DODGE CITY — Deputy David Pitts is bringing a more personal approach to his duties within the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office, offering the businesses and residents of Dodge City a direct line to law enforcement.

After his service as a security officer in the United States Air Force, Pitts worked for 18 years in a K-9 unit in Florida. This brought about what Pitts describes as “one of the highlights of [his] career” when after five days of extensive efforts all local units had exhausted their efforts to locate a missing person deep in the everglades. Pitts’ unit was called in from hours away and located the subject within 3 hours.

Retiring from law enforcement –at least that was his intention — Pitts relocated to Cullman in 2017 to pursue his dream of becoming a poultry farmer. Pitts however, soon began to miss the camaraderie he had experienced from his time as a police officer.

Impressed with what he had seen from the CCSO Pitts came out of retirement, and spent a day volunteering at the Dodge City Day celebration. That experience instilled in Pitts the desire to apply when the position of Township Deputy became available.

“I was just really impressed with the community out here. It’s such a family community, everybody knows everybody and all of the businesses work together,” Pitts said.

In addition to Pitts’ regular duties, his role as township deputy is to be seen within the community. To provide a sense of security to residents by knowing that a deputy is minutes away. A task Pitts’ accomplished immediately upon taking on the role by going door-to-door to meet with business owners, passing out business cards, and offering to give out his personal cell phone number.

“People will usually call me directly and I will contact dispatch on my way to a call. It definitely cuts response times pretty drastically. There have been times when I pull up somewhere and people look at me confused and say ‘What is going on? I just hung up with dispatch. How’d did you get here so fast?” Pitts says.

Despite not being a resident himself, Pitts says that during his time serving the Dodge City community, the residents there have become “like family” to him.