Candidates for Pratt County Sheriff answer identical questions

By Jennifer Stultz
Tri-County Tribune Editor
[email protected]

Yard signs seen in town and the surrounding countryside of Pratt for candidates running for Pratt County Sheriff indicate this contested seat has an important impact on voters in 2024.

To aid the dissemination of factual and correct information, the Tri-County Tribune asked the three candidates who filed for this position (James White, Nate Humble, and Danny Gimpel) the same five questions. Their unaltered responses follow, along with their preferred campaign photos. The primary election, which includes the choice for Pratt County Sheriff, will take place on August 6, 2024, at the usual places for voting, as per Pratt County Clerk regulations.

All candidates are commended for submitting timely and complete responses, as published below.

1. Why are you a good choice to serve as Pratt County Sheriff?

2. What plans for improvement do you plan for the department if elected?

3. What verifiable experience do you have that would be beneficial for this position?

4. What do you think is the most important quality a person should have to serve as Pratt County Sheriff?

5. What is the Pratt County Sheriff's Department doing well at this time?

Answers from James/Jimmy White were as follows:

1. I believe I am the best choice for Pratt County because I have dedicated more than half of my life to protecting our citizens. I started with the Pratt Police department in 1997, and moved to the Sheriff's Office in 2001 because I had an interest in becoming Sheriff someday. While working under Sheriff Chinn I was given multiple opportunities to expand my career through training. From 2001 to 2016 I went through the ranks as Deputy, SRT, DARE officer/School Resource Officer, Sergeant, and finally Undersheriff prior to running for Office in the 2016 elections after Sheriff Chinn retired. This combined with my prior education in Fire Science, and the Emergency Medical Services prepared me for working with all first responders during a critical incident.

I had already been training for leadership prior to being elected Sheriff, through the Kansas Sheriff's Association, Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, and other independent resources such as the Police Society for Problem Based Learning. All of this training prepared me for the problems facing law enforcement, and gave me the ability to build each employee based on their strengths and weaknesses. After being appointed assistant emergency manager I continued my education, receiving certifications through FEMA/Homeland Security, and just last month received another certification in active shooter management making me more prepared as Sheriff and assistant EM should something that horrible ever happen to our community.

As Sheriff I have worked for almost eight years to build the best team I have ever worked with. I have a command staff with over one hundred years of combined experience leading, and training my staff. I strongly believe that many of the problems law enforcement has experienced in the last few decades have been caused by a lack of training. I have more than doubled our training in every aspect of law enforcement and will continue to do so.

When I witnessed multiple officers standing outside of a school waiting to do anything about a shooter inside on the news, it more than reinforced the need for training. You can't expect officers to react to something they have never experienced unless you constantly train them to do so. I have also provided my officers with the equipment needed to safely do their job.

When I leave my position as Sheriff, I want to leave a team that will continue to build, and continue that tradition. But I don't plan on leaving yet.

I am proud to say that at this time we are still at full staff, and I have hired two of my former DARE students. With the current morale, and ability to hire from my community I am confident my Officers will share my goals well into the future.

2. My plans for improvement pertain to training, cooperation, and technology. I think I have already expressed how important training is. The lack of man power is another huge problem for law enforcement. Only a certain amount of funding is available for the entire county, and the commissioners have a heavy job when it comes to deciding what each office and department gets each year. The amount of money available does not grow as fast as the cost to operate, so adding positions is far and few. Technology is now being used and we have the ability to send our technology into places that are dangerous for people. We also have the ability to search large areas with a drone, when we used to need twenty more officers to cover the area. We are currently adding technology that will make us able to track criminal activity, and do the job of ten officers, 24 hours a day.

We will also continue to work with Pratt Regional Medical Center and other jurisdictions to provide resources for mental health issues, as there are very few resources in this part of the state to help people in crisis.

These new tools, along with constant training with multiple agencies in the central part of the state, will give my officers the ability to network and share information. All of these agencies will respond and help each other, already knowing who they are working with, and what their capabilities are.

With the current flow of drugs and criminals into our country, along with the legalization of drugs across the country, it will become more and more difficult to combat these issues in states that are still committed to standing on our ground.

I also plan to maintain and improve the Law Enforcement Center as needed. When I took over it was obvious we needed plumbing, windows, doors, and roof replacement. I will continue to maintain and improve the current building so the next Sheriff does not have to worry about these issues or have to find the funding.

