Featured Sheriff Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin In 2009, Sheriff John Halin was elected to his first four-year term as the 48th Sheriff of Douglas County. Early Years Hanlin was born and raised in Roseburg, Oregon. After graduating from high school, he moved to Bend, Oregon where he attended Central Oregon Community College. He is the youngest of three children. Both of his parents, his brother and sister, and his two sons, Brett (22), and Beau (18) all live in the Roseburg area. Beginning his Career He began working in public service for the Douglas Forest Protective Association during the summers as a Forest Officer while he attended college. Upon completing his Associates Degree, he was hired full-time with DFPA as a Forest Technician. Taking EMT classes and volunteering with the Douglas County Rural Fire District #2, it appeared Hanlin was focusing towards a career as a firefighter. It was during this time that the challenges of law enforcement caught his interest, and his career path took a turn. Hanlin joined the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office as a Reserve Deputy in 1988, and was immediately drawn to the excitement, and the honor of serving in the community in which he was raised. “Though there are challenges with becoming a police officer in the town you grew up in, I quickly discovered my calling and never looked back.” Shortly after becoming a reserve deputy, Hanlin applied for a full time position and was hired in November 1989 as a patrol deputy. During his tenure at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Hanlin has served as a patrol deputy, as a Street Crimes Unit Investigator, and as a Narcotics Investigator. He was promoted to Corporal and then to Sergeant and was also an active member of the Sheriff’s Office Tactical Response Team (TRT) for more than 12 years. In 2001, Hanlin was assigned to the position of Commander of the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team (DINT) and in 2005 he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to command the DCSO Detectives Division. Becoming Sheriff Throughout his career in the Sheriff’s Office, he was periodically approached by acquaintances, friends in the community, and co-workers, who had asked when he was going to run for Sheriff. It is very humbling to receive those kinds of suggestions about such an honorable and important position in the community. The thought of being “the Sheriff” hadn’t really been a serious consideration as he was still enjoying other challenging positions in law enforcement. It wasn’t until a couple of retired former sheriffs encouraged him to consider running for sheriff, that he took the idea seriously. Proudly possessing 20 plus years of Sheriff’s Office experience and institutional knowledge, deep rooted admiration and loyalty to the Sheriff’s Office, and some significant encouragement from co-workers… he decided to run for Sheriff. The election process and campaigning for office was a tremendous learning experience. The contacts and friendships made while campaigning renewed his admiration and respect for all that is entrusted to our public servants. First Term Challenges During his first term, Sheriff Hanlin faced big challenges that centered around staffing cuts due to substantial budget shortfalls and diminishing funding streams. Douglas County is the fifth largest county in the state (by area) and the largest Oregon county west of the Cascades. It covers an area of more than 5,000 square miles extending from the crest of the Cascade Range to the ocean beaches in Winchester Bay, with 90 miles of Interstate 5 running north and south through the heart of the county. More than 50% of the county is publicly owned BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands. Once known as the “Timber Capitol of the World”, Douglas County enjoyed plentiful, stable funding through the sale of timber harvests, and a healthy timber industry. Since the 1980’s, however, the timber industry has been slowly squeezed out of existence forcing county government to rely on payments from the federal government to offset the loss of timber receipts. Now those federal payments are drying up too and county services are suffering. The challenges of public safety are immense in any county, but for counties like Douglas who have become dependent on federal payments, loss of funding can turn simple challenges into threatening conditions for the citizens and visitors of the county. As a result, the challenge remains how to fund a level of public safety that the citizens of Douglas County expect and deserve. Making a Difference The challenge of finding stable funding for public safety continues to be one of the biggest issues for Douglas County. Sheriff Hanlin believes the proper approach to resolving these and all issues is through collaborative work with the Board of Commissioners, state & local leaders, other community partners, and all citizens of the county. “Public safety is everyone’s responsibility and I feel it is essential to seek involvement and input from everyone,” says Sheriff Hanlin. “Open communication and public education play a vital role in maintaining support for the Sheriff’s Office. It is imperative that the public be kept informed and educated about their Sheriff’s Office activities and budget issues as they affect public safety services.” Sheriff Hanlin believes in an open door policy, and believes the public should have access to their sheriff to ask questions and discuss public safety concerns. A concept he learned while attending the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association Command College has proven to be an invaluable principle that he lives by… “Relationships are primary… everything else is secondary”. I have had many, many proud moments as the Douglas County Sheriff. Most of them resulting from the extraordinary efforts and accomplishments of the dedicated employees who work here. “The men and women of this office are profoundly dedicated professionals. I am extremely proud and honored to serve with all of them,” said Sheriff Hanlin. Looking Forward He would like to see streamlining of our criminal justice system. Like much of our government, the criminal justice system has become inefficiently complex and overregulated. There is unnecessary redundancy with the many levels of local, state, and federal law enforcement. Often times laws, legal decisions, and policies are contradictory of each other, creating “damn if you do, damn if you don’t” situations throughout the system. The best change we can make to the criminal justice system is to get back to a common sense, no nonsense approach to many of the principles in our system. If there was one thing he could change while serving as sheriff it would be to create stable and sustainable funding for the Sheriff’s Office. Eliminating the need for the Sheriff’s Office to be constantly worrying about diminishing funding, budget cuts, and reduced staffing levels could tremendously improve the mission of providing safety to the public. Funding for the Sheriff’s Office is the biggest challenge facing the office today. Dedicated and sustained funding would help lead to solutions for many of today’s problems we face in public safety and society.