Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I am writing in order to voice my support for Mark Barrick’s election to the office of Sheriff of Mathews County. I worked with Mark when I was a Newport News prosecutor and he was a Newport News police officer. Mark was an excellent officer who handled every type of case there was to handle. He was smart, dedicated and always prepared for court. Mark understood that dangerous people could not be taken off of the street by merely gathering enough evidence to establish probable cause to make an arrest. That only gets them temporarily off of the street. Mark would put in the extra effort to ensure that when the case got to court he had gathered proof beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain the necessary conviction to keep that dangerous person off of the street.

His exceptional capabilities as a law enforcement officer are complemented by his impeccable integrity and honesty. In all of the time that I worked with Mark, he never cut corners. He wa...