Accomplishments as Sheriff

As your sheriff, I established a patrol lieutenant position to enhance service and accountability in our law enforcement agency and for the public. As a leader, I believe in team work and have an open-door policy for staff and the public to share any concerns, thoughts or ideas.

The Sheriff’s Office actively fights the war on drugs in our communities. We support our deputies with updated equipment, training and scheduling for better enforcement with safety in mind. The Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office has an outstanding record enforcing laws against illegal drug activity because of the committed men and women serving our agency.

I have worked with the county administration, county board and the court for the second court branch. This collaborative effort will enhance safety and function during and after construction.

I have reached out to our law enforcement partners: City of Hayward Police, LCO Tribal Police, Town of Hayward Police, LCO Wardens, State Patrol, State Division of Criminal Investigations, State DNR Wardens, Federal Forest Law Enforcement and Federal Park Law Enforcement to work together. This collaborative effort has been for special details and day to day calls for service to better serve our communities and keep our law enforcement officials safe.

I attend county board meetings, other governing body meetings and community meetings. This gives me knowledge of happenings and problem areas, so our administrative team can schedule to better serve our communities. As your sheriff, I am everyone’s sheriff, regardless of personal or party affiliation.

I have meetings with staff from all agency divisions to request their input on agency and community issues. As a leader, I believe we receive better ideas, give ownership to our staff and that establishes better team work by seeking their input.

The Sheriff’s Office has continually worked with the schools to promote school safety. This has been done through regular school safety meetings and active shooter training in the school buildings.

I activity support our youth explorer program, which educates our youth during a 45-hour academy in some of the roles and responsibilities of a law enforcement officer. These efforts promote our youth to pursue law enforcement. I also attend law enforcement recruit academy graduations to encourage good recruits to apply with our agency. This is paramount in times like these when retention and recruiting is such a challenge. I attend and support our Cops and Bobbers program. This is another excellent way for law enforcement to mentor our youth.

I attend and support staff attending community events to enhance understanding and relationships with our county residents and travelers. We appreciate the continued community support that is received by our agency.

Together with the administrative team we manage a budget approaching $6 million, which we have successfully kept under budget every year during my time in office.

I graduated from Leadership in Police Organizations which is modeled after the training concept of dispersed leadership and delivers modern behavioral science concepts and theories uniquely tailored to the law enforcement environment.

None of these accomplishments would be possible without the hard work and dedication of my administrative team, supervisors, line and support staff. As a community, we are very blessed to have such dedicated professionals to serve and protect us.