A little over a year ago, in the midst of multiple scandals surrounding Vermont sheriffs, I asked if we might be better off getting rid of the office entirely. Sheriffs are chosen in extremely low-visibility campaigns; they routinely win re-election whether they’re capable or not; and their finances are tailor-made for exploitation. The office is an appendix from a much earlier stage in our history, and it’s prone to severe infection.

Now it’s gotten bad enough that the sheriffs themselves are calling for change. The Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, usually a staunch defender of the profession, wants to require that sheriffs prove their professionalism by holding the state’s top law enforcement certification. And the Vermont Sheriffs’ Association is calling for the resignation of (Only in Journalism Word alert) embattled Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore.

They’re probably a bit late on both counts. The State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs’ stance came in a report mandated by the Legislature, which is clearly honed in on the issue and is likely to see this suggestion as a baseline, not a topline. As for Grismore, well, shortly after the VSA call, he pretty much poured gasoline on his head and set himself on fire in open testimony before a legislative panel considering his impeachment.

So yeah, things are bad in sheriffland and the guys with badges are struggling to contain the damage.

It stands to reason. The roll call, for those just joining us:

• Grismore was caught on video assaulting a man in his custody. And now it appears that there are serious questions about his personal finances. (The impeachment panel has conducted every hearing but one behind closed doors, so we have yet to see the full case against Grismore.)
• Bill Bohnyak narrowly lost re-election as Orange County sheriff and then basically did everything he could to sabotage the department. And now the county assistant judges are threatening deep cuts in the department’s budget because, I guess, Bohnyak overspent in his final years?
• When he was in office, Addison County sheriff Peter Newton was charged with sexual assault. He rebuffed calls for his resignation from Gov. Phil Scott and several county lawmakers, but didn’t run for re-election last year.
• Then-Bennington County sheriff Chad Schmidt refused to resign after apparently moving to Tennessee in 2020. At least he didn’t run for re-election last year.
• In Caledonia County, sheriff Dean Shatney left office under a cloud after one of his deputies was charged with coercing sexual favors from women and Shatney refused to fire him.

In addition to the individual misdeeds, there are systemic questions about sheriffs’ finances, which are heavily dependent on hiring out deputies for public-and private-sector security work — with sheriffs legally allowed to take a cut of the proceeds.

While researching this post, I came across “Why There Are So Many Bad Sheriffs,” a 2018 article in Governing, a news outlet for local and state government, which shone an unflattering light on sheriffs everywhere. The subhead on the story:

In a job with tons of power and practically no oversight from voters, law enforcement or politicians, corruption can be easy to get away with.

It’s baked into the structure of the office. Sheriffs’ powers are established in state constitutions. They are free from oversight on the local and county levels. Impeachment at the state level is the only recourse, and that happens extremely rarely. Voters don’t notice or don’t care when they have a bad sheriff, so the bad ones go on and on for years or even decades. At least here in Vermont we don’t sink to this level:

Oddie Shoupe, the sheriff of White County, Tenn., has been sued roughly 50 times since taking office in 2006, sometimes in wrongful death cases. One particular case has recently gained notoriety: A pair of deputies were preparing to “ram” a suspect they were pursuing when Shoupe ordered them by radio to shoot him instead, saying he didn’t want them to risk “tearing up” their vehicle. The district attorney declined to press charges, even after bodycam footage emerged that captured Shoupe saying, after the suspect was killed, “I love this shit. God, I tell you what, I thrive on it.”

John Grismore seems like a boy scout by comparison. But really, we have a systemic problem that won’t be addressed by isolated pressure on extreme violators or Band-Aid type reform measures.

If we were inventing our government from scratch, there is no way in hell we’d come up with the office of sheriff. I know we’re not real big on objective examination of longstanding traditions, but this institution is more trouble than it’s worth.