CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The longest-serving sheriff in Kanawha County history, Sheriff Mike Rutherford celebrated his retirement Thursday afternoon.
Rutherford was recognized by a healthy crowd at the Kanawha County Courthouse, and he says he was honored to have a great group of co-workers by his side.
Mike Rutherford
“I was very humbled and surprised. It went very well, and I was very honored by everybody that showed up,” Rutherford said. “They’re just a great group of people. The people I’ve worked with, I couldn’t ask for better people, so I was very humbled and very proud to be with them.”
Rutherford racked up 52 years of law enforcement service, with 47 of those years coming within the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office. Rutherford says the hard part of the recent decision is leaving the good people at the department.
“It’s been a long time. I really hate to leave all the people that I’ve worked with, currently and in the past. It’s just been a great group of people and that’s the hard part is leaving all of them,” Rutherford said. “It’s time to move on and everything will go with them, and I hope everything goes extremely well for everybody over there.”
“I think the most that I’ll miss is the people,” Rutherford said. “They’re just a really great group of people. They’re hard working, fun to be with. That’s the biggest thing I think I’ll miss is just being with everybody and working hard and doing everything we can to help the public.”
In his time with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, Rutherford implemented and created a multitude of changes for the betterment of the county. Rutherford increased the number of deputies to 112 and doubling the deputies on patrol, instituted the “Day Report Center,” which helps rehabilitate those convicted of non-violent crimes and reduces jail costs, and helped establish the “East City Patrol Division,” which gives eastern Kanawha County towns appropriate law enforcement protection.
Rutherford says the ability to learn and continually get better each and every day was a reason he loved the job.
“It’s one of those things where you learn something every day, and that’s one of the things I like so much about the job,” Rutherford said. “Being able to help people, whether they’re senior citizens or young kids, it’s just been a pleasure.”
Filling Rutherford’s role will be incoming Sheriff-elect Joe Crawford, who served as Rutherford’s Chief Deputy for three years.
Rutherford says Crawford has the experience and support staff to continue leading the department in the right direction.
“He’s been in law enforcement for a long time, and we’ve been friends, so I don’t see that being much of a change for him, and I think he’ll do a great job,” Rutherford said. “He’d going to have a fantastic Chief Deputy, Sean Snuffer, who’s been there for years and in charge of the Detective Bureau, so I think it’ll go very well. I think it’s being left in good hands.”
While Rutherford is retiring from the sheriff’s role, he won’t be completely out of the public safety sector. The Kanawha County Commission recently asked Rutherford to be the director of the Metro 911 for the county at the start of the year.
Rutherford says he’s ready for the new challenge to stay within public safety.
“It’ll be a new challenge, it’s something different, but a lot of good people out there and it’ll still kind of keep me in the loop, so to speak,” Rutherford said. “I’ll still be in the public safety venue out there, so I’m really looking forward to that. They have great people out there also.
On the evening of his retirement celebration, Rutherford gave a last message to Kanawha County citizens as their sheriff.
“I’d just like to tell the public that I deeply appreciate their confidence in me, and I worked very, very hard to try to keep that confidence, “Rutherford said. “I hope I helped a little bit out there in the last few years to help the public and the citizens because that’s obviously what we’re there for. It was just a great honor and very humbling to be able to serve them.”