Duke Schirard’s long tenure as sheriff of La Plata County ended Tuesday. Our appreciation for the job he did, however, should endure. He had his critics, but on balance he was a good sheriff.
Schirard can point with pride to the fact that in his 20 years as sheriff, his office had only one officer-involved shooting, only one unsolved murder – the killing of Dylan Redwine – and no unsolved cases of attempted murder or assault with a deadly weapon. His office closed about 70 percent of felony cases that happened on his watch. And he presided over the expansion and modernization of the jail. Add to that helping to create programs to keep people out of jail and train officers to deal with psychological episodes, building a dispatch center and getting a juvenile center for Durango.
Probably his finest hour was his handling of the Missionary Ridge Fire in 2002. He seemed, at times, to be everywhere. His decision during the fire to let residents defend their own homes should they choose fit right in with his view of his job and his politics. It resulted in no injuries.
Schirard ran for sheriff six times. He unseated the incumbent Sheriff Bill Gardner in 1994 in a hotly contested race and was re-elected four times before losing to Sean Smith in 2014.
That he lost in November probably had less to do with dissatisfaction with Schirard’s job performance or his policies than a general sense that it was time to go. When he chose to run again, Schirard was 72. During the campaign, he seemed tired of the job and showed little patience with the normal give and take of politics. At one point, he threatened to issue a summons to a Durango police officer and fire his sheriff’s deputy opponent for spreading what he said were lies.
Political campaigns typically accuse their opponents of lying to one extent or another. They do not usually threaten to involve law enforcement.
It probably did not help that Schirard also dismissed the city of Durango – which includes a substantial chunk of the county population – as being run by “liberal, democratic, gun hating, pot loving, abortionist, Obama supporting” socialists.
It is also true that this was the first time since his election to the office that Schirard faced a determined and viable candidate. In his re-election campaigns, he was unopposed twice and – until Smith – otherwise faced weak, sometimes laughable, opposition.
It was said during the campaign that Schirard really did not want another term as sheriff but was running to give his chosen successor more time to prepare. The problem with that, of course, is that picking the next sheriff is the voters’ prerogative, and they chose to do just that.
Duke Schirard should be remembered as having conscientiously served La Plata County. May he enjoy his retirement.
