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In a startling development, an entire county in Nebraska found itself without a single law enforcement officer following the mass resignation of the local sheriff’s department. This unprecedented situation unfolded when the Boyd County Sheriff, Clarence ‘Chuck’ Wrede, decided to step down after dedicating 11 years to the role.
Wrede’s resignation on Tuesday was quickly followed by the departure of the three part-time deputies who had been assisting in handling calls within the rural community, which is situated near the South Dakota border. This complete exodus of law enforcement personnel was reported by News Channel Nebraska.
The outgoing sheriff revealed that these deputies were actually his friends who had been stepping in from neighboring counties. Their assistance became necessary after his previous full-time deputies left in pursuit of better compensation and benefits elsewhere.
Wrede expressed his frustration with the county board, recounting his repeated requests for increased wages and benefits only to be consistently rebuffed. “Every time I ask for higher wages and benefits, they say, ‘Oh no, we can’t do that,'” he shared with the Norfolk Daily News on Tuesday.
‘The county board up here, every time I ask for higher wages and benefits [they say], “Oh no, we can’t do that,”‘ Wrede claimed to the Norfolk Daily News on Tuesday.
‘It’s been quite frustrating. So I quit today after court.’
The now-former sheriff also said he knew the rest of his team, including the secretary, would resign once he stepped down.
When he then tendered his resignation, Wrede said ‘the only comment I got was from the county attorney wanting to know who I had in mind to take over for me. And I said “nobody.”‘Â
Boyd County Sheriff Clarence ‘Chuck’ Wrede, 75, resigned Tuesday after serving in the sheriff’s office for 11 years
The Boyd County Sheriff’s Department (pictured) was then left without any staff, as the three part-time deputies and the secretary also tendered their resignations
Two Boyd County supervisors later thanked Wrede for his service, he noted.
He has worked for the sheriff’s office since 2010 and won his first of three elections to be the county sheriff in 2014.
But over the last two years, Wrede saw his four deputy sheriffs leave.
‘They’ve kind of fluttered out because they believed they were worth more money,’ he said, describing how he had made several requests to the county Board of Supervisors in recent years to approve pay raises.
His last request was for deputy sheriff’s pay to increase from $24 an hour to $28 an hour, which he said would have gotten the department within about $1 of hourly pay for law enforcement officers in neighboring counties.
The supervisors wound up approving an increase to $25 per hour, but that still was not enough for the deputies, two of whom soon left to go work law enforcement in other municipalities for significant pay raises.
The lack of benefits for Wrede County deputies was also an issue, Wrede said, explaining that the county gave deputies just $400 a month for health insurance needs, but that would barely cover anything after taxes.
Wrede said he has been on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week over the past few months
Wrede’s final straw apparently came when former Chief Deputy Cheyenne Doyle resigned in December to take a job with a central Nebraska police department, where she is paid $6 an hour more, has full health insurance and received a $5,000 sign-on bonus.
Reflecting on her decision to leave, Doyle told News Channel Nebraska she loved working for the people of Boyd County but not for the people running the county board.
Without any deputies left to help him, Wrede said he has been on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week over the past few months.
He eventually got some help by hiring three law enforcement officers – one from Omaha and two from the city of O’Neill, both of which are outside Boyd County – to help him out on a part-time basis because he said it would be impossible for him to sufficiently respond to every call in the county and investigate every crime.
The 75 year old has also been dealing with a broken back, a bad shoulder and a new hip after being assaulted in January 2024 while responding to a criminal mischief call in Butte.
‘I’m not a young person,’ Wrede admitted. ‘And I just kind of got tired of all of it.’
He eventually got some help by hiring three law enforcement officers – one from Omaha and two from the city of O’Neill, both of which are outside Boyd County – to help him out on a part-time basis
The former sheriff, whose law enforcement career began in 1976, said he is disappointed by how his tenure as sheriff ended, but he doesn’t blame any of his former deputies for leaving.
‘I don’t blame any of them for trying to help themselves out,’ he said. ‘This [pay and benefits] has been brought up several times to the board and it doesn’t go anywhere.’
Supervisor David Derickson, a former Boyd County sheriff himself, though, told the Norfolk Daily News that the county’s inability to pay its deputies higher wages comes down to a lack of funding.
‘We’d all like to pay more, we’re just trying to find out how we can make it work without pulling from the taxpayers’ pockets,’ he said.
The supervisor added that he routinely visited Wrede, so he knew that the sheriff was desperate to get full-time help.
For that reason, Derickson said he was not totally surprised that Wrede resigned, but said it still caught him off guard.Â
‘I kind of understand what he went through, yet we’re still dealing with a funding issue.’
Without any dedicated law enforcement officers in the county, a spokesman for the Nebraska State Patrol said troopers would be adding extra patrols in the area and answering calls for service ‘as Boyd County officials work through the situation.’
Supervisors then called an emergency meeting for Friday, when they are expected to appoint a new sheriff.Â