Sheriff Gunderson retires

It certainly wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it was one that had to be made.

That’s the mentality that former Shoshone County Sheriff Mike Gunderson had as he worked his last shift last Friday before retiring for health reasons.

“1201,” Gunderson said to dispatch, as he checked out with his call sign for the last time. “End of service. Final 1042.”

Gunderson’s own daughters, Austyn and Rylie, confirmed the ten-code that signals an officer's end of tour, then came over the air to deliver a heartfelt recapping of his service and acknowledgement of the many lives he had touched during his time in office.

“Congratulations, Dad. We love you,” they said in unison. “1201, you are 1042 for the final time.”

With 32 years of experience in law enforcement, six of which as the Sheriff, Gunderson admitted that retiring wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do.

“It was a hard decision to come to, but it’s the right decision for where I’m at today,” he said.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my job. It’s one of those things that’s bittersweet. There’s nothing better than serving your community and hopefully making the right decisions.”

After being diagnosed with a "personal medical condition" roughly three years ago, he explained to the News-Press that his doctor strongly recommended that he reduce his stress levels — this largely meant retiring from law enforcement. Being a workaholic, taking on less responsibility is no easy task for him, but he has noticed an improvement in his health after cutting down on the workload.

“I’ve felt better. There’s good days and bad days, but I do feel a lot better. It was really about fatigue.”

Looking back on his time as sheriff, Gunderson was pleased with being able to accomplish so much of what he promised during his initial campaign in 2016.

From obtaining certification for the aging Shoshone County jail and creating a more competitive pay scale to retain employees, to getting tougher on drugs and establishing new relationships with neighboring law enforcement agencies — there’s plenty for him to hang his hat on.

Compared to before he came on as sheriff, drug arrests under Gunderson’s tenure went from an average of 90 a year to 400 a year. Much of this had to do with the addition of two furry deputies that specialize in seeking out drugs.

“We were able to focus where we needed to focus,” Gunderson said. “We were able to bring on a couple K9s (drug detection dogs) that have been very successful. A large amount of our drug arrests have been trafficking amounts of drugs — methamphetamine, heroine, fentanyl.”

He said that the overall case clearance rate of SCSO shot up exponentially as well, increasing from roughly 40% when he took over to just shy of 75% today.

“We were able to solve more cases and train more officers to do investigations and it made a big difference,” he said.

While he is proud of meeting his initial campaign goals and more, he does wish that he would have been able to do more about the staffing issues that have been a constant problem at SCSO for decades.

“That’s the area I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in. We are a small community and we only have so much funding. Totally understand that.”

While he said the office was recently able to create two new positions to help reduce burnout and call/caseloads, he believes it’s still not enough when you take into account the issues that stem from beyond the county line.

The SCSO staffing issues also went hand-in-hand with Gunderson’s push to build a new public safety building that never came to fruition.

One of his campaign promises, to ensure that the county jail was recertified and stayed that way, was at times difficult to keep considering the state of the current building.

Originally built in the 1970s as a used car lot, the current/repurposed Public Safety Building is much smaller in comparison to neighboring facilities — such as the Kootenai County Jail — and lacks several modern upgrades. A nearly 40-page report presented by PLI Inc. in 2019 detailed several glaring deficiencies noticed during their inspection — many of which relate back to the building’s decrepit state and outdated design.

“We’re running out of space,” Gunderson said. “Your female housing is only geared for eight, and we’re housing 26, that means that we’re running into some ACLU problems and have to be very careful about everything we do.”

The biggest success Gunderson points to during his time as sheriff is the new relationships that the SCSO staff and the community have formed.

“My slogan was ‘together, we can do better.’ We’ve increased our community activity programs and started doing a lot more with the community. Talking to the community and seeing what was a priority to them and gearing our office towards those priorities. Being able to do that I think made our community that much safer and that much better to live in.”

He believes that this relationship with the community, and the structure he brought to SCSO, sets some solid foundations for whoever is going to become the next 1201.

“The biggest thing for me to be successful is that you have to be one with the community…and you need to be transparent with them on if you can provide those things or not.”

Looking forward, Gunderson is currently working just across the street from SCSO in Wallace as the manager of Ace Hardware and has no plans at this time to get back into law enforcement.

“It’s a great place to work and I’m excited to help out and make the store even more successful,” he said.

Shoshone County Commissioner Jay Huber spoke on behalf of the board when he said that the immense amount of law enforcement knowledge that Gunderson is taking with him into retirement will be hard to replace.

“We really enjoyed working with him over the years since he’s been sheriff,” Huber said. “We’ve worked together really well, all of us, and he will be sorely missed.”

Undersheriff Holly Lindsey, who has served in that position for the entirety of Gunderson’s tenure, is incredibly thankful for the opportunity and the lessons he imparted.

“Sheriff Gunderson has always had tremendous leadership skills, and as such, working with him for several years has taught me about leadership, building relationships, and operational planning for the agency’s future,” she said. “His mentorship was invaluable to our office and our future moving forward.”

With Gunderson’s term not ending until January 2025, an interim sheriff must be selected to serve out the remaining time.

To select the interim, Gunderson first submitted a three-person list of recommendations to the Shoshone County Democratic Committee before he officially retired. The SCDC then ranked the names in order of their preference and submitted that ranked list to the BOCC.

SCDS chairman Duane Little states that their ranked list read as follows:

1) Holly Lindsey, SCSO Undersheriff

2) Lance Stutzke, SCSO Detention Captain

3) Jeff Lee, SCSO Patrol Captain

Upon hearing the news, Lindsey said that she is honored to be the top recommendation to fill the big shoes left by Gunderson.

“Honestly, it feels amazing to be recommended by the SCDC for the sheriff’s appointment. I am humbled to be given an opportunity to serve my community in the capacity of a sheriff. I’ve worked under three sheriffs and watching what they go through on a daily basis, I understand how difficult this position can be. Our SCSO leaders might change over time, but the priority to provide quality service to the citizens never does. I am definitely up to the task of becoming the Shoshone County Sheriff, and if appointed by the BOCC, I will accept the position and hit the ground running.”

Huber tells the News-Press that the BOCC will announce their choice for the interim sheriff on Monday, Dec. 12 at 11 a.m. and that individual will be sworn in at the Shoshone County Courthouse immediately following the decision.

The BOCC is not bound to the three names submitted to them if they find none of them are qualified. Unless the selected interim sheriff decides to run for the position and win an election, this individual’s time as sheriff would conclude at the end of the current term.

The primary election for the position of Shoshone County Sheriff will be held in May 2024 and the general election in November of that same year.

“I’d just like to thank the staff, my family and the citizens of Shoshone County for their support in my 32 years of service,” Gunderson said in his final radio check out. “County, 1201. I’ll be 1042.”