3. My verifiable experience is my 26 years of law enforcement, my training, and my crew. I have experienced every aspect of Sheriff's Office functions, from the jail, civil process, patrol, and administration. I have been part of almost every critical incident in this county since 2001, and was part of the response and recovery during the Greensburg tornado. I have been there when many people I know passed away during tragic circumstances, and helped many people avoid tragic deaths by simply not giving up on them. I attend all table top exercises, and strive to bring training and safety to my community. My staff has been seen training at our schools, hospitals, local businesses, and other law enforcement agencies. We are now planning to expand this training to any of our churches that wish to participate. My experience is one of my greatest strengths, but I do not plan on calling that good enough, so I will continue to learn so I am prepared for what I have not yet experienced if it should happen.

4. There is just one most important quality to have to be Sheriff. The Sheriff has to be honest, dedicated, intelligent, modest, tough, compassionate, and a true leader. I would like to say the Sheriff better have grit. The Sheriff needs to lead from the front, and be there for, and with, their people. The sheriff should never expect his staff to do something they would not do themselves. For a Sheriff to be respected by their staff, the staff has to know the Sheriff will stand WITH them, and never hide behind them.

5. I think the Sheriff's Office does an all-around great job in all aspects.

We strive to improve everything we do, and are proud of how we treat our citizens. There is never just a good enough situation, and we will constantly critique ourselves to improve what we do for the community. I am so very proud of my staff. As Sheriff I get all the credit, but I want you to know there are a lot of people working for me who do a great job, and I think they deserve recognition for their dedication to this community. I would also like to say thank you to all of them, and I am so very proud of you all.

Answers from Nate Humble are as follows:

1. I believe that I am the best choice for the Pratt County Sheriff because of the proven law enforcement leadership that is best for the entire county of Pratt. Leadership is not about a “position” but it's about how you lead others by example, work together and find the qualities of others in the profession and build on them, and to be involved in the community that you serve.

2. The first thing I plan on doing to improve the Sheriff's Office if elected is to be involved with the office as a whole, being at work as required, and making sure that the deputies are involved with the entire county. I have created a proactive approach to law enforcement that has proven to work with tremendous results in the decrease of crime.

3. I have been in law enforcement for over 20 years, and five of those years in an administrative capacity as the Chief of Police for Pratt. I have continued to develop my leadership training and have completed many top tier trainings. One of those completed was the FBI LEEDA Trilogy.

4. One of the most important qualities that the Sheriff of Pratt County should have is having good moral and ethical standards and truthfulness to the citizens they serve. You have to be at work and make yourself available to those who not only work for you but also the public that you serve.

5. I can say that the Pratt County Sheriff's Office runs a great jail and has some good supervisors and deputies who have great potential if under good leadership.

Danny Gimpel provided the following answers:

1. I was raised in Pratt my entire life and I have had heavy influence in law enforcement from a very young age. I have served my community for over 13 years with the Pratt Police Department and I believe that through my experience as a police officer, I have a lot that I can bring to the Sheriff's Office such as restoring the relationship between the police department and sheriff's office. and this must start at the administration level.

2. As stated earlier, I plan to improve the working relationship between the sheriffs office and Police Department. I also plan to implement an SRO (School Resource Officer) program for both Skyline and Pratt school districts as I know from personal experience that this program works in the engagement between students, faculty, parents and the SRO are tremendous with all having the sense of safety, knowing that there is an officer in the school during the school day.

3. Not having previous administration experience in law enforcement makes this a tough question however, I have come up with new ideas at times that certain equipment has not been working and have become a leader in that aspect. Experience as an SRO and as the K9 handler, I know what these positions demand and what they entail. I also plan to integrate a K9 program with the sheriffs office if elected, as I know that a dog is one of the best tools that law enforcement can have in evidence recovery, suspect apprehension, narcotics recovery, tracking suspects, and/or lost or missing elderly or children, and also handler protection, meaning that these dogs will protect the handler at all cost.

4. Morals, integrity, ethics, and good work ethics. Even though the requirement for a county sheriff is only to be present in the office eight hours per month, I believe that the sheriff should be there as often as one can be to answer citizen complaints or questions that they might have. Not knowing all of the answers is OK, but also letting the citizens know that you will find the answer and that they will be in touch with them, and earning their trust that you will call them back, is very important.

5. The Pratt County sheriffs office responds to all calls for service in a timely manner. They also see to it that the jail is kept up in a very professional manner, and their public relations are great with being at events so the public is able to see and touch the equipment that they use and have at their disposal.