After 31 years, Halterman retires from Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Rick Halterman has a plan for Saturday night. "My last day I'm going home and turn off my police radio," he said, and it's never ever getting switched back on. That's because the radio was there for professional reasons and Rick Halterman is retiring on Saturday after 31 years with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, about 29 of them in Bridgeport.

"I got hired Feb. 1, 1978," Halterman said, and Bridgeport, Mansfield and northern Douglas County, from McNeil Canyon to Grand Coulee, was his first real (and 29-year) assignment. He got interested in law enforcement, he said, during an eight-year hitch in the U.S. Army, when he was stationed in Texas.

They had training for reserve officers in Copper Creek, Texas, Halterman said; he applied and was accepted and discovered it was an interesting profession. "Fred McDonald (a Copper Creek officer at the time), who I rode with quite a lot, talked about-what else can you do where you see all four seasons in the people?" Police officers saw the good and bad in people, happy and sad times, and they had (and have) the chance to help people when they're in need, Halterman said.

So when Halterman and his wife Lynn came back to their hometown of Quincy after the Army and he learned about a training program that could-maybe-lead to a job with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, he applied for it. He was accepted into the training program, and was hired fulltime at the sheriff's office after completing it. After a year or so he was assigned to Bridgeport; "we got transferred to Bridgeport on Halloween 1979."

Three officers worked the north end of the county in those days. "I worked under Dan LaRoche and Dave Wallace," Halterman said. It was pretty basic law enforcement, back in the day. "Sometimes we had only one vehicle," he remembered, and an old-fashioned radio "that sometimes worked, sometimes didn't." There were certain spots where there was just no radio reception no matter how much they played around with the old radio system; "you tried to avoid making stops in areas that you knew were dead areas," Halterman said. "There were areas in Douglas County where it was safe to speed." (Note to potential speeders-the modern radio system has eliminated all those dead spots, he said.) In an attempt to improve communication the sheriff's office tried to make the families a part of the system with a radio in each officer's home. As experiments go that one didn't last very long, Halterman said.

"I've gone through three sheriffs," Halterman said, including Bill Williams, his successor LaRoche and current sheriff Harvey Gjesdal. "I have not always agreed with them, but I can honestly say I respect them."

Each had their strengths. "Bill Williams was probably what you'd call one of the best people persons out there," Halterman said-he had a rapport with people, even total strangers. "And he strongly supported his deputies, and he truly believed in public safety." (On the other hand he wasn't so much for equipment.) LaRoche had good rapport with deputies and citizens alike. "They listened to what he said, and he answered questions," Halterman said. LaRoche was pretty straightforward; "you knew where you stood with him." He started investing in more equipment and training, Halterman said, and he was always accessible and open to suggestions for a better sheriff's office. "Deputies could come in and talk to him about anything that would improve the department." LaRoche retired in 2006 and Harvey Gjesdal was elected sheriff; "he's carrying on that tradition" established by LaRoche of investment in the department and community outreach. During the campaign Gjesdal said he would hold periodic community forums to provide feedback on the department's performance-and did, and is coming back for a second round. That shows he remembered his promise and is trying to fulfill it, Halterman said.

Bridgeport contracts with the sheriff's office for law enforcement services, and in his time with the department the Bridgeport/northern Douglas County office has grown from three to six deputies. "And that's a good thing." There are more officers patrolling at any given time, better response times and extended coverage hours. It's a step toward the department's goal of providing service countywide around the clock, he said.

Gjesdal has instituted some changes, "and I think they've been good changes," including the attempts to improve communication with county residents. Supervisors now contact people who've filed complaints to find out whether the complaint was handled satisfactorily. Halterman said that's a good thing; "How do you know you're always doing it right if somebody never tells you you're doing it wrong?" It's about promoting professionalism, and in Halterman's opinion professionalism is crucial, because law enforcement is a profession-and that's different from a job.

A job, Halterman said, is something that gets left behind at the end of the workday. A profession (like law enforcement) is different; "a profession is a career you've chosen to work your whole life." That means law enforcement officers have to be available, in a way, even if it's after business hours-not necessarily having people coming by the house to file complaints, but being willing to listen to people at the grocery store or the ballgame, or whatever it takes. "It's there with you 24/7/365," or it should be when it's a profession, he said.

Part of being a law enforcement officer is about being around for people and helping them with their problems, even if the problem isn't strictly of the law enforcement variety. "People call us for all kinds of reasons," Halterman said; sometimes the deputies can't really do anything but need to listen anyway, explain the options to people, give them other avenues to try to help them solve the problem.

The police officer's uniform means something; it means people can go to that law enforcement officer for help and know they will get it, Halterman said. When they join a law enforcement agency police officers accept responsibility for public safety and for making the community a safer place to live, he said.

The sheriff's office doesn't provide services in East Wenatchee, but law enforcement between the city and county (and Wenatchee, for that matter) inevitably overlaps; Halterman said working in East Wenatchee highlights the difference between small town law enforcement, like Bridgeport and Mansfield, and police work in a more urban setting. In the small towns everybody knows everybody, law enforcement, citizens, bad guys-they might even live next door to each other. "You get to know everybody by their first names," he said. Law enforcement is "handled with that focus," that deputies and residents and even criminals will know each other. It's not that crime is different in small towns; the issues that affect society at large effect small towns in the same way, just on a smaller scale, he said.

Halterman said he worked in Bridgeport for most of his career because he likes it. "A good area. Good people-wonderful people. They're there for each other all the time." It's "just a big family, and that's a good feeling." Daughters Kelli and Andrea are both graduates of Bridgeport High School, ("good school," he said) and both still live in northern Douglas County.

In the more urban setting deputies and citizens (and even criminals) don't get to know each other so well, Halterman said, and criminal activity will be more spread out. From the sergeant's standpoint there was a big difference between managing a patrol unit where two guys are working at a time (one being the sergeant) and managing seven. "I was almost lost for a while," he said, and he is "very appreciative of those guys (the East Wenatchee deputies) for helping me out." They know what to do and do it, he said, and "it really makes the sergeant look good."

In three decades Halterman said he's had disturbing things happen and sad things, humorous things and "oh, my God, I can't believe that happened." (He's being discreet, he said, keeping it to himself, since it might still be possible to figure out the participants even in long-ago situations.) One thing he always appreciated in Bridgeport, he said, was that people often stopped by and offered to help however they could.

"Was it worth 31 years of my life? Yes, it was." But it's time. Rick said he would know it was time when he didn't like coming to work as much; while he still likes the people he works with, and most of the citizens he encounters, he's getting tired of dealing with the same people all the time. Over the last year, "I've lost some of my patience, and that bothers me." That's a sign that it's time, he said.

What's next is senior softball; "starts in April, ends in October," involvement in the school district-he's Bridgeport School Board chair-some work for the regional emergency services management agency (Halterman is an EMT with the Bridgeport Fire Department). As an EMT instructor he's going to be teaching classes. "Who knows, I might take up fishing again. The fish will be safe, because I never catch anything."

It's been a good career and it's the right time to go. "Overall, in my 31 years, I've had a great time."