By Andy Evans
Current legislation (HB 4981) in Michigan proposes to require all candidates for County Sheriff to have a minimum of five years of law enforcement or corrections experience. Since Michigan became a State in 1836, any citizen has been eligible to run for this critically important office, and Sheriffs are the only law enforcement officers chosen by the residents of each County. There is a long-standing tradition here in the United States of electing citizens from various walks of life to the office of Sheriff. In fact, at least one of our Presidents served in this role: Grover Cleveland was the Erie County, NY Sheriff from 1871 to 1873. Our sheriffs have always been the choice of the People, and we should allow the People to decide how their protectors should be in each County.
Let us consider the consequences of restricting the candidate pool for Sheriff to only long-time enforcement officers. Generally, the county Sheriff acts as the CEO of their office, with a great many responsibilities for administration, jails oversight, and public relations. Our Sheriffs have always been elected by the People and entrusted with protecting their safety, property, and constitutional freedoms. Remember that each County must have an Undersheriff, who is a trained enforcement officer, along with various Deputies. In practice a Sheriff’s time is consumed in the areas of administration, budgeting, employee matters, and public relations. And many duties are assigned to the Undersheriff, including overseeing the work of the deputies and enforcing the laws.
Each Sheriff is responsible for hiring the Undersheriff and Deputies and is accountable to the People for making sure all those officers are acting in a responsible and ethical manner. If, in the worst scenario, an entire Sheriff department became filled with corrupt actors (including the Sheriff), then the People should be provided other worthy candidates for the job. If we restrict this pool of candidates to only long-time law enforcement officers, then in practice the only candidates will be the Undersheriff or a Deputy – and that person will likely be unopposed in most counties.
There is great danger in having such an important office become one that is not earned through a competitive election process, but instead becomes a position of guaranteed incumbency and eventual promotion “through the ranks” of law enforcement. If that Sheriff’s Office were to develop a culture of protecting their station rather than protecting the People and their natural rights, then how could we ever return oversight where it belongs – with the People of that county?
*Article was featured in the December 2023 Michigan Libertarian newsletter.
