Meet Wyoming's New Black Sheriff, the First in State History - The New York Times - 0 views
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“I don’t necessarily represent or identify with everybody in law enforcement,” said Sheriff Appelhans, who was appointed as Sheriff of Albany County, Wyo., in December. “I come in with some different ideas of how to go about doing things.”
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Sheriff Appelhans, a Black man, is now at the helm of one of the most historically white law enforcement institutions in Wyoming, one of the country’s whitest states.
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Sheriff Appelhans, 39, is inheriting a troubled department plagued by the kinds of problems that have been documented in Sheriff’s offices across the region.
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A Colorado native, Sheriff Appelhans carries little of the stiff formality often associated with Sheriffs’ offices.
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Sheriff Appelhans said he has unilateral authority over hiring decisions at the department and is actively seeking applicants, adding that he intends to recruit more Black, Latino and female officers.
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“I think what he brings to the sheriff’s office is a calmness: He’s soft-spoken, but it doesn’t mean he’s a pushover,” said Linda Devine, a defense lawyer in Laramie who is a proponent of overhauling criminal justice.
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In the meantime, he plans to embark on an aggressive approach to bringing cultural change in the sheriff’s office. He is leading an effort to coordinate police response with resources like shelters, mental health professionals and support groups.
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Sheriff Appelhans’s approach is a stark departure for a Wyoming Sheriff, a storied, sometimes archaic institution central to the lore of a disappearing American West.
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Sheriffs’ offices in Wyoming have a long history of racial bias, advocates say. The issue confronted Sheriff Appelhans early in his tenure: On his second day in office, a Wyoming state representative, Cyrus Western, tweeted a racist gif from the movie “Blazing Saddles” in reference to Sheriff Appelhans’s appointmen