New sheriff building stability

Published 12:15 pm Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley has been busy since he took the helm of the sheriff’s office in January.

The former undersheriff, who in his second bid for sheriff unseated longtime Sheriff Glenn Palmer, said his office had been on more calls this year than last.

McKinley said he is not sure what he would attribute the uptick in calls to.

“I can’t exactly put my finger on it yet,” he said. “Maybe we’re doing business a little different, and people are more willing to call.”

Nonetheless, he said, he has been going out on calls himself.

“This is not a place where you can just sit in the office and type all day,” he said.

Building stability

McKinley said he and his deputies are there to provide a service to the voters.

At its core, he said the sheriff’s office is a business.

“We’re supplying a service to the voting public, and I want them to get a good product,” he said.

Building stability within the office is critical, he said.

McKinley said the focus within the office right now is keeping personnel long enough to cultivate a collective vision.

McKinley said he had been surprised that an institution as old as the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had not been further along in bringing that shared vision into the community.

The future of the John Day Police Department

The prospect of John Day losing its police department due to a lack of funding may require the sheriff’s office to reassess their priorities.

The city plans to ask voters to approve a levy to fund the police department, and if that fails, city officials have said they plan to close the police department and transition the officers over to the sheriff’s office.

McKinley has said it would be difficult for the sheriff’s office to absorb the cost of John Day’s three police officers long term. He said too that services in John Day would be “greatly diminished.”

“You have to put it in context: It’s a big county, and if you’re somewhere else, it just takes a long time to get there,” he said.

He said right now the office has six patrol deputies.

Goals, setbacks and the future

McKinley said a judge’s Feb. 10 ruling to dismiss murder charges related to a missing couple whose house burned in Grant County in 2018 was a considerable setback for the sheriff’s office. The judge dismissed the case due to Undersheriff Zach Mobley inappropriately obtaining a murder confession.

McKinley said scrutiny for mistakes is not limited to just the county and gets spread around the state like “wildfire.” He said, initially, when he was “out and about” around the state, people would mention the case to him quite frequently.

McKinley said the investigation is still “very active,” however. He said it was something that “should have occurred differently” and that he did not want to say anything else that could get into “personnel issues” or jeopardize the case.

A ways to go

McKinley told the Eagle that for an institution as old as the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, he is surprised at how far it has come along throughout the years — but also surprised it has not further along than where they are.

He said it comes back to the business model of policing.

“I’m sure any business has this issue: You’re continually getting new employees and retraining to do your model,” he said.

“We’re supplying a service to the voting public, and I want them to get a good product.”

—Todd McKinley, Grant County sheriff