NewsOctober 29, 2024

Sheriff Casey Graham, passionate about serving Bollinger County, navigates staffing challenges while fostering community ties and law enforcement collaboration. Discover his journey and vision for the future.

Bollinger County Sheriff Casey Graham has served in this capacity since Jan. 1, 2021.
Bollinger County Sheriff Casey Graham has served in this capacity since Jan. 1, 2021.Submitted
Prior to serving as sheriff, Casey Graham served the Bollinger County Sheriff's Office in a variety of roles, including K-9 officer and jailer.
Prior to serving as sheriff, Casey Graham served the Bollinger County Sheriff's Office in a variety of roles, including K-9 officer and jailer.Submitted
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Bollinger County Sheriff Casey Graham was elected in November 2020. His passion for law enforcement dates well beyond then.

“I began working here at the Sheriff’s Office right out of high school in 2014 and quickly realized it was going to be a passion for me, and that I enjoyed serving Bollinger County,” Graham said. “I knew pretty early on, when I started as a jailer that I wanted to go to the academy and become a law enforcement officer. When I turned 21, I graduated the academy then and was able to start working here. I knew I wanted to work in Bollinger County because that’s where my family is. That’s where I’m from, and that’s where my family has always lived. I knew that I always wanted to stay in a county that I was from.”

Graham has served as deputy, jailer and K9 handler prior to getting sworn in as sheriff on Jan. 1, 2021.

The opportunity of working multiple roles with the sheriff’s office have given him a well-rounded understanding and improved knowledge of the different positions associated with the office.

“An advantage of working (the different jobs), is knowing the responsibilities and roles of each division within the office, and the daily operations of each division within the office,” Graham said. “I think that’s been an advantage of being here before taking office as sheriff.”

Graham served as the county’s K9 operator from 2018-2020.

“The dog did remain here until he retired,” Graham said. “We still an active K9 program with the dog. We got a K9 under a grant through the state.

“As law enforcement officers our job isn’t just to put people in jail,” Graham said. “I think some people think of us as just the ones catching people doing bad things and putting people in jail. Obviously that is a role in law enforcement and we are there to arrest people when there is just cause, but our job is also there to serve the community and everyone here is dedicated to serving the community. They care about the community and the people that live in this community. They don’t come to work just looking to put people in jail. They come to work to serve the citizens and do the best they can everyt ime they come to work for the benefit of the community and the benefit of the county.”

Early on, Graham sought to foster relationships with other law enforcement departments in the area, not just locally but also at the state and federal level.

“It was important to me early on to build relationships with other entities to bring other resources into the community, and into the county,” Graham said.“I’ve heard from the community about my grandfather’s service. People have said that he was a great man and a great sheriff, so I serve the people of the community where I live so my family’s here. It’s a reputation. You want to keep a good standing reputation with the community, not only in my position, but for my family, as they’ve had a long history in the county. I have people tell me when I’m working with them in my role that, ‘I remember when you’re grandfather was sheriff, and he did a good job. He was a good man,’ and things like that. It’s about building relationships within the community and serving the people of the community because at the end of the day, the job is to serve and protect the community.”

Providing a family-friendly sheriff's office is something he is very committed to.

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“I think it’s important for a close-knit agency,” Graham said. “We’re smaller; we don’t have a ton of staff. We like to keep it as a family-friendly environment so people want to work here, they enjoy coming here. I want to build an atmosphere where everyone enjoys coming here instead of just treating it like a job. I like when people give feedback that they enjoy working here, that they like to come to work here, and they’re vested and rooted in this agency, and this community.”

The lower population is just one of the unique challenges his office is faced with.

“Some of the challenges are limited resources,” he said. “An important goal of mine was to build relationships with other agencies that are able to assist and Sheriff (First Name) Dickerson at Cape County Sheriff’s Office and her staff have been a great resource that we’ve used in multiple situations. They’ve always been willing to offer assistance if we needed it. The Missouri State Highway Patrol works well with us. The United States Marshall’s Office, federal agencies, works well with us. To me, it was about building relationships to bring in resources that we didn’t necessarily have in house in this agency.”

Graham described staffing shortages as another challenge.

“Now, (it) is probably the staffing shortage that we’ve faced. That’s been the most challenging that we’ve faced over the past 3 1/2 years, close to four years now, retention, recruitment and things of that nature. As a law enforcement officer, the challenging parts are obviously trying to be multiple places when you have multiple calls out. We serve a large county as far as square miles and sometimes (with) a limited staff sometimes it’s challenging to be everywhere you need to be when there is limited staff, but we’ve managed to work that out, and work those issues out over the years.”

Casey and his wife, Kayla, got married in 2023 and they reside in Bollinger County.

While not at the office serving as sheriff, or attending to a call within the county, Graham often can be found helping out at his grandfather’s

“Kayla and I like to travel,” Graham said. “The job’s 24/7. Kayla has always been very supportive of that, and there’s been a lot of times where we’ve been at a family function or at dinner or whatever the case may be — when the job calls, I still have a job to do.”

Graham has been involved in the Knights of Columbus at St. John’s Catholic Church in Leopold.

“We like going to new places,” Graham said. “We have gone out of the country a few times. Experiencing new places. We’ve always just enjoyed traveling.”

A few notable places out of the country they have been to recently include Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; The Bahamas; and Austria.

“A large percentage of the people we arrest are not necessarily bad people, they just make a mistake,” Graham said. “We don’t treat everyone like they’re bad people. We don’t come to work just to arrest people, we come to work to serve the community and protect the community, and if that involves arresting people for just causes then that’s why they are arrested. The primary goal and job is to serve the community.”

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