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By Drew Lawson
The Record-Times 

Candidate for Sheriff: Adam Johnson

 

Last updated 6/16/2022 at 2:28pm

DAVENPORT-Adam Johnson may be in law enforcement outside Lincoln County, but the Airway Heights officer believes the position of Lincoln County Sheriff is a natural next step for him.

Johnson is running for Sheriff after considering a campaign for the past 18 months.

"When I first got into law enforcement, I thought that every place I've ever gone...I worked my way up," Johnson said. "Sheriff has always been one of those opportunities that I want to make, and I can tell you that I'd probably say I'm different from the other four (candidates) because I have a management background instead of all law enforcement."

Johnson has 11 years of law enforcement experience. Prior to that, he had a career in Idaho in management for a Waste Connection site overseeing buildings of operations, a recycling center and a transfer station. In that role, he often worked with budgets, county commissioners and city councils, which he believes would suit him well as Sheriff.


"We did a lot of budgets, billing, planning," Johnson said. "Dealt with the public in general."

As one of two Sheriff candidates who hasn't worked in Lincoln County, Johnson said he would wait to make sweeping changes upon election and would instead focus on observing and learning the state of the department.

"The last thing you want to do is make a bunch of changes and then find out you're making things 100 times worse," Johnson said. "Going into the Sheriff's office, I'd number one see how it runs, see how it operates. Then you want to talk to...the employees and figure out what their views are."

He said he would appoint an undersheriff through an interview process, possibly bringing in an outside candidate.

Johnson would likely appoint a deputy to speak to the public and media when necessary, but noted that if the situation warranted it, he or his undersheriff would face the public themselves.

"Number one, it gets (the deputy) that experience and training, and there are a lot of things that need to be...put to the public so they know what's going on," Johnson said. "When it comes to bigger things going on...yes, I would absolutely step up or my undersheriff would step up and we would bring out the biggest points of the (circumstance)."

He said he has no strong opinion on whether a local municipality has their own police department, saying the final decision should be up to each city and the local council.

"There's a happy medium here...some of the cities have to make their own choice if they want to put out the budget for having a department or not," Johnson said. "It comes down to what the city council wants...if that's what they want to do as a city, you have to support the cities in the county to do that."

Johnson is one of five candidates running for sheriff along with Jeff Barden, Gabe Gants, Brian Telford and Andy Manke.

BIO

Position sought: Sheriff

Age: 50

Hometown: Rigby, Idaho

Current city of residence: Davenport

Family: Married with two children

Relevant experience: Officer for Nez Perce Tribe Law Enforcement, Corporal for Nez Perce County Sheriff's Office, Community Engagement Officer, Property and Evidence Officer, Peer Support and Logistics for Airway Heights Police Department

Author Bio

Drew Lawson, Editor

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Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.

 

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