MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (NBC 15) — Questions are being raised about whether Democratic sheriff candidate Pamela Laffitte meets a new Mobile County qualification requiring sheriff candidates to have at least five years of prior service as a sworn law enforcement officer with arrest powers.
The requirement, approved by state lawmakers in 2024, applies to anyone qualifying for election or appointment as Mobile County sheriff on or after June 1, 2024. The law says a candidate must meet several minimum qualifications, including having “five or more years of prior service as a sworn law enforcement officer having the power of arrest.”
Laffitte’s campaign biography describes her as a longtime public servant and retired Mobile County Sheriff’s Office employee with 26 years and six months of service. It also says she previously worked as a Public Safety I dispatcher with the Prichard Police Department, graduated from corrections and jail training academies, and served as a former auxiliary, or reserve, deputy until the death of her mother in 2004…