By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
NEWPORT – There’s a new sheriff in town.
Adam Shanks was sworn in as Lincoln County’s 17th sheriff Monday by presiding circuit court judge Sheryl Bachart, two months after he ran unopposed for election.
In a courtroom packed with Shanks’ family, law enforcement professionals and county staff, Bachart first praised outgoing Sheriff Curtis Landers for his integrity, innovate thinking and bringing others along with him. She said she most appreciated his can-do attitude, taking on and completing difficult tasks and credited him with leading the state in pre-trial reform.
“You’ve done everything you can do to make this community better,” Bachart said. “I don’t say this lightly, Lincoln County is better because of you. You will be missed. And what I think you left behind is a legacy of integrity, compassion and service.”
She then praised Shanks for sharing many of the same qualities of character and said there is no better person to become sheriff in what will be a “seamless transition.”
Shanks thanked many of the people in attendance along with his family and Landers, calling him a dear friend and mentor.
The 49-year-old Shanks served as Landers’ administrative lieutenant prior to being elected as sheriff in the Nov. 5 general election. Landers retires after 37 years with the sheriff’s office, 8 1/2 of those as its top official.
“He’s going to do amazing things,” Landers said of Shanks. “I can’t wait to watch and see him work with the team here and see everything he’s going to accomplish.”
Landers smiled as he recalled how Shanks moved through the ranks behind him, filling each position he previously held and boding well for a smooth handoff as Landers passes the baton to his former lieutenant one last time.
Shanks was hired in 1997 to fill a patrol deputy position left by Landers when he was promoted to patrol sergeant. When Landers moved on to administrative lieutenant, Shanks was promoted to patrol sergeant. And then again to administrative lieutenant when Landers stepped in as sheriff in 2016.
Shanks first job with the sheriff’s office was as a summer marine cadet. The Newport High School graduate was just 19 but said in an interview with YachatsNews that he always knew he wanted a life in law enforcement. It was while serving as a cadet that he first met Landers.
“He was Deputy Landers then, and I was always bugging him to let me do ridealongs with him and so he kind of took me under his wing and gave me that opportunity,” Shanks said. “He’s just such a respectable gentleman and he really taught me so many things over my career, has guided me when I needed guidance.”
When Shanks turned 21, the official age to become a police officer in Oregon, it was Landers who introduced him to the now-defunct Waldport Police Department. Waldport hired Shanks as an unpaid reserve officer in 1996 but he quickly stepped in to fill shifts, working 40-hour weeks while earning an associate’s degree in criminal justice at Lane Community College in Eugene.
He went on to apply for jobs with the Waldport police and the sheriff’s office. Waldport scrapped its department in 1997 and Shanks was hired as a sheriff’s patrol deputy.
“I’ve worked the majority of my career in patrol,” Shanks said.
After five years he was appointed as a field training deputy where he continued to train under Landers. He was promoted to patrol sergeant in 2005 and in 2017 was named administrative lieutenant.
Since then, he has overseen policy, procedures, risk management, emergency management and the overall training program for the sheriff’s office. He also focused heavily on an officer wellness program he implemented.
State of the union
Shanks inherits an office with a budget just over $17 million a year and staff that is 11 people shy of its 105 positions, which includes everything from detectives and patrol deputies to jail personnel, animal control and emergency and administrative employees.
Nationwide, law enforcement has faced personnel challenges after high-profile incidents of misconduct, defund movements and the Covid pandemic. But staffing in Lincoln County is trending back upward, Shanks and Landers said.
“We’ve found a little bit of that secret sauce, I call it, to attract the right people,” Landers told YachatsNews. “And what we are really doing is focusing on local applicants. People who already live here and just maybe thought this was never a fit for them.”
The effort has proven successful, he added, leading to long-term hires who now permeate the sheriff office’s leadership team and some deputy positions. Shanks has promoted jail commander Lt. Jamie Russell to be his administrative lieutenant.
