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Sheriff Rodd Clark

OREGON SHERIFF Magazine News

Rodd Clark, the 24th Sheriff of Crook County, has been Sheriff of Crook County since January of 1987. The primary election in May, prior to his first election as sheriff, was notable in that seven people were running for sheriff. With over 16 years as Sheriff he is currently the longest serving Sheriff in Crook County history with only one other Sheriff serving 12 years. This is the Sheriff's fifth, four-year term of office.

Sheriff Clark's started his working carrier by serving three years with the U.S. Army, the last year of that time in Viet Nam as a Company Commander of a Military Police support unit. He was awarded the Bronze Star for that service. After his time in the military he worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for several years and in private business at different management positions. In 1980 he returned to law enforcement as a deputy sheriff with the Nevada County Sheriff's Office at Truckee, California.

In 1984 Sheriff Clark moved his family to Central Oregon where he farmed for several years. It was at the end of this time that he was first elected sheriff.

The Sheriff is an active member of the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association and currently serves on the Executive Board and many committees related to this organization. He is also a member of the Western States Sheriffs' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association. The Sheriff is a member of the local VFW in Prineville and attends a local church. He has volunteered as an assistant football coach for Crook County High School in Prineville for the past ten years and is involved in many other community organizations and activities.

Sheriff Clark heads up an office of 36 employees. The office consists of the Patrol/Operational Division, the Jail Division, the Community Corrections Division and the Special Services Division. The office serves Crook County a community of approximately 20,000 people, which covers an area of 2991 square miles. The office is problem solving oriented and seeks to meet the needs of the people in unique and cooperative ways. The Sheriff holds semi-annual Town Hall Meetings in the various outlying communities and meets bi-monthly with his Advisory Council to facilitate proactive law enforcement activities, communication and support within the community.

Sheriff Clark believes the past sixteen years have been challenging and rewarding for both himself and the community and looks forward to the challenges the future will bring.

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OREGON SHERIFF Magazine News

Summer, 2010 -- During this multiple year downturn in the economy, we have lost two patrol deputies and one corrections deputy position due to funding cutbacks from the County's general fund.

Through diligent work by staff here at the Sheriff's Office, we have secured grant funding from three separate sources to replace lost general fund dollars that will allow us to replace the two patrol positions. While this may not seem a big deal to some agencies it represents 20% of our patrol staff. The two replacement deputies will be doing patrol on the rural and federal lands of our county. We will be providing emergency service on the federal lands and providing ATV/OHV patrols in the Oregon State Parks designated areas as well as the forests of our county.

While this is not the same as putting them back into the main patrol schedule, it will provide some relief for our regular patrols who will not have to respond into these areas routinely, but will for backup with serious incidents.

The other good budget news is that our budget process for the new FY was just completed and our general fund budgets were not cut back any further this year. That means our service capability should remain the same as the current year for which we are grateful.

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