A New Direction: In Conversation with Interim Sheriff Ty Rupert

When Ty Rupert applied for the job of Deschutes County interim sheriff last July, he listed in his letter of interest a series of institutional goals. Among them: transparency, fiscal responsibility and accessibility to the public. Having won the appointment, Rupert is now 15 weeks into the job.

Fresh off some personnel reorganization and a Nov. 6 town hall in La Pine (the first of several throughout the county; dates will be announced by next week), Rupert has made good on his intentions to correct the course of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, whose former sheriff, Kent van der Kamp, resigned on July 31 amid investigations of lying and misconduct. In a sit-down conversation at the Source office on Nov. 10, Rupert caught us up to speed on the new dawn at DSCO that so many Deschutes County residents have been hoping for.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

The Source: Thanks so much with meeting with us.

Ty Rupert: Yeah, I’ve been trying to reach out to media. As you know, our office traditionally hasn’t had the best reputation with the news for quite a few years. You’ve probably seen a lot of negative headlines.

tS: I’ve written some of those headlines.

TR: You’ve got a job to do. But I’m a different kind of person [than former Sheriff Kent van der Kamp] and I’d rather build bridges.

tS: How’s the new job?

TR: I feel really good. We had the Deschutes County Fair and Rodeo going on and National Night Out. A lot of people wanted to know who their new sheriff is. But right out of the gate, we got hit with the Flat Fire near Sisters. Even though we lost a few homes — I don’t ever want to lose homes — we mitigated that really well, compared to what it could have been. All the partners involved in that did an incredible job.

tS: When you applied for the interim sheriff position, you talked about doing a fiscal audit of the sheriff’s office. Can you tell us about that process?

TR: We have a new business manager, Jeff Price, who came on board right before van der Kamp left. He’s a 21-year Marine Corps veteran. He comes from Amazon corporate. He has time with Hewlett Packard. He’s got private sector experience. He’s done an incredible job of taking over a position that previously didn’t exist. He’s digging deep into the budget. I’m trying to change the culture of financials. For years, it seemed like we were spending the money from Taxing District One, we were spending District Two, and then we were living on a credit card. That’s not sustainable. We need to live within our means.

tS: You also have experience in the private sector.

TR: Yeah. This is something I’ve learned: There’s a lot of vendors that will give you a 2-3% discount if you pay early. Our fuel vendor is letting us save $6,000. We now are contacting every vendor to see if they’ll give us that discount. I’ll just throw a number: Let’s say we can save $50,000 a year by taking advantage of discounts. That’s $50,000 a year of free money. Taxpayer money. I’m trying to restore that trust with the taxpayers, to show that I’m responsible. The other way we’re saving money is that I don’t currently need an undersheriff. Aaron Wells, the previous undersheriff, went to Bend PD, where he’s a lieutenant. I’m not going to backfill that position.

tS: Wells made a good salary.

TR: If I had to guess, it was $250,000+ with a rollup. The previous executive assistant to van der Kamp moved back to Florida. My executive assistant is Deana Tucker. She used to work in evidence, but I don’t have to backfill her position because we’re too heavily staffed in that area. So that saves me about $140,000 a year. Out of our $68.5 million budget, about $54.3 million is personnel. I save on personnel with the caveat that we’re not going to sacrifice service to the community. I’m trying to hire more patrol and more correctional officers because we’re short-staffed. That should help reduce the overtime. And with radios, we brought in some single-band radios to test in the Deschutes County Jail, and they work well. You don’t need dual-band radios in the jail like you do for patrol. I ordered 25 of them, and that was an almost $30,000 savings. And with out-of-state travel: we used to have a travel agent. In 2025, we paid them almost $65,000. When I saw that, I said no — we’ll have one of our assistants do that.

tS: This is a lot of savings. You’ve also launched a series of town halls, beginning with the one in La Pine on Nov. 6. How did it go?

