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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. Since 1851 there have been 36 sheriffs in Lane County. Today on the show, you'll meet the 37th. Carl Wilkerson was named the county sheriff to replace recently departed Clifford Harold. Wilkerson takes over a department that must patrol a county that's bigger than some states, leading to response times for emergencies up to an hour instead of mere minutes for city police forces. He also runs the county jail, which is overcrowded and often the place of last resort for our community's mental health crisis. And he's taking over at a time when 1000s of people head to the more rural areas of the county to recreate, and often find themselves in need of Sheriff Department rescue. In short, it's a tough job, made tougher by underfunding and understaffing that's next on Oregon On The Record. Lane County Sheriff, Carl Wilkerson, thanks so much for chatting with us.
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Thanks for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Why don't you talk about your experience in law enforcement in the Lane County Sheriff's Department?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Okay, well, we're gonna go back a few years then, okay, I actually became interested in law enforcement as a teenage kid and joined the sheriff's office law enforcement explorer post when I was out of high school. That led to me riding with deputies and learning about the office and learning about the jail and the differences between a sheriff's office and a police department. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be an employee of the sheriff's office as a pretty young man in 9495 I was hired as a Marine patrol cadet, where I assisted the deputies who did water safety and helped them with the maintenance of their vehicles, the boats and in their shore patrols and boating inspections and such. And then I, while I was doing that, Sheriff McManus hired me as a reserve deputy, or a volunteer deputy, and I went to the reserve Academy. And didn't get to do that very long before Sheriff McManus actually hired me as a deputy and I went to work at the jail, and I worked in the jail for three and a half to four years. Great, great place as a young man to learn a little bit about communication skills. Great place to learn about conflict, and I then got transferred to the Police Services Division, where I've had the opportunity to do just a little bit of everything. Some of the assignments I had in the police services division as a deputy where I worked main office patrol, I worked court security, I worked on our traffic safety team back when we still had that. I was assigned to the Creswell contract, or the law enforcement contract that the sheriff's office holds with the city of Creswell, where I kind of acted like a small-town Police Department officer. And then I spent a lot of years working as a detective for the sheriff's office worked a lot of big, big cases during that time period. It was actually when we had the big layoffs, and our detectives actually got reduced to two so one me and my detective partner at the time, Detective Randy Findlay, for almost two years, were the detectives for the Sheriff's Office. And that didn't slow down the you know; the child abuse is the sure sexual assaults or the murders Sure. So that was a really busy time period. And then in 2013 I was promoted supervisor or as a sergeant. And then I supervise our main office Patrol Unit, our folks who respond to 911, patrol calls, and did that for a little while before they moved me back into detectives, and I supervise the detectives, where I did that until about, I think was 2018 where I was promoted to lieutenant and I did that for about a year, where I supervise the supervisors of the Police Services division. And I did that until 2019 when Sheriff Harold was appointed as Sheriff. At which time he appointed me as his chief deputy. So, I've been his number two for the last six years. Okay, what I like to kind of remind people is that I spent 17 years as a line guy, and now the last 12 years as either supervisor or manager. So, I've had a pretty good mix of both sides of the plate.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, growing up in the organization, you know, how would you describe your leadership style? What do you want to bring to the office of Sheriff?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: It's so much as bringing as it is, continue. Okay, I feel. Like that. I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. I think we've had some really amazing sheriffs, especially since Tom Turner forward. And you know, we have developed a culture of family. We've developed a culture of service. I said this in my interview with the commissioners the other day. But every person, every new deputy that we hire, I always tell them, hey, look, this is my philosophy. I don't care what you do as long as you do these three things, and that is, treat other people the way you want to be treated. Do the right thing for the right reasons and do your best. I said, You'll never get in trouble if you follow those rules, I promise you that. So yeah, and so that's my philosophy, is I really want to continue the family culture. I really want to continue the culture of an internal drive to serve. I mean, that's what we are, right? We are public servants, and we should be putting that at the forefront. And I really care about the health and wellness of our staff. I think a good, healthy staff member is going to provide a way greater service to our community.
