AAC F A M I L Y & F R I E N D S
Carrying on the
good work Former Polk County Sheriff Mike Godfrey named director of Sheriffs’ Association.
ByJENNIFER BARNETT REED For County Lines
tion services so that people with mental illnesses get the help they need instead of revolving through county jails and local hospitals. It’ll be a tough sell, no question. But Godfrey, formerly the sheriff of Polk County, has plenty of experience in making his case on other issues — both to legislators and directly to the peo- ple of his home county. And even though he’s heard “no” before from both groups, he’s determined to keep trying. In a way, adjusting to a “no” answer — from himself — is how
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Godfrey, 51, wound up in law enforcement to begin with. A na- tive of Bismarck, Godfrey headed to Henderson State University in 1983 with a plan to major in business education and become a teacher. He accomplished the first goal, but a stint as a student teacher made it clear that he would not — actually, did not want to — accomplish the second one. “I knew that teaching was not my gift, not what was in my
heart, not what I wanted to do,” Godfrey said. But the summers he’d spent working for Arkansas State Parks had planted a different seed. After graduation, Godfrey completed police academy training and took a full-time job as a park ranger. “Tat was my introduction to law enforcement,” he said. Over the next few years Godfrey worked at several different
parks around the state, landing at Queen Wilhelmina State Park in 1995. Te park’s location brought him into frequent contact with Polk County sheriff’s deputies. “Our park was on a state highway, and we had lots of wrecks up there,” he said. “I was usually closer to them, so I would respond
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s the start of the 2017 legislative session draws closer, new Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association Director Mike Godfrey has his work cut out for him: He’ll be trying to convince lawmakers to invest in crisis interven-
to wrecks, and then they would come. Tat was my introduction to the sheriff’s office.” Eventually, Godfrey started riding along with deputies when they needed an extra hand. He liked what he saw, and in 2000 went to work for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office full time. “Tey were just such a good agency and so professional,” he said.
“I knew that I wanted to go to work for them, and specifically for Sheriff Mike Oglesby. He was just one of those guys that expected the best and got the best out of you and gave you the same.” Even though he’d already been helping out here and there, the transition from park ranger to sheriff’s deputy was eye opening, Godfrey said. “I was probably one of the best-trained officers in the county because the state parks are so big on training, but we were so lim- ited in our contacts with offenders,” Godfrey said. “I really didn’t get to put a lot of that training to use. When I went to work for the sheriff’s office, it was like a whole new world. I got to see what real law enforcement was like.” Oglesby promoted Godfrey to chief deputy in 2007, and when
Oglesby left three years later, Godfrey ran for the top job. “I believed that it was just a fantastic sheriff’s office, and I want- ed to continue that way,” he said. “I felt I needed to step up and make sure we continued on the path he’d created.” Te reality wasn’t quite that straightforward. As sheriff, Godfrey
confronted an issue that was familiar to many of his counterparts across the state: A county jail that was chronically overcrowded and didn’t meet state standards. With the state threatening to shut the jail down, Godfrey helped develop a plan for a new,
COUNTY LINES, FALL 2016
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