Do you ever think about your safety or is it something you take for granted?

Most of us do not spend a lot of time thinking about it because we not only live in America, but in Johnson County, KS.

It has been a comparatively safe place to live.

If, for example, you compare our JoCo to our neighbors like KCMO, Wyandotte County, or even Douglas County (Lawrence), you’ll be shocked – I know I was. 

Look at the 2022 stats.

Although JoCo has the largest population, we are safer than any of our surrounding neighbors.

Comparing, as an example, JoCo to KCMO, for every 1 person murdered here, there are more than 39 murdered right across the state line, even though we have more than a hundred thousand more residents. 

Compared to Wyandotte, the ratio is 10 to 1 and JoCo has nearly a half million more people that could be victims.

Why are there fewer murders in Johnson County than in the surrounding communities?

1. Our prosecutors are more likely to strive for true justice. True Justice discourages crime. 

2. Thanks to Sheriff Hayden our law enforcement departments are better staffed, and law enforcement officers are encouraged when prosecutors do their job.

Some JoCo cities have their own police departments, and some do not, but they can all rely on the backup of Sheriff Hayden and his deputies. I have just had the opportunity to witness and begin to understand what a powerful force for good we have in this asset, and it blew my mind.

Sheriff Cal Hayden has put together the finest team that can be assembled, he respects them, and he has their respect. 

Imagine the most complex Crime Lab you have ever seen in a TV series like CSI, we have one just like or superior to it. 

The man the sheriff has in charge, Ross Capps, and his staff are not only super competent, but hungry and driven to know every advance going on around the U.S. so we can adapt to help solve the crime from a scientific point of view and give the D.A. the ammunition to win in court. 

This lab is so respected that it not only handles all of our county, but is called on by other counties across the state, and probably well beyond.

Imagine a 911 service manned, not by off-the-street hires, but fully trained, highly qualified, deputy sheriffs who know so much more than the average person about what the emergency phone call may involve. 

JCSO Dispatch has zero turnover, unheard of, but they love what they do and who they work for.

Is it because their boss is undemanding? 

No, exactly the opposite.

For example, should you call 911 in KCMO you may wait online for up to 3 to 4 minutes.

What does Sheriff Hayden insist on? No more than 10 seconds, yet he is held in high esteem.

As you know the difference in time could be the difference between life and death.

How about the new program Sheriff Hayden has just initiated, the Security Operations Center?

He was able to land a top-notch individual, Davis Stutheit, a retired Secret Service Agent, to run this operation.

They have over 1,000 cameras all over the county – not to write traffic tickets, but to ensure security for the residents, county employees, and those visiting Johnson County.

The staff monitors banks of screens, and they know what to look for. They have introduced high tech software that makes it possible for an ordinary cell phone to geo-locate persons in distress. To be honest, it was well beyond my comprehension.

Did you know that JoCo has not one, but two Jails that will hold about 1,000 detainees?

All of those who commit crimes anywhere in the county, and must be held, are brought to the jail where they are processed. They may remain for 2 hours, or even years.

Many jails are not even fit for humans, but not ours.

During a recent jail inspection,the veteran inspector said it was the best jail he had seen in his 28 years.

I just heard of a Jail down in Oklahoma County where they hire someone off the street, give them two weeks training, then put them on the floor. I asked the two sergeants who were on duty at the jail, how much training do your people have? The one who responded said, “First, in order to work here they must graduate from the Academy (16 weeks), then eight weeks of training to be qualified for the basic job; if they want to become specialists, that will require more still”.

We could go on for hours with all that the Sheriff is responsible for. Here is a list that my research has come up with, and along with this little sample already covered, it will give you a pretty good idea of how complex this is and why we do not want to put a person who does not have the experience in charge of running such a complex operation.

We are so blessed to have an experienced man of the people, a man like Cal Hayden, in that office.

The sheriff must be truly competent to run the following departments:

– Detention

– Civil Criminalistics Laboratory

– Investigations

– Community Policing

– Offender Registration Unit

– Patrol Division

– Sheriff’s Policing

– Sheriff’s Records

– Training Division

– Warrants Division

– Dispatch

– Contract Cities (who have no PD of their own)

– Crime Scene Investigation Unit

– County Wide Drug Unit

– Under Cover

– Real Time Crime Center

I have no way of knowing if this list is complete.

