New sheriff settling in to the job

SheriffRobCraftDSC_3993.jpg
SheriffRobCraftDSC_3993.jpg

Sheriff Rob Craft (right) checks in with Deputy Matt Vogt regarding some civil-process paperwork. Craft sees relationships as a way to build awareness for more effective law enforcement in Marion County.

Rob Craft, in his first few weeks as the new sheriff of Marion County, wants good relationships with young people, all citizens and his own officers as a way to build awareness for better law enforcement.

Craft wants county residents to be ?the eyes? who will call in to report anything unusual. This all is needed, he said, to reduce the recent trend toward more child predators, and to reduce neighborhood crime, particularly in rural areas.

Craft also said he realizes the county still will need to determine what to do with its ?outdated? jail.

The bond election to build a new jail was the foremost item defeated on the November ballot when Craft defeated incumbent Sheriff Lee Becker, who ran as a write-in.

?I would like to see a committee formed to discuss the jail issue, and to come up with a solution,? Craft said. ?They should represent a majority of the county, coming from all parts and occupations, not just farmers, just businessmen, just people from city neighborhoods, but a good mix.

?The committee also needs to be small enough at the same time for a good outcome. I will be working with the county commissioners at the same time to seek solutions.?

Craft said he doesn?t think most people in the county realize there isn?t simply a choice between transporting Marion County?s prisoners to other counties or having a jail. There still has to be a facility where prisoners can be booked overnight, or held for court, he said. That means the county will have to be able to hold at least eight to 10 prisoners at a time.

Craft said most efforts to upgrade the jail in the past have been ?temporary fixes.? He doesn?t know when or whether the state fire marshal or another state agency will require the county to do more to the old building, but he feels sure it would be better for the county to take action on its own beforehand.

?The state may do nothing, or they may come in this afternoon to say we?re done here in this building.?

Craft is no stranger to the jail or the county even though is election is recent. He and wife Janet lived on 190th near Marion Reservoir for 22 years. They recently moved a short distance to the home on Nighthawk formerly occupied by his parents.

He attended four years of high school at Clay Center, but calls Latham his original home territory.

His son, Shawn, and his wife, Melissa, live with their new daughter, Iliana, in Newton.

Craft was with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1975 to 1979 where he attained the rank of sergeant as a crew chief on a search and rescue helicopter.

In 1981 he joined the Kansas Highway Patrol, and was stationed in Marion County.

?During those years I was involved in multiple law-enforcement activities and responsibilities ranging from daily patrol to felony,? he said. ?I have worked closely with grade school, high school and college students.?

Craft said he has served more than 2,400 hours in law enforcement training at the academy n Salina, and also at the Law Enforcement training Center in Hutchinson and other facilities.

Craft also has been vice president, then president of the Marion County Peace Officers Association. He was invited to serve on the international law enforcement advisory board in 2004. He attended classes at the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration.

Craft said he knows and likes the current sheriff?s officers who served under Becker, although he has named his own undersheriff, Dave Huntley, to succeed former Undersheriff Randy Brazil.

Craft said he will work to train any new officers to the ?highest level of law enforcement? while striving to retain them rather than see them leave in a few years. He said he wants officers ?with integrity and strong family values.?

Craft said he wants to be ?very aggressive in law enforcement? to protect the public from potential hazards.

He said he doesn?t have all of the answers as to why the county has experienced an upsurge in child molesters, whether more persons of this type have chosen to move to the county, or whether greater awareness on the part of the public has helped realize when children are being molested.

He said he wants members of the public to be aware in their observations, and he plans to inform them when persons who have served time for molestation move to their neighborhoods.

Craft also wants the public to be aware of new dumps of trash, and particularly dumped coolers, to report them as possible items used in illegal meta-amphetamine production. Contact with or breathing in chemicals associated with such dumps can be hazardous, so Craft wants members of the public to call the sheriff?s office about them rather than coming into contact with them.

He said an example given of a large rental truck being backed down to a reservoir cove as an unusual sight called into the sheriff?s office was the right course for the observing citizen to take.

?We need their eyes to call in things that are suspicious or out of the ordinary,? Craft said. ?They don?t need to ever feel that such calls are foolish.

?I want people to respect and be proud of their officers here. I want my officers to meet the people on a sit down and visit basis.

?We will be patrolling all of the rural roads on a regular basis. I want my officers to be seen in Ramona, Tampa, all of the towns on a regular basis.

?When I retired from the patrol last fall, I didn?t retire to quit. I retired to do this.?

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