TR: It went really well. I had people come up to me after and tell me, in their words, that I’m a breath of fresh air. People said they like what they’re hearing and they like what they’re seeing. One of the ladies got upset — and rightfully so. She said there’s been a lot going on at the sheriff’s office, and I understand her frustration. I worked there; not just me, but 238 other people. But trust is something that’s earned. And what we went through with van der Kamp makes it harder. I’m definitely climbing a mountain. And it’s OK. We’ll get to the top and we’ll be successful. I’m not worried. She apologized for being upset, and I said, you don’t need to apologize. You have a right to feel that way. Trust me, I get it. I gave her a big hug. People in the room had tears in their eyes. It was just super cool.

tS: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a big concern for a lot of people. Does your office intend to continue complying with Oregon’s Sanctuary Law?

TR: We will follow whatever is in place. I want people to understand, we’re a local government. We’re not federal. We enforce local and state laws. My job as sheriff is to make sure we are taking care of the citizens of Deschutes County.

tS: Would your office ever collaborate with ICE?

TR: I’m not going to collaborate with them. If they come here, they’ll be operating on their own. Some of my closest friends are Hispanic. I have friends that are Black, I have friends from Korea. I don’t ever want a citizen in Deschutes County to be afraid to contact us if they need help. I want them to know that they can come to us and not be afraid. That’s very important to me.

tS: What’s the biggest challenge with the county jail? I read that there are presently about 196 inmates.

TR: The population fluctuates depending on the week. The hardest thing for the jail is that we’re going to have to modernize it a bit, at some point. Next year, I believe we’re going to modernize the control center. The biggest thing is having enough staffing. It’s important that our inmates are treated respectfully. We’re hiring correctional officers so we can reduce the overtime. They have a difficult job. They come to work every day, and they work in an environment they can’t leave all day. They’re around the inmates. It’s not uncommon to have feces thrown on our deputies or smeared on the wall — people have to clean it. It’s a very difficult culture. It’s important that we keep morale boosted over there, that they feel supported by the sheriff. That’s not an easy job.

tS: How is the DCSO’s Deflection Program going? I understand that House Bill 4002 replaced Ballot Measure 110, which briefly decriminalized hard drugs. This program helps folks get access to drug treatment.

TR: The deflection program is going really well. Deputy Neil Marchington leads that up. He does an exceptional job. Recently we graduated about 32 to 34 folks through the deflection program, which has been very successful. I think it’s a fantastic program. A lot of those folks need help; they just don’t know where to get it. It’ll be interesting to see in a few years how the program grows. I think it will. A person can just reach and say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling. I need help with addiction.’ We put them in contact with Neil Marchington and he takes it from there. I have extended family members who have been addicted to either drugs or alcohol over the years. I remember one specific day I was working patrol. I came in contact with a gentleman I’d arrested a while back. He said, ‘Hey Rupert.’ He tells me he’s been clean for six months and he’s doing great. I shook his hand, and I said, ‘I’m really proud of you. Good for you.’ It’s amazing — this person didn’t have a lot of family. He just wanted to hear someone say that they were proud of him. So, the deferment program is pretty near and dear to my heart. The more people we can help fight addiction, that translates to a lot of things. Now you can free that person so they’re able to work. Hopefully they can get housing.

tS: How will you know you’ve earned back the trust of the sheriff’s office and that of the public?

TR: As for the sheriff’s office, I see people smiling. People come to work, they’re happy. They seem more relaxed; they don’t have the stress that I used to see on their faces. I can tell by their work that people are going the extra mile again — they feel a part of a team. A good sign is the number of candidates [from other agencies] that have applied. The people we’ve hired are good people. When van der Kamp was sheriff, we had people withdraw from the process. As for the public’s trust, it’s going to take time. They’ve been through a lot with our office. As for me, it’s a matter of following through with the promises I made in my letter of interest — doing what I said I was going to do as interim sheriff. Next year, I’ll run for sheriff in the election. If I’m elected, that will be a sign that the community says, ‘Yeah, we believe in what the sheriff’s doing. He’s doing what he said he was going to do. He’s saving us money. We want him to be our sheriff.‘ I think that’ll be a big sign for me, having their support. I want the citizens to be proud of our sheriff’s office.