The acrimonious race for Deschutes County Sheriff is nearly at an end with Sgt. Kent Vander Kamp leading Capt. William Bailey with 59.32% of the vote, compared to Bailey’s 40.06%, according to the county clerk’s update early Wednesday morning.
Vander Kamp joined the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in 2006 as a reserve deputy and was promoted to detective sergeant in 2019. His campaign was mired in controversy early on when outgoing Sheriff Shane Nelson opened an internal investigation into Vander Kamp’s then-unknown history as a reserve officer at a Southern Californian police department.
Embattled retiring Sheriff Nelson’s endorsement and support of Vander Kamp’s opposition, Bailey, played prominently into the election. Bailey has worked at DCSO for decades, joining as a reserve officer in 2000 and being promoted by Nelson to captain in 2022. Critics of Bailey say that he should have done more to distance himself from Nelson and his history of alleged retaliation and favoritism.
This article appears in Source Weekly October 31, 2024.
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