MICHAEL DUNNE: It was interesting when you were talking about being a detective, and when there were cuts and there were only two of you, I wonder, you know, sort of doing more with less. Talk about that, because I know that obviously many departments within Lane County and certainly the sheriff's office has had to deal with that sort of, how do you sort of overcome that challenge of maybe having fewer people than you would like to have, but still need the continuity of service and all the different things that the sheriff's office does?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Well, you know, I have to go backwards a little bit and remind people that the sheriff's office in itself, is just different than a police department. It's constitutionally mandated that we have a sheriff. It's constitutionally mandated. The sheriff shall do X, Y and Z. Police departments are not required to happen. But also, at the same time, the sheriff is having the closest connection to the citizens, and the fact that the sheriff is normally an elected position, so the do more with the less has been something the sheriff's office has done for a really long time. There are good parts about it as it creates a tight family culture. You know, the folks who are out doing the work are really dependent on the others around them to help them do that work. It creates some outside of the box thinking and partnerships and cooperation with other organizations that you wouldn't necessarily have to do if you had the correct number of resources. So that part is the positive side of that. The negative side about it, though, is that our folks work really, really, really hard. We lost several patrol deputies this last year to another local agency. And the common theme amongst that was, I can make more money and do a lot less work. And I have to say that there is truth to that, when they say that, because our patrol deputies, especially our patrol deputies, are just going from call to call to call to call to call, sure, and you know, there's not that time for that proactive, you know, police response. There's not that time for the community engagement aspect of it, the areas that we have been able to have the community engagement like, you know, up river and over on the coast, those kinds of community partnerships pay dividends when it comes to actually solving crime and dealing with community issues. So, you know, there's good and bad to it, but frankly, we can't afford to keep losing deputies. We can't afford to train people up, spend a lot of money on training and development of them, and then have another organization reap those benefits. So, we have to find something different, a different solution.
MICHAEL DUNNE: To that point, how do you recruit for new personnel and sort of within that question, are there, you know, certain characteristics you're looking for, and maybe even areas or new sorts of demographics that you can look to recruit that could become, you know, great personnel here at the sheriff's office?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Well, I will say that we have traditionally been very fortunate in the fact that we seem to just draw people who have that internal motivation to serve. We've had great success with just that word of mouth. Hey, you know, young man at the gas station, you seem like you're a hard worker. You seem like you're a good person. Have you ever considered work for the Sheriff's Office? So we've done really well. There I am. I'm motivated into trying to increase our numbers in a variety of areas. I would like to, you know, represent the community in kind of the same makeup that the communities built. Like to see more women. I'd like to see more people from the Hispanic communities. And we've done well there too. Actually, we've had some, some really great successes in some of those ventures of communication with them and drawing on some really good deputies. But I think ultimately what's most important is that we want people of character. You can probably train anybody to do any job at the sheriff's office, to include my own, but what you can't train somebody to do is be a good person. That is something that they need to have from the get go. So, we need people of character, and we'll train them to do the best, in fact, if we can, in fact, use this as a recruitment. We're hiring and feel free to reach out to us, and we'd be loved. Love to share with you about our office.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, you've been in this department for a long time, and you've been in law enforcement for a long time. How has it changed, maybe from when you first entered to now, and specifically around the idea of the ideal candidate. Is it different than when you were a rookie, compared to where you are now standing at the top job?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Well, yeah, it certainly has changed a little bit in the fact that, you know, when I was getting hired, there would be hundreds of applicants for what may just be a hiring list, okay? And now you know, we are hiring folks that don't necessarily have that same kind of thing, and the fact that their law enforcement agencies throughout the US are actually struggling to hire. The interest in law enforcement isn't what it once was. So, we're, we're, you know, I'm going to say more accepting of things that would have been a no before. Really, what's important is that the people who apply for us are people of character used to be, you had to figure out a way to get experience somehow. I mean, a lot of people would get that experience by being reserve deputies and volunteering for a few years, and that's just not necessary anymore. We just need to, you know, keep competing against the other law enforcement agencies in our area who are having the same issues.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I imagine one of the challenges for any law enforcement agency, especially right now, and I know that this has been an experience up and down the West Coast nationally, is certainly there are a lot of protests for ICE raids in Los Angeles. And I'm wondering, you know, Oregon is a sanctuary state and Eugene is a sanctuary city. There are other sanctuary cities, kind of, if you could sort of explain how the sheriff's office works with regard to, you know, immigration enforcement and those types of things.
