Moments before he was sworn in Monday, Byron Roberson sought to give his listeners an idea of what it means to be the first Black citizen elected to be Johnson County sheriff.
“My parents grew up in the deep south of Mississippi — during the ’30s, the ’40s, the ’50s and the ’60s,” he said. “So as you can imagine, their perspective on law enforcement was a little different than ours. It gave them a much different outlook on law enforcement.”
Roberson remembered telling them 33 years ago that he wanted to become a police officer. “In unison, they asked me why.”
He said he understood how they might feel, because they’d lived the things that historical documentaries recounted about that time period. But although his parents had some thoughts about law enforcement, “I never heard them speak disrespect about law enforcement, even though they would have had good reason to,” he said. “I believe by setting this example it gave me the opportunity to choose my path without prejudice.”
So he told his parents the reason. “I didn’t want anyone else to have that same perspective on law enforcement. I didn’t want anyone else to feel they weren’t treated fairly as a law enforcement officer. And I felt that the only way to do that would be to be a part of law enforcement. That is the only way to make a difference, if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and be a part of that.”
“Our country has taken great strides toward equality for all Americans, but we must not forget where we came from,” he added. “There is still much work to be done to make this county, this state and our environment what we want it to be.
“My goal is to ensure the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is looked at as a partner in the community, and we can be depended upon to do whatever it takes to make sure that everyone is treated equally,” he continued.
Roberson, former Prairie Village police chief who was also the first Democrat elected to that office in most people’s living memory, officially began duties with the swearing in on Monday. He succeeds former Sheriff Calvin Hayden, a Republican.
Hayden’s last four years in office were marked by controversy over an investigation he was conducting into voting procedures in county elections going back to 2020, when Democrat Joe Biden outpolled Donald Trump for president.
Before taking the oath, Roberson chatted with the Post about some priorities as his term begins.
Monday, Jan. 13, at the Johnson County Administration Building in Olathe. Photo credit Kylie Graham.
Top priorities
Roberson said he is not expecting any major staff shake ups and will spend the first 90 days auditing the workings of the office and property room just to evaluate what’s working and what’s not.
Two people will have the undersheriff position, which is considered the number two spot. Former Spring Hill Police Chief Cindy Henson will be in charge of the patrol division and operations. Darren Shafer, who retired as a sheriff’s office captain in 2022 with 27 years service, will run the detention centers and various other services.
Roberson’s first order of business will be restoring a transportation service to assist municipal police officers as they make stops and refer people to jail, he said.
The service would put two vans in service during peak times to pick up arrestees and bring them to detention.
The transportation system, which was called T100 when in use by the sheriff’s office many years ago, would especially help smaller departments because it would free up police officers from hours of driving the people they arrest to the detention center in Gardner or Central Booking in downtown Olathe, he said.
In police departments with limited staff, transporting prisoners can tie up officers to the point that there’s no one left to cover a shift, he added.
“It’s within the capabilities of the sheriff’s office, it just hasn’t been done for decades, and I’m going to reinstitute that if at all possible,” he said. “We all live here. We all want a safer place, and having officers in your city available to answer calls for services and emergency calls, it only helps us all.”
Mental health services for inmates
Another top priority is to re-engage with the county mental health department to once again provide its services to inmates in detention, Roberson said.
About a year ago, Hayden dropped the county mental health center’s agreement and opted for one with VitalCore Health Strategies, a private provider from Topeka. At the time, several county commissioners expressed their dismay at this move, saying that having the same staff see inmates after they were released provided some continuity of care.
Roberson said he has already talked informally with mental health center staff about the possibility of bringing them back to the jail. But since the VitalCore contract expires at the end of 2025, it won’t happen in the very near future.
At the sheriff training Roberson attended in Hutchinson, he said other sheriffs expressed admiration for Johnson County’s mental health care of inmates.
“They are really envious of Johnson County’s ability to address the mental health situation inside the jail with a very robust county mental health on the outside,” he said. “All of them agreed with me that it only makes good sense to have the same institution inside the jail as outside the jail.”
Immigration roundup uncertainty
President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to deport more than 11 million undocumented immigrants and to roll back restrictions on actions in such places as schools and churches. There has been discussion of whether local law enforcement would be enlisted to help with the process.
Roberson said a lot of his decision about this will depend on the specifics. For instance, there are currently no federal inmates in the jail in which the U.S. Marshal’s office or Immigration and Customs Enforcement might have an interest. Turning them over “is nothing I am looking to do, but if something comes down the pike that is a federal mandate that we are required to do, then we will do what is required by law,” he said.
But when it comes to the general roundups that have been feared among immigrant communities, “I don’t think it’s constitutional to go out and start checking job sites, checking roofs, to see who’s legal and who’s not, who has papers and who has not,” he said.
“So no, that’s not something that the sheriff’s office will be involved in,” he said. But if the federal government has some type of immigration plan that requires local assistance, “I guess we’ll have to evaluate it at that time. But it will not be going door to door or randomly picking people out of the public and checking their immigration status.”
The sheriff’s office cooperates with federal agents, he added.
“It’s part of what we have to do to make sure the laws are enforced and the community is safe. But we also have an overarching responsibility to follow the Constitution,” he said, adding that he will evaluate federal requests as they come in.
“I can’t say the line is drawn or I will or won’t do something at this point. We just don’t know.”
Hayden’s elections investigation
The former sheriff’s long-running investigation into every aspect of voting in Johnson County, and his comments to right-wing groups about his suspicions stretched the patience of several commissioners over the past four years. Hayden referred only one alleged incident for charges, but District Attorney Steve Howe declined to prosecute, saying there wasn’t enough evidence.
Roberson said during the campaign that he would look into what the investigation turned up and would expect to release the records of it and its cost.
He had no access to sheriff’s records prior to being sworn in, and added that he will have a lot of other issues, like the budget, to focus on first.
As for the investigation, “I can’t say it’s a top, top priority, but it is a priority, and I do intend on looking into and seeing what is there,” he said. “Who knows? Who knows if it’s even there to be found, or whether it’s been shredded and it’s a hard thing to find out? We’ll find out when we get in there.”
The budget
The sheriff’s budget is one of the biggest in the county, and it grew with post-pandemic pay increases for deputies. County department heads have already begun their budget processes.
Roberson said the majority of the sheriff’s budget is spent on personnel costs. He said he will look for ways to make the office more efficient, especially if there are duplications of services.
Since the cost of goods — like gasoline and food for inmates — rises with inflation, Roberson said he’d look at such things as use of vehicles and the possibility of moving toward electric hybrids.
Open records on actions
Roberson said he’d follow best practices and be guided by the District Attorney’s office on releasing information from the team investigating officer-involved shootings. In those cases, there is a public interest in releasing records, but also an interest in the rights of the officer involved, he said.
In officer-involved shootings, the investigation is made by a law enforcement team from other agencies after which the DA recommends whether charges should be filed.
In other types of situations, Roberson said he generally has no objection to releasing body camera footage unless there’s an open investigation on it.
“For things that aren’t involving fatalities or crimes that are going to be prosecuted, yes, I’m open to using the video to help us with our transparency,” he said. “That’s my goal, to be as transparent as possible, and when those kinds of videos are requested, I see no reason that wouldn’t be granted.”
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