What effect does this web of security play in real life?

Let’s play “What If”

This is a true story.

What if, on May 18th, you were a Johnson County woman watching her 11-year-old niece and you decided to treat her to a girl’s day out that included a lunch on the Plaza. And what if, as you were driving away from the Plaza, you heard a cluster of motorcycles pulling up beside you? Your sunroof is open, and you hear them speaking Spanish. You pay no attention to them and take a right on Ward Parkway, and then a left on Shawnee Mission. Looking in your rear-view mirror you see they are following you, but so what, these are well traveled streets. When you take a left on a less-traveled street, you become concerned for they are still on your tail. So, you speed up, pass two cars but so do they. Now you take a right into your own neighborhood, and they are still following you. Finally, you take a turn that only leads to your house and a couple of neighbors, and they are still following you. You are trying not to freak out your 11-year-old niece, but even she knows there is something wrong. You have a security gate that you open remotely, drive in, close quickly and do the same thing with your garage and get in the house ASAP. You have security cameras, and you can see the four motorcycles and their riders – waiting just outside your gate – waiting for what?

You call 911. You are in Prairie Village, and they answer pretty quickly, and they listen and are kind. You tell them your husband is out of town until Wednesday and you are frightened, and they agree to send an officer. The security camera shows the motorcycles had stayed for 7 minutes before they left. A police officer arrives shortly thereafter. 

Since the threat has gone, the officer seems to be impatient and has another call on a stolen car, so he leaves. You are still frightened for your 11-year-old niece and yourself. 

So, what if you were in her place, what would you do? 

She called Sheriff Hayden, sent him the video of the motorcyclists and within minutes there was a deputy at her home.

The deputy’s first question was, “How old is your niece”?

When the answer was “11”, the deputy said it might be a potential child trafficking gang.

The sheriff then had patrols consistently by her home until her husband returned. She now felt safe and was so relieved.

That is what it is like in real life to have a superbly run sheriff’s department in times of trouble.

I have two motives in writing this report.

1. I wanted to share what we have that is so special in Cal Hayden and his deputies. The other is to encourage you to stand your ground and vote in the Primary (between now and August 6th) for a true man of the people. 

Cal Hayden, not at all a politician, has not asked a single politician to endorse him, while his primary opponent, Doug Bedford, has been very active among that class.

Many politicians do not like Hayden, because Cal is a Man of the People and does not kotow to the political class. It really frustrates them. They want to get rid of him, and it’s no surprise they are willing to lie to elect someone who will bend to their agenda. 

In fact, the sheriff has been compelled to file an Election Interference complaint against Doug Bedford and his backers for their misrepresentations.

I had the honor of seeing the facilities and meeting many of the people in a quick tour of several divisions. The tour was conducted by the Sheriff himself and the Under Sheriff, Daryl Reece. I made it a point to look closely at the way the arrival of the Sheriff was greeted by the deputies, scientists and staff. Every face I saw lit up with genuine smiles that covered their whole face, while their eyes told of their admiration, and I do not exaggerate.

Civil servants are not allowed to comment about whether they would endorse, or fire, an elected official who they work for.

But much of the time the Sheriff found himself in conversations with his people, and I got to ask some questions out of earshot, and I still got a story or two about the man. It became clear, this man truly has a servant’s heart. He gives, he watches out, not only for the people who elected him, but the employees that report to him. I heard the remark, “Cal has our back” on multiple occasions.

Cal Hayden’s opponent is Doug Bedford, and he obviously has the backing of some big money and the political class.

I do know that Bedford has a fine resume and a vibrant personality. A lot of politicians do.

I know he worked for the sheriff’s department twice, but he quit both times.

When I asked Sheriff Hayden if he had anything bad to say about his opponent, he simply said, “Doug’s a good soldier.”

I asked if that meant he followed orders. Cal smiled as he remembered an occasion in 2020 when the elections were coming up, and he ordered Doug, who was his Under Sheriff at the time, to have a team of 100 deputies ready to respond as there might be some severe reactions to the results.

He gave Bedford about a two-month head start. However, about two weeks before the election, when Cal asked if the team was ready, Doug Bedford panicked as he had done little or nothing.  That to me, is not a good soldier.

