The Star’s endorsement for Johnson County sheriff between Doug Bedford, Byron Roberson | Opinion

In the race for Johnson County Sheriff, our endorsement comes after careful consideration and by the thinnest of margins.

We recommend Republican Doug Bedford over Democrat Byron Roberson.

Bedford is former undersheriff to soon-to-be-former Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden. We could not ignore the fact these two came up in the ranks together. Nor should voters. But much as he did in the lead-up to August’s primary election, Bedford made a convincing case for why he should replace Hayden after being his second in command from 2017-2021.

On the campaign trail, he’s addressed some of the major issues Johnson Countians care about. Among them: more transparency in officer-involved shooting investigations and aggressively addressing the metropolitan area-wide fentanyl crisis with more collaboration among law enforcement agencies.

Bedford said he left the office because of Hayden’s divisive nature. None of us should forget Hayden’s yearslong investigation into purported 2020 election fraud, which, of course, went nowhere.

“He was elected in 2016 and then he started the role of sheriff in 2017,” Bedford said of his former boss. “And I was the undersheriff. The plan was for him to do two terms, and then I was gonna run at year eight. My plan hasn’t changed. I didn’t like the direction that he was taking the agency. I didn’t like the divisive nature. I didn’t like the path that we were going on.”

What gave us pause during this process was Bedford’s insistence that he would, if elected, take a look at the evidence in the voter fraud case before declaring it a non-starter. If Hayden is to be believed, these baseless allegations have been looked at with a fine-tooth comb and still came up empty. In the best interest of voters and taxpayers in Johnson County, Bedford must change his tune about this one.

During the endorsement interview process, we found Roberson a strong and serious candidate for sheriff. He is the current Prairie Village police chief. Among other important issues we discussed, Roberson spoke with candor about a deadly use-of-force incident

he was involved in. We must note: Roberson was cleared of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of Susan Stuckey in 2010.

At the time, Roberson was a police sergeant. Stuckey was suffering from a violent mental health crisis, and had told officers she wanted them to kill her just before Roberson fatally shot her.

As a result of the shooting, Roberson said he sought counseling.

“I was off for a couple months,” he said. “I still think it about every day.”

2 officers lost certification

Roberson also shared his vision for the sheriff’s office, which included more collaboration with other law enforcement agencies in Johnson County. Addressing mental health and the prevalence of fentanyl countywide are among Roberson’s priorities.

“We do not have a good leader in the sheriff’s office,” Roberson said. “They are kind of off on an island. And so, I think I can do a better job at leadership. I think I can bring the sheriff’s office with the rest of the local police chiefs and we can be a very cohesive collaborative.”

Roberson is the first African American police chief in Johnson County. There’s never been a Black sheriff. Nor has a Democrat held the position in 96 years, according to The Star. These historic footnotes were difficult to ignore. We welcome change in Johnson County and elsewhere.

But since Roberson became deputy police chief in 2019, two Prairie Village police officers have lost their certification because of untoward behavior with members of the public. We could not look past the fact that he was a leader in the department during that time.

In one case involving former police officer Rolando Swaby, an internal investigation concluded Swaby’s unwarranted sexual advances to a woman he had arrested was OK. It was not. When the woman claimed Swaby asked her for sex, Roberson defended the officer, telling FOX4, “That’s unethical but mistakes do happen.”

Only after Swaby was investigated for an unrelated domestic violence incident was he forced to leave the department. In a follow-up email, we asked Roberson about the situation.

“How do you look at this incident today?” we asked. “How was this officer’s behavior defensible, and how was yours?”

“I was not the chief of police at the time of the first complaint against former officer Swaby,” Roberson wrote. He may have not been police chief, but Roberson did defend the indefensible.

In another case, ex-Prairie Village officer Jeffrey Henley lost his license in March 2022 after he allegedly sent “concerning messages” to a 16-year-old girl. He allegedly asked the teen to send him nude photos, according to The Star. Henley was a full-time Prairie Village Police officer from Dec. 16, 2019, to Oct. 29, 2020.

In our interview with Bedford, he said his experience as undersheriff in Johnson County is a major advantage. He retired after 26 years working at the agency. Compared to the Prairie Village Police Department, the sheriff’s office is larger with a much larger budget, Bedford correctly pointed out.

“It’s a different beast,” he said.

Because of Bedford’s extensive experience at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, he is The Star’s recommendation in this race.

This story was originally published October 27, 2024 at 6:06 AM with the headline "The Star’s endorsement for Johnson County sheriff between Doug Bedford, Byron Roberson | Opinion."