WALKER - Two Republican candidates are vying to lead the Walker Police Department. Voters will decide between current chief David Addison or Gerald Varnado.

Both candidates have been in law enforcement for more than 40 years and share similar views on subjects such as pay raises, officer retention and community involvement.

Addison is currently in his second term. If re-elected, he says he will continue to provide the citizens of Walker with a chief who interacts with the community and is dedicated to making the town a safe place to live.

"I get out every day and I'm talking to my people. Seeing how they're doing and I'm going to promise them that I'm going to continue to give them the best law enforcement," he said.

Varnado was an assistant police chief for the Albany Police Department. He retired as a State Police lieutenant. He says it's time for a change in the department and that he will bring that. He feels helping the department internally first will help the community and plans to focus on recruitment and retention if elected.

"I anticipated on helping the police first to be able to help the community. Walker has a very high turnover rate of police officers. It's hard enough to hire a police officer in today's world. If I can recruit them, I want to be able to keep them," he said.

Both feel a way to retain officers is to fight for an increase in wages.

"I plan on cutting the police chief's salary by $15,000 to $20,000 per year to be able to give a funding source to the police officers from the bottom up,' Varnado said.

"I'm trying to help them build careers. Something they can do for the rest of their life and be happy," Addison said.

Both also want the officers to get more involved in the community. They feel establishing positive relationships with citizens is key to doing their job successfully.

"I teach my guys and ladies to be personable. If you don't know your people and the public that you're serving, you're not going to do a good job," Addison said.

"I want them to become a part of the Walker community. And I think I have those qualities, the training and the know-how to be able to do that," Varnado said.

Early voting has begun and will be open until Oct. 29. Election day is Nov. 5.