Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert announces bid for 2nd term

Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert is running for a second term.

Albert launched his campaign with an announcement Saturday afternoon to a gathering of about 200 supporters and local officials at Greensburg’s Pizza Siena restaurant.

Albert, 73, of New Alexandria, said he’s overcome hurdles that remained from the previous two-term administration of Jonathan Held, which was marked by legal and labor problems. Albert said he would continue to work to improve functions of the sheriff’s office.

He credited the work of his staff of about 90.

“I put good people in, and the office completely turned around,” he said. “You’re only as good as the people around you.

“I’m an administrative sheriff. I very seldom wear a uniform. My captain and lieutenants run the show and keep me informed.”

Albert said he’s expanded training for deputies on use of firearms and on active school shooter scenarios while offering public firearms safety classes for women — programs he wants to continue. He also wants to increase his department’s investment in computer technology, which is replacing reliance on paper files.

Held, who has relocated to Florida, pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor theft charge after years of denying charges that he’d forced sheriff’s department employees to work on his election campaign on county time.

During Held’s tenure, the sheriff’s office also was the subject of multiple discrimination lawsuits, which county commissioners agreed to pay more than $500,000 to settle.

Albert indicated there have been “zero lawsuits and zero grievances filed” against the sheriff’s office while under his leadership.

In 2021, Albert filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a court order that directed sheriff’s department deputies to transport inmates in the custody of the county prison to all medically necessary treatment that must be performed outside the prison.

Albert said he wanted to protect his deputies from unnecessary exposure to diseases or liability. He argued that ambulance crews were better prepared to provide such transports, which he said should fall under the responsibility of the jail’s health care provider.

According to Albert, that suit ended in an agreement that inmates will be transported by ambulance, with deputies providing a separate security detail.

In addition to prison transfers, the sheriff’s department is responsible for courtroom security and serving warrants.

In 2020, Albert switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, citing long-held conservative beliefs.

“I didn’t leave the party; the party left me,” he said. “I don’t think Democrats will ever go back to the way I think.”

He added, “I’ve always represented all the people, it doesn’t matter as a Democrat or a Republican.”

Albert joined other law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania in vowing not to enforce temporary measures Gov. Tom Wolf ordered in response to the covid-19 pandemic.

Albert said that he would not enforce orders closing restaurants and limiting the number of people at gatherings. He said he felt those orders violated the balance between enforcing governmental mandates and protecting individual civil liberties.

Albert was elected sheriff in November 2019, after retiring from more than 25 years of service as a district judge in Greensburg. He previously worked as a Greensburg city police officer, a Westmoreland County detective and a deputy county sheriff.

In the 1980s, he was elected to city council and the Greensburg Salem School Board.