FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YUMA COUNTY MAN ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR SHERIFF

Mike Dickson offers professionalism, investigative experience, and

knowledge of rural law enforcement to Yuma County citizens

WRAY, COLO. – February 3, 2010 – Yuma County native Mike Dickson announced today his candidacy for Yuma County Sheriff. Dickson pledged quality law enforcement featuring, “professionalism, experience, integrity, and community service to the residents of the county”.

Dickson grew up in the Vernon area, where his family homesteaded,  and is a graduate of Wray High School. He recently moved back to the area and re-established his residency.

“I look forward to working with members of the community in keeping Yuma County free of those activities which tarnish the rural way of life,” Dickson said.

Dickson would bring years of law-enforcement experience to the county position. He served nearly 31 years with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, retiring as a lieutenant in 2007. During that time he was an investigator for more than 22 years and also worked in Patrol, Detentions and Administrative Services. Due in part to his rural background, Dickson was frequently assigned as patrol deputy to the East District, encompassing hundreds of square miles of rural unincorporated Arapahoe County as well as the towns of Byers, Deer Trail, Strasburg, Watkins and Bennett.

As an investigator, Dickson worked cases ranging from homicides to petty thefts many times in those same rural areas. Additionally, he trained and supervised deputies in all divisions and taught numerous classes in law enforcement integrity, ethics, professionalism, leadership, and investigative techniques.

Dickson served six years in the Bureau of Professional Standards/Internal Affairs, the unit charged with maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards in the agency. While in Internal Affairs, Dickson worked first as a Deputy Inspector and later as Inspector overseeing periodic reviews by The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Arapahoe County was one of the first agencies to receive a CALEA five star accreditation as an agency, for its patrol, investigations, detention and detention medical services areas.

In addition, Dickson served as a member of the 18^th Judicial District’s Serious Habitual Offender/Directed Intervention Task Force which helped develop the Juvenile Intensive Supervision Probation Program, providing special attention and redirection to repeat juvenile offenders to reduce recidivism. He also worked closely with members of the Sheriff’s Office assigned to the South Metro Drug Task Force and taught investigative techniques at the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Facility.

Dickson attended the American Institute of Polygraph Technology and Applied Psychology, accredited through the University of Northern Michigan, to become a polygraph examiner. Over 20 years, he conducted hundreds of polygraph examinations for local state and federal agencies throughout the United States.

Dickson received a Bachelors of Science in Aviation/Business Mgmt. from Metro State College in Denver. He is also a graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command Training, similar to the FBI Academy. He has taken intensive courses in psychological profiling, investigative and training evaluation, and national incident management, and annually participated in more than 120 hours of required in-house training, in subjects ranging from ethics to arrest techniques.

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