Kenneth Cheeseman officially announced his campaign for Lewis County sheriff last week, becoming the longest serving law enforcement officer to enter the race with more than 40 years of service with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
Cheeseman held a campaign kick-off event in Chehalis on Tuesday, March 10, at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis. He also held an event in Randle over the weekend.
As he officially kicks off his campaign, the longtime East Lewis County resident and Lewis County sheriff hopeful is looking to bring 40 years of law enforcement experience to the role.
Cheeseman said he’s not ready to retire and wants to get back in the office about two years after his official retirement.
“I like to work and I like serving Lewis County, and I like being with the sheriff's office, so I've decided that I'll go ahead and run,” Cheeseman told The Chronicle.
He previously lost a race to former Sheriff Steve Mansfield about 15 years ago.
Cheeseman said his goal as sheriff would be to tackle local crime with education, prevention and communication.
Cheeseman argues that many modern day crimes ranging from fraud to property crime and theft can be prevented through education and simple tools such as a doorbell with a camera. In that way, he believes county law enforcement can learn from local fire districts, which focus on education and simple tools such as smoke detectors to prevent both structural and wildland fires.
“Fire service has done a lot of things that we as law enforcement should learn from,” Cheeseman said. “If fire departments give out smoke detectors, why don't we give out door bell cameras?”
When it comes to who can best lead the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, Cheeseman believes communication is vital. He pointed out a need for the county law enforcement agency to better communicate with other local officials in the criminal justice system, such as those working in the prosecutor's office. He added the agency also needs to be actively communicating with community members so they know what the sheriff’s office is working on.
“I think that it needs to be a good communicator and a person that has the knowledge and wisdom to try to bring all these entities together to make sure that the system works a little bit more efficiently,” Cheeseman said.
Cheeseman also hopes to bring some of what he learned in his last five years on the job as a training officer at the Washington state Basic Law Enforcement Academy.
Cheeseman officially retired from his service with the Lewis County Sheriff's Office about two years ago after a five-year stint serving with the academy. He started with the sheriff’s office more than 40 years ago in 1981, just a year after the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
At the time, he was specifically hired as an officer meant to patrol the now dormant volcano and prevent citizens from entering what was once called the “Red Zone,” a restricted area around the mountain meant to protect local residents from the volcano itself.
After working in the temporary position for just over a year, it was terminated, but Cheeseman came back to work for the agency just a few months later and stayed for his entire career.
After starting with the sheriff’s office, Cheeseman recalls being one of the youngest, if not the absolute youngest, to be promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Lewis County Sheriff's Office at the time. He said he was about 26 years old when he earned the rank.
Since then, Cheeseman has served under five Lewis County sheriffs: William H. “Bill” Wiester, William “Bill” Logan, John McCroskey, Mansfield and Rob Snaza.
In that time, Cheeseman said he has served in or with just about every role there is in the county law enforcement agency. The longtime sheriff’s office sergeant worked with the office's first SWAT team, spent time on boat patrol and was the first Lewis County sergeant to serve as a training instructor with the state’s law enforcement academy.
Cheeseman served time as an administrative sergeant with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, helping the county through its first effort to receive state accreditation. He said he has helped keep the agency at a high standard of operation despite the office letting its accreditation lapse in recent years.
“I was making sure that we did all the guidelines for it,” Cheeseman said. “We just didn't pay for it.”
Cheeseman is the third candidate for Lewis County sheriff to hold an in-person kickoff event after both Centralia Police Sgt. Tracy Murphy and Chehalis Deputy Police Chief Matt McKnight held launch events earlier in the year. Another candidate, Daniel “Danny” Riordan, has held a series of meet-and-greets and other small in-person meetings for his campaign in East Lewis County.
Cheeseman is one of two to come from the east side of the county, with Riordan also focusing his efforts in the larger and less populated portion of the county. Cheeseman has lived in Randle for most of his life and the entire time that he worked for the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
Snaza has announced he will not seek a new term as sheriff. The primary election in August will determine which two candidates move on to the general election November. The winner of the race will serve a four-year term.
