GRANTS PASS, Ore. – A retired U.S. Air Force airman who grew up in Grants Pass is hoping to be the next Josephine County Sheriff.
Jonathan Knapp announced his candidacy in a press release dated November 13. In it, Knapp wrote, “We the citizens of Josephine County have struggled for years with how to fund and manage the Sheriff’s Office, we have seen lay-offs, reduction in services and increased taxes with little result. As YOUR Sheriff I intend to change that.”
According to Knapp, he was raised in Grants Pass and graduated from Hidden Valley High School in 1979. He then went on to join the Air Force as a security specialist. After that, he spent 15 years with the Salvation Army before moving on to serve 18 years with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona, where he rose to the rank of sergeant.
Knapp said he has over 30 years of experience as a manager and supervisor. According to him, that’s what the county needs “… to bring our county the professionalism we expect from our sheriff’s office.”
“We have gone long enough with the ‘status quo,’” Knapp wrote. “We need a sheriff who has the experience to lead us into the future, to bring back full-time patrol services, to develop a fully functioning reserve, volunteer and posse program. We need an experienced leader who has worked with budgets, property issues, personnel management, procurement, internal affairs and the many other duties and responsibilities of the sheriff. It is for that reason I am announcing my candidacy for the position of Josephine County Sheriff.”
Knapp said he’ll equip his deputies with body-worn cameras and train them in community policing, promising to give law enforcement accountability the community deserves.
Knapp owns three online retail businesses, The Steel Armadillo, Crawl Off-Road and Zombiehammer.com–a business selling “zombie survival tools.”
Primary elections will be on May 15, 2018.
Knapp’s campaign website is available at http://www.knappforsheriff.com.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.