SHERIFF WILKERSON: I think what I should probably do first, though, is remind folks that this is not new. Okay, we've been doing this for a while, sure, this is not a new law. I know it's a hot topic currently, sure, but we have been following the laws of the state of Oregon for many, many, many years, and the fact that we are restricted from assisting in immigration enforcement issues unless it is a criminal matter With a judicial warrant. So, it's just something that we already do. there are certain reporting requirements when ice or customs and immigration or border patrol asks for our assistance, that we have to report those contacts. And they have gone up this year quite a bit, but by quite a bit. When I looked last week, we had eight contacts this year that we've reported in previous years. We had, you know, the previous four years, we had one contact. So, they're, they're certainly making those requests more, but we thank them for their time and say, I'm sorry, but we can't help you with this. This is something that Oregon law does not allow.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I think I've heard that lean counties the size of Connecticut or something like that, talk about the challenges, especially of serving the more rural areas of our county. We're, like I said, a far-flung County, and I imagine, as we talked about in terms of, you know, shortages of staff, how is it, you know, talk about the challenges of being able to adjudicate throughout a massive, massive territory.
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Well, you know, you said it. We are about the size of Connecticut. We go from the coast to the Cascades, and we have a very small patrol force. We have 30 positions for our deputies who do 911, response, or main office patrol, is what we refer to it as. And, you know, we have to triage calls, and we have to prioritize calls, and we don't go to every call. I don't think that's, you know, the best service delivery system, but that is what we have to do based on the resources we have and somebody's call. You know, you may have to wait just because, depending on where they are and where the deputy is, it's not uncommon for a deputy to cross the county, going from one call to another. And it can be a little bit demoralizing for our staff, who want to be, you know, provide. The best service they can know that, you know they're going to a domestic violence call and maybe an hour before they can get there. So those are those challenges that we've talked about, and it's a beautiful community, it's a beautiful county, and I'm super happy to have this opportunity to serve in this capacity. But that is a challenge that is not new to me. It is a challenge that several sheriffs before me have experienced.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Are there ways in which volunteers and the general public can help the sheriff's office more?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Yes. We have a variety of different volunteer opportunities at the sheriff's office. You were probably greeted by one of our volunteers this after or this morning, sitting out in the lobby, who greets people as they come in to obtain services from the sheriff's office. And we have a volunteer coordinator who can kind of work with those who want to be volunteers to see what it is they're interested in doing. And you know, what is it that their skill set is good for some of the things our volunteers do is go do security home inspections for folks who may be suffered a burglary or such, and say, hey, you know these are things you can do to help harden your house or make it safer so we have volunteer opportunities. I'm a big advocate of volunteerism. I think that everybody should have some level of volunteerism within their community, and I would be very appreciative to those folks who want to come and volunteer in this capacity.