When I asked some of the people who do the work what they thought of Bedford, while no one was willing to say anything good or bad about him (which is also prohibited by law), one person did tell me that Bedford’s favorite saying was, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying to win”.

I don’t want a person that thinks that way to hold control of the most powerful law enforcement organization in the county.

Give me Cal Hayden.

There are always several reasons politicians push their agendas, some noble and some not so much. Let the headlines and your imagination fill in the blanks. 

One reason some of the politicians do not like Cal is that he believes the people of Johnson County deserve his best effort at protecting them. That includes, of course, free and fair elections with no hanky-panky. 

Back in 2020 some people came to him with boxes and boxes of evidence that there may have been something awry in the JoCo voting process.

The sheriff passed this on to the people who are responsible for such things and just said, “Take a look”.

Meanwhile, the sheriff did a little poking around himself. There was an active investigation underway. 

Among the fears was that the computer software used in elections was sending our individual voter info to China, and possibly even changing votes. 

The actual ballots were needed to compare. It was important that no one destroy the ballots, as they were part of the investigation. 

But some of our elected officials were in a big hurry to destroy them.

Hmmm, why? 

Sheriff Hayden submitted a warrant to the D.A, to be signed by a judge, to stop the destruction, but the D.A. had it for two weeks.

When asked, the D.A. requested changes to the warrant, causing further delay.

Meanwhile the Attorney General of the State of Kansas agreed that the ballots should not be destroyed due to the active investigation.

However, in spite of this, Sheriff Hayden found they were in the process of destroying those ballots and came to where it was happening. 

To buy some time, the sheriff held up the unsigned warrant, never claiming it was signed or legal, simply said, “I have a warrant in hand”.

The political machine continued the illegal destruction of the ballots and started a lie that the sheriff was the bad guy.

Why you really want to vote for Cal Hayden in the Primary (now until August 6th)

I have yet to meet a single person that says Cal Hayden is in it for himself – in fact it is quite the opposite. The man has a servant’s heart, and it is visible in all that he does. A great sheriff, he is just not much of a politician.

It is my humble opinion that we humans are divided into three groups.

1. Sheep, who just want to live a good life, with plenty to eat and happy sunshine. However, most sheep do not see the danger in those that are,

2. Wolves, who want to intimidate, control, and devour the Sheep. Finally, 

3. The Sheep Dogs, who do see the danger. They insert themselves in between the Sheep and the Wolves at the risk of their own lives. There are not very many Sheep Dogs. We usually find them in our military, or our law enforcement, and we do not want to run them off. Sheriff Hayden is a genuine Sheep Dog.

Police and sheriffs across the country are losing qualified officers.

Who wants that job where you risk your life and the reward for the guardians is to be painted as villains? 

The “Defund the Police” movement was just the beginning, and Sheriff Hayden saw it coming and stood strong.

While almost all other departments became dramatically understaffed, which has left us in danger, Cal fought for the money to keep our highly qualified Peace Officers able to stay with the department and still afford to care for their families.

To save the taxpayer money, Sheriff Hayden promotes citizen involvement by way of the Sheriffs Citizens Academy.

Citizens who participate in the Sheriff’s Academy experience firsthand how his office operates and what services they offer.

Following the completion of the Sheriff’s Academy, these citizens then volunteer to assist with everyday tasks and community events, thus, saving tax dollars for our county.

Another example of how Sheriff Hayden promotes safety to the community is by offering self-defense classes free of charge to the public. These classes provide participants with tools for their own personal safety.

We all need to be able to live in peace. We all want to be appreciated and respected. This urge is, by nature, stronger in the guardian.

Sheriff Hayden understands that, and you can see it on the face of his deputies and staff.

I certainly won’t tell you how to vote, but I would encourage you to Think.

We have as a nation, and as a county, allowed more and more of our liberty to be usurped by a handful of people who truly believe they are smarter and more moral than We the People, and that they need to make our decisions for us.

Oft times these decisions are weighted, not for the People, but toward their special interests. 

It is often said there is a thin blue line that divides civilization from chaos and tyranny.

What If: we had a sheriff that was beholden to the political class and had to ask their permission before doing what he knows is the Right Thing to do for the people he serves? 

Please Retain Sheriff Cal Hayden.

Chet Hanson, Prairie Village