Sheriff Crawford
Stories this photo appears in:

Petersburg sheriff works with company to give drug testing kits to families
Petersburg Sheriff Vanessa Crawford is taking a new tack to help parents learn whether their children are experimenting with drugs.

Petersburg jail closure to cost taxpayers $
Instead of saving money, the closure of the Petersburg Jail will cost city taxpayers at least $1.2 million extra each year, a Free Press analysis has determined. Figures from Petersburg’s government confirm the newspaper’s finding that closing the jail is more expensive than keeping it open, belying claims from Mayor W. Howard Myers and three other council members who supported the jail’s shutdown. That extra cost is embedded in the proposed budget that Petersburg City Manager William E. Johnson III presented recently to the seven-member Petersburg City Council. His proposed budget also provides no raises for city employees and no increase in city contributions to the public schools.