Name: Darren Weekly
Profession: Captain - Douglas County Sheriff's Office
Website: weeklyforsheriff.com
Biography: I’m a Colorado native. I have 28 years of exemplary service with DCSO. I have been entrusted by four different sheriffs to perform in key roles to make DCSO what it is today. I’ve lived in Douglas County for over 25 years. I’m happily married and have one daughter.
What made you interested in running for sheriff?
Since I was a child, I wanted to be a law enforcement officer. At 21 years old I was blessed to have been hired by DCSO. I have served and protected our community for over 28 years. I sought the most difficult assignments and complex cases possible to give me the knowledge and experience to one day lead the organization. I have worked in and led in the most critical roles within the sheriff's office. I have built solid relationships with both staff and the community. I am the only candidate with the experience to keep our community safe.
What are your plans for enforcing the Red Flag law?
I am a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. I’m also the only candidate with direct experience dealing with Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO). As sheriff, I will work with the legislature to reform the Red Flag law and protect the Constitution. As the top law enforcement officer, it is my duty to enforce the law and protect life. I will exercise every means to protect our community from individuals who are a threat without using the Red Flag law unless they are suffering from severe mental health issues or are an imminent threat.
How will you address the threat of school shootings in the community?
DCSO does incredible work investigating threats within our schools. DCSO does not stop until all leads regarding a threat have been exhausted. I will work with DCSD to increase the number of school resource officers in our schools. I will ensure school security and DCSO work together to prevent a school shooting from ever occurring. Additionally, I support the decision for schools to arm well-trained staff to protect kids if they choose to do so. I will advocate for school security and sheriff’s office personnel to train together annually on critical incident response and unified critical incident management.
How will you address the threat of mass public shootings in the community?
DCSO has community response teams where we pair a mental health clinician with a patrol deputy. It has connected people who have mental illness with services who may do harm to others. I would like to expand the unit. As mentioned, DCSO takes any threats or intelligence information on potential threats very seriously and investigates them thoroughly. We do this to address the threat before loss of life occurs. We work directly with schools and businesses to improve security measures. DCSO also trains our staff on active threat response to ensure we react quickly to stop an active killer.
What changes do you think need to be implemented in the sheriff's office to improve operations and/or make the community safer?
DCSO needs to get back to the fundamentals of law enforcement. My top priority is to put more uniformed deputies in marked cars on the street without raising the budget. There are positions within the organization that do not require a commissioned deputy. Over the years, various positions have been pulled from patrol, as well as the detention division, and reallocated to other assignments. I thoroughly understand the workload of our staff in all divisions. With respect to the patrol division, our staff needs to have more unobligated time that will enable more proactive patrolling and traffic enforcement.
What is the biggest challenge the sheriff's office is currently facing and how will you address it?
From 2017-2021, crime in our service area increased 9%. Our service population has increased 8% over the same period. DCSO has not added sufficient frontline patrol or detention personnel to ensure appropriate staffing levels to deal with the increased workload or the increase in our inmate population. This must be done to ensure we reduce response times and improve the safety for everyone. I’ll restructure the office to ensure we are being as effective and efficient as possible with our authorized staff. I will be transparent with the commissioners and provide an annual staffing analysis to justify any future requests.
How can the sheriff's office improve the relationship between law enforcement and those who feel they can't trust police?
Transparency and honesty with the public in all matters, and at all levels of the organization is paramount. Only hiring highly moral and ethical people from diverse backgrounds, who genuinely want to serve and protect their community is also critical. We must also ensure that when there is a concern or complaint, the matter is thoroughly investigated and documented. The complainant is also advised of the outcome. Law enforcement should absolutely be held to a higher standard. Personnel who violate policy or break the law should be held accountable for their actions. We must also increase our community outreach programs.
