2024 has marked 30 years since Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze has been with the Sheriff’s Office. Cruze started as a part-time deputy back in 1994 and has seen lots of changes since then.
Sheriff Cruze says he was a patrol deputy for 6 years, then joined the CEE-VI Drug Task Force in 2000, and was elected Sheriff in 2014. He says the Jacob Wetterling abduction in 1989 helped to bring computers into the forefront of law enforcement, and technology – including computers in each squad car – has probably been the biggest change over the past 30 years.
Sheriff Cruze says the portable radios they used years ago were hit or miss sometimes when trying to communicate with the dispatch center and there were no cell phones. He says technology costs a lot of money, but it has really improved law enforcement.
Sheriff Cruze says when he started there were hundreds of applicants for just one job opening and now, it’s the other way around. He says the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office is just one deputy short, but there are still 5 openings in the jail.
