O’Brien County, Iowa — In the June 2nd Republican Primary there will be two names on the ballot for O’Brien County Sheriff. Brenda Collier of Primghar will be facing current O’Brien County Chief Deputy Bruce Devereaux of Paullina. We’ll be introducing you to both candidates. Today, we bring you Chief Deputy Bruce Devereaux.
Devereaux is a native of Pocahontas County, and tells us how and where he got started in his law enforcement career.
(As above) “I am a Northwest Iowa farm boy who got into law enforcement in the eighties. I started at the Pocahontas County Sheriff’s Office as a reserve deputy. I became certified in nineteen eighty nine, and took a full time job with the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office in May of 1990.”
Devereaux talks about some of the roles he’s filled since coming to O’Brien County.
(As above) “As a firearms instructor, as a canine handler, as a meth lab processor working with the Iowa Great Lakes Task Force. Then sergeant and lead investigator. Then became Chief Deputy approximately four years ago when Allen Schuknecht became sheriff.”
He says there are other jobs he’s done as a deputy, as well.
(As above) “I’ve done a little bit of everything. We were jailers when I first started, we didn’t have jailers so the deputies did the jailing. The bookings, the releases, most of the jail duties except for cooking, which the dispatcher did back in the old days. I haven’t been the civil deputy but I’ve served a lot of civil papers.”
Four the past few years, Devereaux has served as Chief Deputy, which he says have brought a whole new set of responsibilities.
(As above) “As Chief Deputy I have administrative duties such as scheduling the deputies. I am the jail hearing officer for the inmates, if they violated jail policy and we have hearings, I am the basically judge on those, so I assist in the jail. And I’m an investigator, investigating all types of of crimes.”
He talks about one of the very important things a Sheriff needs to effectively run the Sheriff’s Office.
(As above) “I believe that I have the respect of the employees of the sheriff’s office and the deputies. I believe without the support and respect of those people you would have a difficult time running the operation.”
Devereaux’s opponent for O’Brien County Sheriff in the June 2nd Republican Primary is Brenda Collier of Primghar. We’ll hear from her tomorrow.
