Open Letter
We recently received a letter from an someone who works at the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.
We have not added to nor removed anything from what was written to us:
Dear Follies,
I’m writing this as a law enforcement officer who currently works at the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.
First off, I want you to understand that I am not a disgruntled employee. Quite the opposite, I love my job, my agency and the people I work with; however, I will admit to having become quite disheartened.
The reason I am writing to you is to try and shed some light on what truly takes place within our walls and to make the citizens of Deschutes County aware of the behavior taking place in our Sheriff’s Office.
The Law Enforcement Officer, he or she, is the person who has sworn an oath of office not only to protect the Constitution of the United States of America but the Constitution of the State of Oregon. We are the people who work two-day shifts with a 24-hour rollover and then work two nightshifts — So a total of 48 hours minimum per week.
I say a minimum of 48 hours, because we are so shorthanded that we often must work overtime or hold over on our shifts, despite being exhausted. We do this to ensure the community receives the public safety it deserves. We are here to protect our community at any cost even if that means sacrificing our life to save another.
We chose this career or in some cases it chose us. Some of us wanted to be in law enforcement since we were kids, others feel a calling to protect and serve their community and to a few it’s just a job.
The ones who wanted to be in law enforcement since they were kids or who felt a calling to serve are most of the people that I work with and who I want to work with. They are the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sisters, brother’s sons and daughters who get up every day with the goal of making their community better and safer. We are certainly not perfect, and we are not always the most popular people especially when we take enforcement action, but we are necessary to protect our community from the offenders who threaten our society.
We are ordinary people who work in all types of weather from blazing heat to freezing snow. We are the ones who run towards the gunfire when everyone else is running away. We are the ones who knock on a loved one’s door only to give them the most devasting news a person could ever give, that being the loss of a loved one. We respond to and investigate deaths, child sex abuse, murders, rapes, narcotics, motor vehicle crashes and many other types of crimes and incidents. We see and experience the worst of the worst all while being human beings just like everyone else.
We work on holidays, anniversaries, birthdays and weekends and do so without remorse, so that we are always ready to serve our community when called upon. We do this because we know we are the ones who swore an oath to protect our citizens and to be available to respond to your needs when called upon.
It is important for me to say neither I nor my colleagues are in any way complaining, just stating the facts. At the end of the day, we all chose to be in this career voluntarily. We love what we do and want our agency to be the best it can possibly be.
A high percentage of law enforcement officers served in the military — With many serving their country on the battlefield. Some went to college and others have a high school diploma, but no matter which path they took they all work for the common goal of keeping their community safe.
I work with extraordinary people who simply want to be able to go to work each shift and uphold their oath to serve and protect their community. I can tell you I work with some very talented and dedicated people. It makes me proud to serve alongside them as I know if it weren’t for these people our office would have failed long ago.
When I became a law enforcement officer my family was nervous and worried because they knew I would be dealing with bad and dangerous people. Never in a million years did I ever think my greatest threat would come from within the very walls of my own office.
For years it has felt like going to work in a glass tank full of sharks waiting for one of them to take a bite out of you, then as you begin to bleed more sharks start taking more bites until you’re gone. Who are these sharks? They are the Sheriff’s Office command staff and their “golden children”
What is a “golden child?” If you’re a golden child, you can do no wrong. Your career will flourish without question or consequence. Unsurprisingly most are in supervisory positions. These are the people who do little to nothing and yet receive everything.
Golden children can dodge internal investigations (IA) or simply have those investigations “unfounded” regardless of the staggering amount of evidence presented against them. Golden children are the ones who get the special assignments, the easiest shifts, and take all the credit for everyone else’s hard work.
There are numerous people who feel that Shane Nelson and his Command staff have weaponized the IA process and are trying to investigate anyone who does not support Nelson and his inner circle’s beliefs.
In fact, the president of the employee association publicly told employees at a recent association meeting that folks should be careful as he has never seen so many IAs initiated against employees by Command Staff.
To be clear, I’m not talking about appropriate IAs where employees are violating the laws or Sheriff’s Office policies which we must follow every day. I am talking about IAs opened against employees to simply intimidate, retaliate against or bully them.
Crazy right? These employees are not violating policy or breaking the law. They are simply ordinary people trying to do their jobs by serving and protecting their community. It appears that instead of mentoring and supporting their employees, the Sheriff and the members of his command staff are more focused on going after them for the pettiest of reasons.