In an ideal world, Landers would like to see an additional seven positions to provide added coverage and duties as well as account for people on leave or in training. While it has been challenging to find staff to fill certain positions – there are four vacant nursing positions at the jail — wages have not been an obstacle. The sheriff’s unionized staff were able to negotiate “a couple of good contracts,” Landers said.
The sheriff office tends be on the higher end of the pay scale compared with equivalent-sized departments in Coos, Columbia and Clatsop counties, Landers said. But the best comparisons are with the Newport and Lincoln City departments and Oregon State Police.
“Because if someone is already here and they can live in the same house and go work for one of those agencies and make more – that’s where I really look for a comparator,” Landers said.
Landers and Shanks would both like to see a countywide taxing district in the future that would enhance coverage while ending the need for contract deputies in Waldport, Yachats, Depoe Bay and Siletz.
Despite the challenges, the successes Landers has seen during his tenure has been notable.
“There are a couple of things that come to mind – our wellness plan for our deputies that (Shanks) basically came forward with and wanted to implement,” Landers said. “I just said ‘Go forth and conquer’ and he’s done a great job of things … And then pre-trial release.”
The wellness plan provides physical, mental health, peer support and even dietary and on-site healthy food options in the kitchen to help staff deal with the rigors of a job that places them in life and death situations.
The program gives staff somewhere to go for help, Landers said. And it has proven successful based on the numbers of people who take advantage of it which is reflected in staff longevity, retention and getting deputies back to work after traumatic incidents.
“… it’s a lot different than when I was on the road and it was really ‘Those things happen, oh well, get back to work.’”
Shanks praised Landers for supporting the program.
“Every officer experiences a tremendous amount of trauma,” Shanks said. “And for so many years there was no emphasis or concern placed on it and it went untreated … (Landers) and I had both experienced a lot of the same traumas on different scenes or the same scenes on many occasions and it was just – you go back to work and do your thing.”
Pre-trial release, which started in 2017, was another program Landers realized had to be implemented to more effectively manage the availability of jail beds.
“We were force releasing over 700 (people) a year,” Landers said. “And I heard this morning that we did 24 this year …Not only are we managing them, but our recidivism rate is lower and our fail-to-appear rate is lower.”
The pre-trial program monitors people charged with low-level crimes using ankle bracelets, daily check-ins or just ensuring that people have jobs and show up to work.
“It’s been a huge benefit to everything that we do for public safety in this county,” Landers said. “It was a culture change for myself. I was on the road primarily in the ’90s and you were building more jails then, more prisons.
“We thought we could arrest ourselves out of this problem and we knew we couldn’t because substance-use disorder, mental illness, all those things and coming to jail wasn’t a deterrent for those individuals. So we had to find what the barrier was and try to get them help.”
Moving forward
Shanks believes the strength of the sheriff’s office is its people, their commitment to duty, “and demonstration of compassion and care for the community.”
“Our business is community service and serving people,” he said. “It takes people to serve those people. It takes good people that care to do that. Hire well, lead easy, manage easy. And that means hiring people with empathy and compassion, creative thinkers, progressive thinkers and people who want to serve the community and understand that role.”
Shanks believes the office has excellent community support, which he says comes through earned trust and treating people the right way.
“And that’s the No. 1 commitment that I have as a leader and elected official …,” Shanks said. “They are going to have transparency from me. They’re going to know that everyone has a voice.”
As the new sheriff steps into his new role, Shanks said he looks to the example set by Landers.
“I have so much respect for him and the way he leads,” Shanks said. “He’s a servant leader, always has been. He’s been an incredible mentor.”
The biggest lesson learned from working with Landers has been “diplomacy, by far,” Shanks said. “And ensuring that I’m listening as much as I’m speaking. And truly hearing what people are saying.”
Shanks will also continue the culture of letting his team know the workplace is “their space” where they can be themselves, “let their hair down” and be supported so they know it is a safe place to “share and relax.”
“That’s how we’ve always led and that’s how I foresee myself leading in the future,” he said. “I want to ensure our team is well cared for, have the resources and tools they need … to know they are supported and to support our community.”
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached atGJaros@YachatsNews.com
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