The Box Butte County Commissioners tapped J.D. Sutphen to serve as the new Sheriff of Box Butte County, dropping “interim” from his title during their meeting on Oct. 4.
“I’m happy that the Commissioners picked me,” said Sutphen. “I think that it just shows that they wanted somebody with experience in there. I think Tammy (Mowry, former Box Butte County Sheriff) was the only one who had more experience than I did. Once she retired, I think Kirk Felker (Interim Alliance Police Department Chief) is next, and he’s about nine years behind me. I appreciate the commissioners picking me, and I’m going to try to do the best job that I can.”
Sutphen has spent many years in law enforcement, most recently serving as Chief Deputy at the Box Butte County Sheriff’s Office until Mowry announced her resignation effective at the end of August.
“It’s not much different than being the Chief Deputy for the last few months as things were winding down for Tammy,” said Sutphen. “She was pretty much letting me handle everything from then on, anyway. It really isn’t much difference. I’m finding out there’s a lot of desk time, and a lot of things that I did as Chief Deputy that I haven’t delegated yet to other people in the department to take some of the duties that I did. So, not only am I doing the Sheriff’s duty, I’m still doing a lot of my old Chief Deputy duties. We’ve got to get some things figured out, and start giving some people some things that I used to do to take the load off me. I’m still young, I can handle it.”
Sutphen explained that since he started his career in law enforcement in September of 1989, he has seen several changes. He noted that one of the biggest struggles facing law enforcement today is finding people who are still willing to put on the badge and take on the responsibility of being an officer or a deputy.
“I worked my first seven years with the Alliance Police Department, I worked two years with Hemingford Police Department and the last 23 years with the Sheriff’s Office,” Sutphen said. “I’ve worked all the law enforcement jobs there were in Box Butte County. I think that makes me, for better or worse, pretty well known in the county. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who don’t know me just because I’ve been here for that long.
“The biggest change has happened within the last five to 10 years, just, nobody wants to do this job anymore,” said Sutphen. “Law enforcement in a lot of the larger cities, and kind of nationwide, have a black eye. It’s hard to find people who want to do this job. It’s hard to find people who want to stay in this profession. The turnover rate’s horrendous, and it’s everybody. Everybody has vacancies. Everybody’s trying to find people.”
Sutphen will serve the remainder of Mowry’s term. Mowry was just re-elected to the office in 2022. Sutphen shared his goals for the department moving forward.
“Get fully staffed, get my people as much training as we can get them and get them ready to go out and do the job,” Sutphen said. “There isn’t a whole lot of things I want to change. We’ve always got to watch out spending just because it’s the taxpayer’s money, and we try to give them the best deal for their dollar.”
The Box Butte County Sheriff’s Office has multiple duties, Sutphen explained. He noted that deputies handle much more than law enforcement.
“We do paper service, which comes through the court,” Sutphen said. “We spend a lot of time doing that. We have to do security in District Court when the District Court Judge is on the bench. We have title inspections, and it seems like we never have two minutes to sit down. We’re always on the go just because we have other things that we have to do.”
Sutphen explained that the citizens of Box Butte County can help the Sheriff’s Office by staying vigilant and keeping in contact with law enforcement.
“Watching out for your neighbors and things like that,” said Sutphen. “If you start seeing strange vehicles around in your neighborhood, or your part of the county, get us a plate number, give us a call. We’ll check it out. It may be something innocent, but you just never know.”