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Perhaps because the most popular media rendition of a sheriff's deputy remains Barney from the Andy Griffith Show, now nearly a half century old but still making its way In reruns, the American public has a less than comprehensive understanding of just exactly how deputies are trained, not to mention what they do. Ask Joe Sixpack (and also Joe the Plumber), and all too often you'll get references to arresting, handling domestic disputes, and accompanying prisoners in transit, but not much else. Even within that simplistic three-part description, Joe and his buddies are unlikely to understand the scope of duties and the expertise required. That the job of a deputy in a small, rural office can bear little if any resemblance to that of one who operates within a multi-jurisdictional operation may be obvious, but it's also rarely recognized. In part, that is a tribute to how well deputies do those jobs. A public that has come to expect an expert level of law enforcement and an almost invisible maintenance of public safety asks few questions. As one speaker so aptly put it, "Only screw-ups bring scrutiny."
Even those who have spent their professional lives working in a sheriff's office sometimes lose sight of just how much duties, operations and training can vary by regional practice, state law and operational assignment. Here, then, is a brief look at the background, training and duties of six sworn officers across the nation. While there is no such thing as a "typical work day" shared by these men and women, and they have come to the work that they do by different paths, to a person they take pride in a sense of service to the American public and a recognition that no matter at what age they choose to retire they will have made a contribution to the common good.
Front Page News, First Rate Performance
Lead Investigator, Homicide Detail
Yvonne Shull
It is not every day that you get your name on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, but that's just what happened last April to Sergeant Yvonne Shull, of the Orange County (CA) Sheriffs Office. The case involved the 1997 hit-man-type murder of the wife of a high-profile financier, and Yvonne was the...