Grant County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Breitsprecker planned to run for sheriff in 2014.

His candidacy was based on the assumption that the sheriff’s seat would be open with the retirement of Sheriff Keith Govier.

Govier indeed did retire, but in 2012, with fellow Sgt. Nate Dreckman named sheriff.

The fact that Govier didn’t fill out his four-year term didn’t change Breitsprecker’s decision to run. In fact, how Govier’s replacement was selected spurred on Breitsprecker’s candidacy.

“In 2010 I had decided to run for sheriff this time thinking it would be an open seat,” said Breitsprecker, who said had heard rumors that Dreckman was going to replace Govier before Govier had announced his retirement.

Breitsprecker and Dreckman were two of the three candidates interviewed. “That was the entire selection process,” said Breitsprecker. “At that point, I felt I was qualified for the position, and there was no question I was going to run.”

Breitsprecker is making his first run for elective office. He chose to run as a Republican, meaning a meeting against Dreckman in the Aug. 12 primary, instead of running as a Democrat or independent.

“I explored my options, and I explored the Democratic Party, and I had more than one person say we’d love to support you, but we vote straight Republican,” said Breitsprecker. “I thought my chances would be best if I ran as a Republican. I am not a political guy.”

Since becoming a sergeant, Breitsprecker said he began the department’s field training program, and ran it until he became the jail administrator. He also pushed for scenario-based firearms training.

“The sheriff’s responsibilities are civil process, services for the courts, and the jail,” he said. “Those responsibilities include law enforcement in any non-policed area.”

Breitsprecker is running on his “experience with the Sheriff’s Department, knowledge of the Sheriff’s Department, not only with patrol responsibilities but with the jail. That’s what makes me unique with my opponent.”

Breitsprecker is also running because “I really think I can make some efficiency changes in the Sheriff’s Department.”

The biggest is in reducing overtime, which he said cost the department $186,000 in 2013. He said the department has 10 supervisors, “and eight of them work nothing but day shifts, six of them weekday shifts. He said the supervisory positions are “not too defined, to the point where no one knows who’s doing what.”

Breitsprecker proposes to make the chief deputy in charge of patrol and investigation, and make the captain in charge of the jail and dispatch, with a sergeant in the jail. He then would fill schedule gaps with part-time deputies — Breitsprecker was a part-time deputy when he began in 1985, going full-time two years later — while potentially changing shift rotations. Deputies currently work 10-hour shifts for four days; Breitsprecker would switch newer deputies to the former six-days-on three-days-off rotation if additional part-time deputies didn’t solve the overtime problem.

Breitsprecker also believes the county needs to “really get going and hopefully put a plan in place” for the jail and sheriff’s building mechanicals. He said state jail inspectors continue to cite problems with the jail, and “someday we’re going to get a legal claim on one of these areas, or a lawsuit.”

Breitsprecker said the Grant County Board authorized the creation of a building study committee, but there has been “no movement on that.”

Breitsprecker believes determining a solution for the jail might take an entire four-year term. “When you talk about a project of this magnitude, you have to take your time and do it right,” he said.

He also proposes ending the long-standing policy of allowing personal use of squads by Sheriff’s Department supervisors “to no personal value for the taxpayers of the county.” He also opposes issuing smartphones to supervisors, which he said he turned down. “What need is that addressing?” he asked.

Breitsprecker also wants to review the county’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. “I am a supporter of the DARE program; I am a supporter of officers in schools,” he said, while noting that all Grant County police departments that had DARE programs have dropped them. “My question is, what happened?” he said, asking if schools believe there is “no benefit for the school?”

Breitsprecker said the county’s drug problem is “not unique to Grant County — it’s coming from other areas. We need to continue to combat that” through the Richland–Iowa–Grant Drug Task Force and public education.

“I’m not going to blow smoke at anybody. We’re not going to eradicate drug use any more than we’re going to eradicate alcohol use. We have to educate to combat that.”

As to whether crime is growing in Grant County, Breitsprecker believes crime statistics “can be manipulated, and they’re constantly changing.

“We have a growing problem with our neighbors. We have to be very diligent at what’s happening around us.”

Breitsprecker said he would consider proposals to combine Grant County and Platteville dispatch — “it’s been done in other areas; I would not be opposed to it, but it’s Platteville’s decision.”

Breitsprecker has a different opinion from some Grant County law enforcement officers about whether or not Grant County judges are lenient in sentencing.

“I spend a lot of time in the courthouse,” he said. “I sit and I listen to a lot of these cases, and I listen to the judges’ sentencing. Not everybody’s going to be happy, but the vast majority, I have not seen a problem with. What the officer sees at 2 o’clock in the morning is a little bit different from what the [district attorney] sees when they read that report, which is different from what the judge sees when he pronounces sentence.”

Sheriff’s candidate forum Aug. 4: Grant County Sheriff Republican candidates Nate Dreckman and Ed Breitsprecker will appear at a candidate forum in the Platteville Municipal Building second-floor council chambers Monday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.

The winner of the primary Aug. 12 will be unopposed on the ballot in the Nov. 4 general election for a four-year term.

The event is open to the public. Anyone who wishes to submit a question should email journaleditor@centurytel.net by Monday at 8 a.m.

Sheriff’s candidate forum Aug. 4: Grant County Sheriff Republican candidates Nate Dreckman and Ed Breitsprecker will appear at a candidate forum in the Platteville Municipal Building second-floor council chambers Monday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.

The winner of the primary Aug. 12 will be unopposed on the ballot in the Nov. 4 general election for a four-year term.

The event is open to the public. Anyone who wishes to submit a question should email journaleditor@centurytel.net by Monday at 8 a.m.