendall Morgan, were sworn in at the court house Wednesday. But it wasn't long before they headed back to the office, to look through files and get familiar with cases the department's been working on.
One of the biggest problems Seale's working to tackle is the unsolved murder rate.
"It's a major problem," Seale said. "We need to attack it."
He continued on to say that another priority is reducing drug trafficking in the county.
"We're going to be working pretty close with the Drug Task Force here at the district attorney's office, and with [The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics]," Seale said. "We'll be working as hard as we can to try and combat it."
But Seale said his biggest concern is property crimes.
"The burglaries and larcenies are the biggest issue we have," Seale said, explaining that these crimes have increased steadily over the last few years.
Seale said in order to achieve what all he wants to accomplish his department will be working to strengthen relationships with other law enforcement agencies.
Seale served as a police officer in Poteau for 21 years before retiring. Seale said he decided to run for sheriff because he was worried about certain crime rates within LeFlore County. Seale will be the LeFlore County Sheriff for the next four years. He'll be up for re-election in November of 2016.