LaFAYETTE — The Chambers County Sheriff’s Office has been busy over the past three weeks, arresting over 60 people and performing a large scale operation Friday night.

In a press release sent out by the Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, Sheriff Sid Lockhart reported that 60 individuals had been arrested over the past 17 days. These arrests came after over 70 warrants were executed by local police.

Charges in these arrests included driving under the influence, failure to pay child support, probation violations and many others committed by residents of Opelika, Lanett, LaFayette, Five Points, Camp Hill and Valley.

On Friday, June 15 at 6 p.m. Sheriff Lockhart and his office initiated what they called “Operation Friday Night Lights.” Eleven deputies were placed around Chambers County in high crime areas, patrolling until midnight.

“We had been getting different complaints from different areas of the county about a variety of things going on so we decided to saturate those areas,” Lockhart told the Valley Times-News.

Operation Friday Night Lights and ones similar to it are utilized as a crime suppression tools. This particular operation stemmed from citizen complaints and reports received by the Sheriff’s Office about offenses such as shooting into buildings, firing upon residences, suspicious drug
activity and excessive speeding.

The operation involved officers performing multiple traffic stops which, in addition to the five arrests made, resulted in 101 combined written warnings and traffic citations being issued.

When the operation concluded, the Sheriff’s Office had seized three weapons, one vehicle, police body armor and narcotics. There were five arrested on charges ranging from narcotics to firearms to one unnamed individual who had escaped from the state of Tennessee.

“Sheriff Lockhart would like to encourage the citizens of Chambers County to continue to inform his office of such activity,” read the press release. “This type of operation will continue to take place in attempt to eradicate crime from Chambers County. Sheriff Lockhart would also like to thank everyone that worked this detail including deputies, administration, corrections, Lafayette police department and dispatch for making this a safe and successful operation.”