MICHAEL DUNNE: We're entering summer, I know sometimes that becomes obvious, we live in a wonderful, beautiful state, people want to get outdoors, but I know that that probably puts some stress on your department in terms of search and rescue. Talk about that. Talk about summertime. People are out boating. People out in the outdoors. Does that put pressure on that part of what the sheriff's office does?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: It puts pressure on every part of the sheriff's office, actually okay, because it's summer and people tend to recreate more, or have events that involve alcohol is involved. Sure, it puts a strain on the jail. The arrest rates are always higher, not just at the sheriff's office, but for the cities who then bring their custody to us to our jail that we run. But of course, the obvious is, our patrol calls go up. Our folks who work in SAR marine patrol have a lot more calls to service during this time of year, and we are very fortunate that we have some very, very qualified professionals who worked in our search and rescue, but more importantly is we have a couple 100 volunteers that assist them, and we could, frankly, could not do the job that's actually required of us by statute, which is search and rescue, if we didn't have those couple 100 volunteers.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I've talked to many people in law enforcement and in political leadership talking about sort of the mental health crisis we see in Oregon and certainly in our own community, I kind of wanted to get you know sort of your thoughts on how that plays out for you and your staff in terms of having to deal with people who may not be committing crimes, but obviously, you know, are in mental health crisis and also wanted to talk about how you coordinate with something like a Cahoots or other things that that are there, not necessarily with regard to law enforcement, but are there to help people going through that kind of a crisis.
SHERIFF WILKERSON: I will say that that has been a stressor for our community for a while, sure. And there are some things in the works, like the Stabilization Center. We just, you know, the county just stood up mobile crisis response. And so those are things that we are starting to feel our ways through and build cooperation with the sheriff's office actually dispatches for MCs, so that has probably sped up our cooperation with them, more so than some of the other agencies around us. But it is one of those things where you know as police officers in the city or my deputies out in the county are dealing with crises. It's sometimes can be a little frustrating that we don't have the correct resource for them. Sure. You know, those police officers and deputies are out trying to solve problems, and not all of the correct solutions are available currently to them, especially for those low-level crimes or city violations that really are kind of those quality-of-life things where, you know, I super empathetic to the business owner who has somebody who's, you know, raising a fuss inside their in their business or on their doorstep, but is jail the right place for them? Maybe not, you know, probably not. And you know that business owners probably don't care whether or not they go to jail or if they just go somewhere else. And we need to find those somewhere else, those places that are, that are the right off ramp for them. Hmm, we need, that's what we need is, is there is a, you know, there's a time and place, an appropriate time and place for using the jail for accountability purposes, and there's a time and place in what do we need to do to get this person some help and solve the problem for those who are being harassed or annoyed by it?
MICHAEL DUNNE: And you mentioned jail, I kind of wanted to ask, sort of how that permeates down through the jail. I imagine there are a lot of folks there that that was the last resort for them, wasn't it?
SHERIFF WILKERSON: That is definitely a part of working in our jail is that we don't actually control who's there. The courts decide who stays there and who doesn't. So, our job is to provide the best care that we can for them in a safe and secure fashion, for those people that we have been trusted with caring for, and we don't get to decide, oh, well, you're a hard person to manage. So, you don't stay here. It's the courts who say, No, that person's staying here until they're going till, they're arraigned, or until they meet this qualification. And so, yeah, it can be a strain. I will say that our folks who work over at the jail are amazing. They are better or way better trained than I was. They're way more patient than I was. And I actually just really enjoy watching these young men and women who go to work over their deal with people in crisis and do it empathetically and compassionately and professionally. So, it's a system, and the system has hydraulics. You know, we need to have the right number of prosecutors, the right number of police officers, the right number of jail beds, but at the same time, we need the right number of other systems, like mental health support and crisis centers and stabilization centers and sobriety centers. And one part of the system cannot outweigh another part of the system.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Sheriff. Carl Wilkerson, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it.
SHERIFF WILKERSON: Thank you. That's the show for today. All episodes of Morgan on the record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, you'll hear about the Oregon Department of Energy's new heat pump program that could save residents money and reduce the state's output of greenhouse gasses. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon on the record from KLCC. Thanks for listening.
