Earl Humphries held his first civilian job for about four days, then began one that has now lasted 40 years. He started in an entry-level position and has risen to second-in-command.
Humphries, 60, joined the Jones County Sheriff’s Department as a dispatcher fresh out of the military in 1985, rose through the ranks over the years, and is now Sheriff Butch Reece’s Chief Deputy.
“I was a major in criminal investigation when the previous Chief Deputy, Barbara Burnette, passed away in 2020,” Humphries said last week, “and the sheriff promoted me to chief deputy.”
Humphries was born in neighboring Macon and went through most of elementary school there. When his parents divorced, he moved to Thomson, near Augusta, with his mother and attended school there until she married a man in the Navy.
“I didn’t want to move to Norfolk, Virginia. So I came to stay with my father here in Jones County,” Humphries recalled, adding that he graduated in 1985 and went straight into the U.S. Army for two years.
The enlistee went through basic and advanced individual training, and he became a tractor-trailer driver for the Army. His assignment, though, did not further that.
“Instead of getting to stay in stateside, they sent me to a field artillery unit in Furth, Germany,” Humphries said. “And I hardly ever got to drive a tractor trailer there. It was always five-tons or an in-the-field type of vehicle.”
No planes or snakes for him
His deployment to Germany and the return required two of three airplane trips Humphries has taken. The third was when he was processed out of the Army in South Carolina. “They flew me from Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where I was processed, back to Atlanta.”
That was 40 years ago. “That’s the last time I got on a plane,” Humphries confided. “When you fly into Atlanta, and you look out and see another plane landing on a runway close by, and you can read all the letters and the numbers on the side of the plane… I just don’t like flying.
“If it calls for a plane to get there,” he declared, “I guess I’ll never see it. I’ve made an arrangement with God. ‘If You take care of me, I’ll never get back on another one.’” As his attitude toward flying may indicate, heights are one of Humphries’ two fears. The other: serpents.
“I am terribly afraid of serpents—snakes,” he confessed. “I can’t even watch them on television. I just…I don’t know. I cringe, I just can’t do it.”
Humphries was equally emphatic about heights.
“I call it my break-a-leg height. If I can fall and break a leg, I am probably okay. But, anything higher than that I don’t do. I don’t like going in buildings with more than two or three floors. If I have to go to a hospital, for instance, I’ll stay close to the door. I don’t go near the windows.”
Following his release from the Army, Humphries went to work for Andrews Plumbing Company … for a minute.
“I ran into the sheriff somewhere,” he recalled, “and they were hiring dispatchers at the time, paying the same amount of money that I was sweating for in the summertime outside for Andrews Plumbing Company. So I said, ‘Well, let me try that.’ So, after about three or four days of Andrews Plumbing Company, I came to work at the sheriff’s department.”
Humphries and his fiancée, Susan Alane Williams, waited a while after he started working to get married. They met in high school and became engaged before he joined the Army. They tied the knot in April of 1987 and have three children: Kara, 36, Earl Maxwell Humphries III (Beau), 34, and Leah, 33. Alane is a retired teacher from Wells Elementary, and Leah is on maternity leave from the same school.
The chief deputy said dispatching then was definitely different from today.
“It was not nearly as technically savvy as it is now. We had a log. We had to handwrite a log about all the calls and stuff like that. There is a lot more information that gets put out now, but at the time it was generally just the radio, telephone, and that’s it.”
Humphries went to mandate school in early ’86 and worked as a patrol deputy for about a year and a half before the sheriff moved him to investigations. Bobby Lowe, who had been with Bibb County and the Macon PD, was hired by Reece.
“They were pretty top notch at that time, and Bobby Lowe was instrumental in starting just about all of their crime scene units in Macon,” he said. “So I got a lot of on-the-job training from Bobby, then he left.”
Investigations his work of choice
Humphries said he and Calvin Pitts were the two investigators for a long time.
“I enjoyed criminal investigation,” he acknowledged. “That’s where I always wanted to be, because you got to take a case from start to finish, and it was all on you. We had some good prosecuting attorneys back then at the time, but we had some good defense attorneys. And I learned more from defense attorneys because they keep you on your toes. You have to make sure your Is are dotted and your Ts are crossed.”
Humphries explained that technology has made a big difference in the dispatch system from the call to the response and potential action. He pointed out that Burnette had used SPLOST funds to upgrade the radio room into a CAD system, “which pretty much changed everything we did up there. We didn’t just take the call on a telephone and send it out over the radio. That’s what we had done for years.
“Now,” he continued, “you have software that helps you take the call while you are inputting everything in the computer system. Then you click a button, and that call goes out again, to a computer in the car, and they respond from there.”
Humphries pointed out, however, that even with the technological advances, the process starts with someone answering the phone.
“Those dispatchers up there are the backbone of this department. They have to help somebody who’s probably having the worst day of their life and be professional and courteous.
“There is no doubt we have some great patrol deputies and outstanding K-9 officers. I’ll put these investigators here up against anybody, anywhere, anytime. But,” he added, “those dispatchers, that’s where everything here starts.”
Humphries discussed the training requirements for deputies and expectations of the Jones County department employees.
“We try to go over and above what is required because you can’t serve the people of Jones County by just getting a GED. And,” he explained, “we call a GED around here a ‘good enough deputy.’ He’s good enough; he’s not going to do a whole lot, but he’ll just get you by. We try to stay away from the GED.
“The sheriff will not hire somebody just for the sake of hiring somebody,” Humphries stated. “It’s got to be somebody who’s going to fit here. We don’t use sign-on bonuses or anything. We want somebody who’s going to come here, stay here, and grow here.”
Possible plans in the future
Humphries has been on the job for 40 years, and his boss, in office for 45 years, is now the longest-serving sheriff in Georgia. The chief deputy had nothing but praise for Reece.
“I think he’s done an excellent job of putting the right people in the right places. The little things don’t escape him. He lives, eats, and thrives on this department. He’s earned the right to stay here as long as he wants to.”
Humphries does feel he has contributed.
“I take as much pride in this department as he (Reece) does. Even though I like criminal investigations, I enjoy doing this. It’s not often that you get to have as much input as I do in just about everything we do. And, that’s been the biggest learning experience that I’ve had.
“I am here every morning at eight o’clock. I am generally here well past four o’clock, just trying to take care of the little things. If you do that, the big things take care of themselves.”
The next election is in 2028, and Humphries said he believes Reece, 78, may run again. When the sheriff does decide to step down, though, Humphries is hoping to step in.
“I plan on running when he does decide to retire,” he announced. “There have been discussions.”
In the meantime, Humphries is content with his station in life at the moment.
“I don’t get all those calls at the house. I play golf as much as I can on the weekends. I am able now to enjoy my grandkids. I get to see them every day pretty much. So,” he concluded, “I am kinda liking where everything’s at right now.”