The environment is one in which the less you do the more you receive. There is no reward for the people who work the hardest or achieve the most, in fact quite the opposite. The more you do the bigger the target is on your back and God forbid you get on the Sheriff’s wrong side. If that happens your career is over. He won’t stop pursuing you until you’re gone, or at the very least your career will be put on hold forever.
I have seen this time and time again and we see it right now with folks like Sergeants McLaughlin and Minton who are being persecuted. These hard working, honorable and respected employees whose only sin is to exercise their First Amendment rights on their own time or stand up for their employees.
A fine level of leadership from a person who preaches customer service. Maybe Sheriff Nelson thinks that only applies outside of our building.
I’ve been told that when Sheriff Nelson became Sheriff in 2016, he mandated that all personnel read a New York Times bestselling book called, “It’s Your Ship”.
If you are not familiar with this book it is about a United States Navy Captain, Abarashoff, who took command of a ship “The Benfold”. This ship, despite having the state-of-the-art equipment, was performing poorly. Within months of taking command, Captain Abarashoff created a crew of confident and inspired problem-solvers eager to take the initiative and responsibility for their actions. The slogan on board became “It’s your ship,” and “The Benfold” was soon recognized across the Navy as a model of naval efficiency.
Anyone reading this book would think to themselves, “I want to work for Captain Abrashoff, he sounds like an incredible leader who truly cares about his sailors.” To me this sounded like a great idea by Sheriff Nelson. Listen to your employees, mentor them, empower them and watch them accomplish incredible things. Most importantly this would naturally generate an incredibly positive state of morale within our office which translates to incredible customer service for you, our citizens.
Regrettably I must tell you that this is the absolute opposite of how Sheriff Shane Nelson and his command staff have and continue to operate. We are not a proud ship at sea. Instead, it feels as if we are a broken ship that is at great risk of sinking to the bottom of the ocean. It is without question we work under a dictatorship, and it is not a benevolent one. I hear people complain about why they had to read “It’s Your Ship” if the Sheriff doesn’t follow his own advice.
It is truly disheartening to me that the people who are tasked with leading our agency only tear it down because of their personal ambitions. I always thought the command staff would be the ones you could look up to and respect and want to model your own career after. After all, they should be the captain of the ship.
Unfortunately, most of us can hardly wait for our current command staff to be gone. In fact, in the years I have been at our office I have never heard so many people talk about wanting to retire. This is disappointing to me as there is no greater honor than being able to make a difference in someone’s life and in upholding the oath of office, an oath we all swore to. Apparently, our command staff has forgotten they took the same oath as the rest of us. Or maybe they just don’t care because their actions don’t affect them.
I don’t want to leave my coworkers out who follow the same schedule but are confined to the walls of our correctional facility.
Imagine that, working with the inmates, day in and day out without the ability to leave for 12 hours. Ask yourself, could you do their job, locked inside of a secure facility all day or night without the ability to leave while overseeing several hundred inmates. I know these folks have been short-staffed for many years.
One must question why the Sheriff’s Office can never hire enough people in corrections (or patrol for that matter)? Well let’s think about that. When an agency starts developing a reputation for poor leadership or even worse a reputation for going after its people, then who would want to work there. Maybe the other reason is that your Sheriff hasn’t come into your facility for so many years that he has no idea what your staffing levels are.
Morale seems to be at an all-time low, and I hear more and more people talking about going on medications just to try and survive. Then I hear people say they have just given up because nobody is listening to them. Unfortunately, we have several of our good people who have the most knowledge and experience talking about leaving and going to work at other law enforcement agencies. It is too hard to find great people who care as much as they do about their community, and we should not be losing them.
We especially should not be losing them because of poor leadership. We cannot afford to have our law enforcement officers giving up, they are the first line of defense and the ones who will be there no matter what happens.
The internal politics is not only juvenile but debilitating. Imagine trying to go to work every day and doing the job I described in the beginning of this story only to feel like you’re under attack by your own command staff.
As a citizen and taxpayer of Deschutes County this should infuriate you knowing this is truly how your law enforcement officers are being treated. I hope you can understand how we feel when we go out every day to protect your rights only to have our own rights stepped on and violated by our leaders.
I have had many people tell me that our Sheriff used to be a real person, one whom everyone supported and wanted to work for. Unfortunately, he became a politician and has lost sight of his most important asset, his people.
Deschutes County is an incredible place to live, work and raise our families. We have incredible citizens who deserve nothing but the best from our office. I’m sorry you are not receiving the best.
Hopefully one day things will change, we will have a leadership team who supports its employees, mentors them and prepares them for success so there is never a decline in the level of service our community deserves.
Respectfully,
A Law Enforcement Officer
