La Plata County Sheriff Duke Schirard announced Wednesday he plans to seek a sixth term.
Schirard, 72, is beginning his 20th year as sheriff. He has 40 years’ experience in law enforcement.
During an interview Wednesday, Schirard touted several accomplishments during his tenure, which began in 1995, including:
Helping to oversee the construction of a 911 dispatch center in Bodo Industrial Park.
Helping to lure a juvenile detention center to Durango.
Overseeing a large addition to the jail.
Being in charge of one of the first rural agencies to train deputies on how to respond to people experiencing psychological episodes.
Embracing programs to keep people out of jail, including ankle-bracelet monitoring and intensive-supervision classes that aim to change behavior.
The La Plata County sheriff oversees a $14 million operating budget and about 150 employees, more than any other county department.
As of Wednesday, Schirard had one opponent: Sean Smith, a deputy with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office. Smith, a Democrat, filed paperwork Aug. 16 with the Colorado Secretary of State indicating his candidacy. He has not made a formal announcement.
Schirard said the biggest challenge facing the department over the next four years relates to the budget.
A decline in natural-gas tax revenue means a tighter budget for his department. Deputies will not receive pay raises this year, and no new positions will be created, even though a survey suggests the Sheriff’s Office should have more patrol deputies, he said.
Schirard said every murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon has been solved during the last 20 years with the exception of the Dylan Redwine case.
Dylan Redwine, 13, went missing the day after he arrived for a Thanksgiving visit with his father in 2012. The boy’s bones were found seven months later on a mountainside north of Vallecito Reservoir. Investigators said they suspect foul play, but no arrests have been made.
“That’s one thing I want to see my office work on and get that thing done up,” Schirard said. “God knows people worked hard just to find that child’s remains.”
Schirard, a Republican, has aligned himself with other sheriffs across the state who are opposed to gun laws passed last year, including one that restricts magazines to 15 rounds or fewer.
The law is largely unenforceable because it is nearly impossible to know if someone purchased a magazine before the law took effect, he said.
“How am I supposed to know if you bought them before July 1 of last year?” he said. “I don’t have the resources to go out and ask for sales receipts on magazines that anybody possesses.”
Now that Colorado has legalized marijuana, lawmakers and law-enforcement agencies must figure out how they’re going to deal with driving under the influence of the drug, Schirard said.
He doesn’t expect it to be a huge problem, acknowledging that marijuana has been readily available before it was legalized.
But it bothers him that children may now think marijuana is OK, he said. It is a gateway drug that can lead to financial arguments and domestic violence, he said.
“It’s not just sitting home smoking dope that causes a fight,” Schirard said. “It’s the financial implications of money going to that.”
shane@durangoherald.com
