Welcome

On June 26th, 2016, the Sheriff's Office restored 24 hour patrols. It is important for me to live up to the promises that were made during the campaign and restoring patrols is one of those commitments. I am proud to be part of this accomplishment and I look forward to having several more within the next few months. To help work up to restoring 24 hour patrols, the Sheriff's Office went from 10 hours a day to 20 hours a day on January 10th, 2016. This was just one step towards expanding our coverage. The safety of Polk County residents is my utmost responsibility and I have been working towards fully restoring 24 hour patrols since the passage of the levy. Public trust is very important and I will not waiver on this topic. Part of trust has to do with successful and positive relationships with community partners. For many years, I have developed those personal and professional relationships in Polk County and they are key for a successful, prosperous and safe community. I will use those relationships to help the Polk County Sheriff's Office succeed.

Shortly after taking office I have created a new vision for the office. Everything that takes place has to meet the muster of this vision statement. This is the new vision: “The Polk County Sheriff’s Office provides sustainable quality programs and services that focus on the safety and security of our schools, homes, businesses and highways which contribute to the quality of life for every segment of our community.” The Sheriff's Office will begin to create reports that will be shared with the public on a regular basis so that everyone knows what truly goes on within this office and so they know where their money is being spent. These reports will help voters understand the complexities of the field of Law Enforcement and how it impacts this office. The office of Sheriff has a long standing tradition of accountability and being a staple in our community. I believe that the Sheriff should be infused into the community and will only be successful if public trust is earned through every contact the sheriff's office makes. The public must hold the office of sheriff to a higher standard because of the responsibility and trust that is bestowed upon the position. As your sheriff, I will maintain a high level of Honor, integrity and be respectful to everyone, all the while enforcing the laws of our state.

In July of 2016 POINT is officially back up and running after being shut down for just over 2 years. The Sheriff's Office will continue to supervise the team and each of the Polk County Law Enforcement agencies has dedicated one of their employees to the team. The Oregon State Police is still committed to the team and will be assigning a detective in the near future. This cooperative effort is essential to the safety of every community in Polk County. This is one more accomplishment that I have been able to be a part of and I am proud to be able to help restart the team. Since drug crimes do not have boundaries, I will continually work closely with the other police agencies in the county so that we can begin to combat the devastating drug problems that each of our communities have. This inter agency team conducts investigations in every part of the county, including each city and even the most rural areas. It is so vital to have those relationships already in place so the team can hit the ground running and I am the only one who can make that happen