COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- There's a new candidate in the race for El Paso County Sheriff.
Jake Shirk is the current chief of police in Monument. Before that he was captain for the Aurora Police Department. He has 35 years experience in law enforcement.
Chief Jake, as he is known, says his supporters have been encouraging him to run for sheriff for a while now.,He decided to run a few weeks ago but decided Friday was the day to make it official.
Shirk says he wants to bring his three decades of law enforcement experience to the job of sheriff.
"I’ve spent 35 years preparing for this moment in time. I’ve done just about everything in the law enforcement community," Shirk said.
He made his announcement in front of friends and supporters at a rally in downtown Colorado Springs.
Shirk bills himself as a lifelong Republican and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. He says the people of El Paso County don’t feel safe and they want more patrols across the county.
"They are telling me they are not protected. They feel abandoned. I’m telling you that I am going to look at every single program and every dollar to put the deputies back out on the street," Shirk said.
He says he wants to bring his innovative management style to the sheriff's office to look for creative solutions to their challenges. He says in some cases the police and the sheriff's office duplicate services and that could be an area where money can be saved.
"One of the things I would do is to look at combining and regionalizing the dispatch centers," Shirk said.
So far Shirk and the current sheriff Terry Maketa are the only two candidates in the race.
Voters will choose a sheriff in November.
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