JANESVILLE
Rock County Sheriff Troy Knudson plans to finish out the final nine months of his term and retire Jan. 3, ending his work as sheriff after one term and capping a 33-year career in law enforcement in Rock County.
Knudson, a Democrat, told The 69蹤獲 on Friday hell finish out his term, but he decided he wont run again for sheriff. That means an election this fall will determine who will be the new sheriff.
Knudson told The 69蹤獲 he has a love for travel, and his retirement will give him a chance to do that.
The news of Knudsons pending retirement was still fresh Friday morning when Rock County Sheriffs Capt. Curtis Fella longtime sheriffs administrator who has worked under Knudson in multiple departmentsannounced he plans to run for sheriff as a Democrat.
Fell told The 69蹤獲 on Friday that Knudson has known of Fells interest in succeeding him since 2018.
I had told him before I wouldnt run against him, Fell said. I really didnt have a need to run, but with his retirement, that kind of leaves that opening that needs to be filled by somebody that has some experience and capability in running an agency like ours, somebody who can help bring us into the future while continuing the good things that the sheriff and his staff have put together.
Fell said that as of Friday, no one else who he knows ofDemocrat or Republicanintends to jump in the race for sheriff. It makes him the solo candidate so far in an election that would have an August primary, if necessary, before the general election this fall to decide the countys new top cop.
Knudson, who formerly led the patrol and jail divisions, worked to foster renewed police transparency through mandated body cameras. And he and his staff brought forth new programs to focus on mental health, substance abuse recovery and literacy within the inmate population at the Rock County Jail.
Knudson led the sheriffs office during a time of growing national scrutiny and public mistrust of police. While the countys sheriffs office hasnt found itself at the center of any firestorms like national use-of-force cases that have sparked riots in cities across the U.S. over the last two years, Knudsons tenure was marked by a few COVID-19 outbreaks in the Rock County Jail.
Those outbreaks came with criticism from inmates at the jail over whether the sheriffs office was doing enough to prevent spread of the coronavirus inside its secured walls.
Fell has been a member of the sheriffs office since 1994, two years after Knudson started at the sheriffs office. Prior to that, he worked for a few years in the sheriffs office at Ozaukee County.
Fell has worked his way up through ranks in Rock County, starting out as a jail officer.
Fell said Knudson takes a calm, measured approach to administering the sheriffs office, something Fell said he would have in common with the departing sheriff.
Fell said he has held some of the same jobs that Knudson also held in earlier years, including serving as a department teacher and SWAT commander. He now oversees the jails building projects, another role Knudson had performed in his career.
When asked whether he considers Knudson a mentor, Fell said, Yes, I guess you could consider that in a lot of ways. I hadnt really looked at it that way before.
Knudson wrote in an email that he has been humbled by the sense of duty he said his officers continue to show in a pandemic thats strained their lives as much as the people theyre sworn to serve and protect.
They have remained devoted to their duties through dangerous protests and the often unknown threat that COVID posed, in addition to their normal, challenging duties, he wrote.
We also had amazing support from the County Board, other County Departments, our local first responder partners and our citizenry, Knudson said.
Knudson added that he is proud of ongoing work to bolster transparency through the use of officer body cameras at both the jail and on patrol, and hes felt bolstered by support the county has given for upgrades to critically aging parts of the jail.
A bright spot in his career, Knudson wrote, was in February 2014, when he was in command of a local effort by police to recover an infant boy who was kidnapped by a relative in Beloit. Knudson worked with police agencies in multiple states in a search that ended when the infant was found alive inside a plastic tote hundreds of feet away from a highway truck stop in rural Iowa.
Knudson said he would tell anyone who wants to be sheriff that his golden rule is to appreciate every officer and staff who work for sheriffs commanders.
Always appreciate the people who work for them, he wrote. The role of the sheriff puts a person in the public eye, and they are often given the credit for the successes of the agency. But we should never forget that it is often the person who works the terrible hours in the worst of circumstances who did an outstanding job who truly deserves that praise.
