Custer County sheriff

Peterson, who worked as a Custer County sheriff's deputy for eight years in two stints before resigning in 2022, said his goal as sheriff is to improve the department. His experience in Custer County, as well as his 23-year career with the Phoenix Police Department, give him the knowledge and skills to do so, he said.

At the top of his list is improving training for deputies. Most of the deputies don't have years of experience and very little field training is available in Custer County, he said.

"I want to give them training in how to do good investigations and be good officers," he said. His training and background allow for that. He routinely responded to 10 to 15 calls a day for 10 years while a patrol officer in Phoenix and dealt with 40 to 60 people a day in the 13 years he was a member of a Phoenix Police investigative unit. 

"I talked to thousands of people and investigated thousands of cases," Peterson said of his work in Phoenix. The investigative unit was "proactive about stopping crime, not just taking reports" after a crime occurred. "I learned a lot about criminals."

Working for a metro police department where he received frequent training and was exposed to countless types of cases gives him a background that far exceeds that of his opponent, Peterson said. 

Courtesy within the department ties into his goal of boosting integrity and professionalism within the  office. Law enforcement agencies need to have professional employees who are committed to doing their work with integrity, he believes. 

If elected, Peterson plans to conduct monthly "coffee with the sheriff" events, holding the casual gatherings in a different Custer County city each month. That will allow people to tell him what's important in their community, he said. "We have 4,500 people in this county, we can talk to people individually about their problem."

He'd also like to hold public meetings a few times a year to brief residents on "what's happened and what we're doing about it."

He'd extend that open-door approach to day-to-day operations of the office, ensuring that more information is regularly shared with the public.

Lastly to stay connected, Peterson said he'd "attend as many government meetings as possible around the county," including city council and school board meetings.

He wants to address longstanding issues about space in the trailer that houses the sheriff's office. Dispatchers should be separated from the public and the space where people take their driver's license tests needs to be in a more quiet area, he said. It would be a simple fix to alter a window in the section now used by the sheriff and turn it into a door. That would become the main entrance to the building. Other offices could shift slightly and a door could be erected to make the dispatch area more private. 

"The facility is awful. It needs to be brought up to date. I'd work with county commissioners to gain the support to improve it," Peterson said.

Peterson thinks a six-to-eight bed jail is adequate for Custer County "as long as it is staffed properly with trained jailers." For years there have been various attempts to fund and build a new jail and sheriff's office, with no success. Peterson is aware of the challenges that exist, but says the issues must be addressed and resolved. 

In the meantime, if he's elected, he says it would be his job to "work with what we have." 

Peterson has a long list of people he'd reach out to for advice, if needed. "I have guys I worked with in the past who had phenomenal law enforcement careers. I trust them with my life and I trust their good advice."

Peterson would like to serve two or three terms as sheriff, depending on how much gets accomplished. If so, when he leaves office, he'd want people to say "they knew they could trust Custer County, that things would be done right and they felt good about my time as sheriff."