Sheriff's office thanks Rodney Head for his service

Nicolle Sartain, The News Courier, Athens, Ala.
·2 min read

Oct. 8—After 25 years of service, the Limestone County Sheriff's Office thanked Corrections Officer Rodney Head as he begins his retirement.

"I appreciate his friendship, commitment, and service to our community over the past 25 years. Rodney has been an example of what a public service professional should be," Sheriff McLaughlin said.

Tammy Waddell is the Jail Administrator at the Limestone County Sheriff's Office and has worked with Officer Head for the entire time he served with LCSO.

"Rodney is a well respected officer, was always very dependable," Waddell said. "Rodney is one of those that is quick-witted and was a joy to be around. He was always someone that didn't mind telling you what he thought."

She said that he served in more than one capacity. He was also a courthouse officer and at one point in time he was a supervisor.

She described an old memory of working at the old jail facility when he was a night-shift corrections officer and she was a night-shift dispatcher.

"We both experienced a ghost event that we have to this day still lived to tell," she said.

There was a basement area that had doors to go outside to another area that housed inmates outdoors for work-detail. There was a chair by the door, she explained she and Officer Head were the only ones in the building.

"Whenever Rodney left and went out the door and came back the chair had moved. So, he thought that I had let somebody else through and he was trying to figure out who else I had let through, because nobody should've been there, and I never opened the doors," Waddell said. "But then he showed me on the camera where the chair had moved, and it wasn't just a small distance. It was like the width of the door."

She said some of the officers who have been around awhile that they call "old heads" have several stories like that but in this case they both actually were able to back each other up.

"It says a lot about leadership when you have someone that's willing to stay in a career, and then it says a lot about the individual, especially as a public servant, to want to be in this capacity for that long. That says a lot about a person's character," Waddell said. "It's been a pleasure working with Rodney all these years. I've enjoyed it."

The department said in a Facebook post that Officer Head has left a lasting impact on the Limestone County Sheriff's Office and they wish him the best in his retirement.