Clark County Sheriff Lucas hangs up his star

Now, at age 71, Lucas prepares to walk out of the sheriff’s office doors for the last time today.

He said he never imagined having a 47-year career at the sheriff’s office, nor had he fathomed spending more than half of it as the sheriff.

“But I love what I do, I love the people I do it with and the people I do it for,” he said.

Never a dull day

Lucas, who grew up in Camas, had tried out a job at the paper mill and then a job as a salesman before he was struck by a notice in The Columbian that said the sheriff’s office was hiring deputies.

“I not only knew what I was going to do tomorrow, I knew what I was going to be doing 25 years past tomorrow,” he said.

He took the written test, interviewed and became a deputy.

“I haven’t had a bored day since,” he said.

He first started as a graveyard deputy patrolling north county, where “there were weeks when I didn’t have a single (911) call,” he said. But the work was always interesting, he said.

“In those days, you were the jailer and the radio guy,” he said, and he pulled each of those duties one day a week. “There was always something.”

As the years went on, Lucas said that he was fortunate to be given opportunities by his superiors and to be challenged by others. He was sent to the FBI academy in 1975 as a sergeant, and when he became a lieutenant, a colleague gave him a sign that read, “If I were sheriff …”

“It forced me to look at things differently everyday,” he said.

When Lucas was a chief criminal deputy, he had a hand in the sheriff’s office becoming the 31st law enforcement agency in the country to become nationally accredited.

Lucas said he wasn’t interested in trying to become the top cop, but when Sheriff Frank Kanekoa retired, other people nudged him to throw his hat in the ring.

“Very frankly, I didn’t want to be sheriff … but I wasn’t content to see the organization go in the direction it would go if my opponent were elected,” he said of then-Undersheriff Bob Songer. “It was really the influence of other people that got me to put my name on the dotted line in the auditor’s office.”

Sheriff Lucas

During the 24 years he’s spent as sheriff, he said that he’s simply “proud to say we did what we said we would do,” namely a community policing approach to law enforcement.

As sheriff, Lucas said, “you paint the target, establish values, but it takes everybody to build an organization,” he said. “I’ve just been blessed with folks with high sets of values and who’ve worked hard to maintain them.”

“The thing that I’ll miss the most are the people,” he said. “We have had great people that have worked here.”

One of the people Lucas worked with was Doug Maas, 64, who became Lucas’ colleague in the early 70s and eventually ran Lucas’ campaign in his first election for sheriff.

Maas went on to become Vancouver police chief in 1997 and oversaw the city’s annexation of 18 square miles — the largest in state history. The transition was an unsure one, with deputies worried about their job security because of the loss of jurisdiction.

But working with Lucas, Maas said, made the transition a smooth one.

“We had each other’s trust and the trust of the unions,” Maas said. “No deputy sheriff lost their job.”

He described Lucas as “a principled and tremendous leader, but in a quiet way.”

“It didn’t take but one term for him to become an institution in the state of Washington,” he said.

Undersheriff Joe Dunegan started his career at the sheriff’s office in 1977, but really got to know Lucas when Lucas appointed him to jail chief in 1991.

“As a person and a boss, I would pretty much say the same thing: He’s a very loyal person and he’s a very honest and straightforward individual.”

Ask anyone in the sheriff’s office to describe Lucas, and the word quiet will be among the adjectives used.

Dunegan said that this quality made him a superb leader.

“There were a lot of times when I was standing in front of Garry Lucas, asking him for advice, and the silence I got back, although it was uncomfortable, it was educational,” Dunegan said. “I’d try to fill the silence and in doing so, I usually answered the question myself.”

Over the years, Dunegan said, he’s learned that Lucas makes clear his vision and then puts a tremendous amount of trust and respect in his leaders.

“I’ve been very, very satisfied. I really never even contemplated going outside the agency,” Dunegan said.

Dunegan is retiring with Lucas and Chief Criminal Deputy Mike Evans. Chuck Atkins was sworn in as the new sheriff last week.

“It’s really, truly been an honor and a privilege to have worked for Garry Lucas for as long as I did,” Dunegan said. “I think that it’s going to be a challenge for Sheriff Atkins. I wish Chuck nothing but the best, but he’s got some huge shoes to fill.”

During a recent interview, Lucas looked around his office filled with family photos, framed certificates and various mementos, and he pondered whether it would be hard to leave.

“No, it’s time,” he said.

What’s next

Looking ahead to retired life, Lucas said he’ll continue feeding his genealogy habit — he’s traced his ancestry to 1650 in Cornwall, England, and his wife, Kayte Lucas, to the 1500s in Germany.

But he won’t stay too idle.

Lucas has been appointed to the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, which sets national standards for police agencies. The commitment will have him travel four times a year to review assessors’ reports and amend and adopt existing standards.

“I happen to believe in the process,” he said. “I consider it a huge compliment to be asked.”

He also said he has been approached by others to run in the 2015 election for chairperson of the Clark County Council. It would be a countywide election.

“I have enough irons in my fire that I won’t be bored,” he said.

When asked if the nudging for him to run for office has worked, he answered: “We’ll see, dot dot dot.”