Detective looks to build trust

By James Card

Durrant

Cameron Durrant addressed the Waupaca Common Council during the public input session at their May 3 meeting.

He announced that he was running as a Republican candidate for Waupaca County sheriff.

“I have 26 years of law enforcement experience. I am currently a detective sergeant with the sheriff’s office. I am here and running because of issues that are happening within our department. And if you haven’t seen them on the news, you can research that. I don’t have enough time to talk about it,” said Durrant. “But my goal is to fix and create a better working atmosphere within our department and also rebuild working relationships with both the district attorney’s office and the police departments.”

He is a Waupaca High School graduate and earned an associate’s degree at Fox Valley Technical College (police science), a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University (criminal justice management) and a master’s degree from American Public University (homeland security).

Durrant’s experience is wide-ranging in local law enforcement.

Early in his career he worked part-time as a reserve and water patrol officer. Later he served as a jail-booking officer, a transport officer and a patrol officer.

He is a member of the special weapons and tactics team (SWAT).

Durrant has also worked in an educational capacity and has taught as a field training officer and worked as a tactical response instructor and an evidence collection instructor. He assisted in developing a rescue task force.

Durrant obtained almost $25,000 by writing grants for equipment and acquired an MRAP vehicle from the U.S. Department of Defense. However, he considers his greatest accomplishment is the Shop with a Cop program. Started in 2014, he organized, raised donations and led the program to help kids in families that are going through some tough times. So far the program has helped 350 children.

He has three key goals if elected sheriff.

First, it to repair relationships with the district attorney’s office, the circuit courts, the county board and other police departments.

Second is to be more transparent with a people in contact with the sheriff’s office, including employees, citizens and all other stakeholders. He believes trust needs to be rebuilt.

Third, is to build up morale in the sheriff’s office and make it a better workplace. This would help hiring and retaining employees.

The partisan primary will be held Tuesday, Aug. 9. The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 8.