Sheriff Darrell Himelick
Served from 2007 to 2014
The Grant County Sheriff's Office is committed to serving the citizens of Grant County in the most resourceful way possible. Under the direction of Sheriff Darrell Himelick, we are currently striving to not only make the organization more proficient, but also one that is current in technology to meet the needs of the 21st Century. We want to show the citizens of Grant County that we lead the way in education, training, and technology in the State of Indiana, providing them with a police force second to none.
Darrell L. Himelick first became a resident of Grant County on February 4, 1956. The third of four children born to Verlin and Cora Mae Himelick, he has an older sister and both an older and a younger brother. Himelick's rock solid character and unwavering integrity, were molded at a very young age through church, 4-H, and good old-fashioned hard work on the family farm in Upland. Raised in a Christian home, integrity and honesty and a genuine compassion and respect for other people were instilled in him from the start by his parents.
Darrell graduated from Eastbrook High School in 1974. He served two years with the Upland Police Department, while also working full time in the Grant County jail. Twenty-six years later, he continues to serve the people of Grant County through his work at the Sheriff’s Office with the same intensity than he started with. His hard work and dedication have proven productive over the years as he has served the county in many capacities through the Sheriff’s Office, whether as a deputy working the road, a detective, or eventually in administration where he served as Chief
Deputy before becoming Sheriff where he currently serves. During the course of his career Sheriff Himelick has been the recipient of numerous awards including, Deputy of the Year, Law Enforcement Officer of the Year on three different occasions, and Police Officer of the Year twice. He has also been chosen as Staff Officer of the Year three times, an honor awarded him by his peers at the Grant County Sheriff's Department.
Darrell Himelick lives by John Maxwell’s quote, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” and he inspires his officers to do the same. When asked what was the best part of his career as a police officer, he replied, “ Helping someone who you know could never repay you…that is a perfect day in law enforcement.”
Additionally this is an article from the Chronicl-Tribune
Grant County sheriff job 24/7
Himelick: ‘There’s got to be a huge commitment’
Sunday, May 4, 2014 12:00 am
By Karla Bowsher
Doing more with less is what Grant County Sheriff Darrell Himelick said will be his successor’s biggest challege. In other words, when the second-term sheriff steps down at the end of the
year, the new sheriff will have to improve the Grant County Sheriff’s Department while spending less money — which is especially challenging considering how much the department has grown over the years.
Himelick said a sheriff’s job description varies from department to department and depends on the size and services of a department. The Grant County Sheriff’s Department, for example, is one of few that have an inmate work crew and one of only four or five in the state that runs its own juvenile detention center, Himelick said. The Grant County Jail, which opened in its current location in the early 1980s, was built for 108 inmates but has been adapted over the years to house 274 beds. “I’ve given my all the past 35 years, and I gave up a lot to get where I am.
There’s got to be a huge commitment to be sheriff,” Himelick said. “The biggest thing is the commitment.”
Himelick became a full-time employee of the sheriff’s department in 1980 and started his first term as sheriff in 2007. He is ineligible for a third term due to state term limits but said he’s unsure whether he’d run again if he could. The stress has taken a toll on his health, he said. On Tuesday, Republican voters will have the opportunity to narrow down Himelick’s successors at the polls. Their options in the four-way primary race are the sheriff’s department’s Detective Sgt. Reggie Nevels and Capt. Kevin Pauley and Marion Police Department’s Deputy Chief David Day
and Capt. Jay Kay. The winner will go up against the Democratic candidate in the general election in November, although a Democratic contender has yet to emerge. Himelick is running Pauley’s campaign.
The worst part of his job, Himelick said, is delivering death notifications, which he’s always a part of. To make matters worse, he said some people come to associate him with, and sometimes blame him for, the loss of a loved one simply because it was he who was standing at their door step when they opened the door and received the bad news. The sheriff’s job is more administration inside the department’s facilities than action on the streets. Although Himelick recently accompanied officers who had to kick in a door, he said he hasn’t seen that kind of action
in a while. “For the most part, there’s no time for it,” he said.
Himelick’s least favorite part of the job is dealing with “frivolous lawsuits” filed by inmates and former inmates, he said. “It’s just a mockery of the court system, what these individuals are allowed
to do,” he said. An inmate who went on to prison, for example, sued for $150 because he never received his personal belongings from the Grant County Jail even though a relative picked up them for him, Himelick said. A former inmate sued the sheriff’s department for allegedly denied his diabetes medication even though Himelick said the deaprtment has documentation that he
refused the medication.
Although such lawsuits are often dismissed, they still cost the sheriff’s department time and attorney fees. Commissary Clerk Connie Hussong, the department’s longest-standing employee, has worked under six sheriffs and understands their frustrations over such lawsuits. “Most of them are just an inmate trying to see what they can get out of it,” she said. Hussong said dealing with lawsuits is one of several administrative duties the public often doesn’t realize are among responsibilites overseen by the sheriff. In unrelated lawsuits, such as divorce proceedings and civil lawsuits over money, for example, the sheriff’s department is often called on to personally deliver a summons or other legal document to a defendant. The jail is also responsible for processing bonds. Then there’s the fact that the sheriff’s day never ends. “It’s 24/7 365 days of the year,” Hussong said. “If you try to take a vacation, they know where you are and they can call you.”
Himelick said even when he doesn’t have to leave home in the middle of the night to respond to an incident, he is always made aware of it in real time, is always in touch with his captains.
“I sleep with that phone,” he said, pointing to his cell. “This wouldn’t be a bad job if it weren’t 24/7.” The stress of a never-ended job is also compounded by the fact that a phone call in the middle of the night is never good news, Himelick said.
The sheriff realizes, though, that he’s not in a good-news field, which is why he said he tells his employees to look at it as a problem-solving job. For the sheriff himself, problem-solving must be proactive when it comes to the budget. Although Himelick said he and his captains and bookkeepers only spend a few days of the year going through the department’s annual budget before it’s approved by the Grant County Council, the budget is a constant concern. “You spend a few days preparing but all year monitoring,” he said. “It’s a big management piece.” Himelick likened the department to a house that could be built nail by nail over decades but demolished in a day. “That’s my fear, if we don’t watch the budget every day and check things every day,” he said. “Yeah, I’m leaving, but I don’t want things messed up.”
