(Sheriff William Sheron congratulates Youth Officer John Dehm , Left to right- Sheriff Sheron, Legislator Greg Torrey, John Dehm, Undersheriff Greg Walker and Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster)
On Friday August 25th, Youth Officer John Dehm will put aside his police and investigative powers after 37 years at the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office.
On Monday August 28th, Dehm will start his first day at the City of Batavia School District as a Security Aide at John Kennedy School.
“I feel like this is the right thing to do,” says Dehm.
“I’ve been here a long time and the opportunity for this new job came along and I could not pass it up.”
“As a Youth Officer it’s like a job from heaven for me.”
Dehm has been the Sheriff’s Youth Officer since 1993 and taught the D.A.R.E program for a long time in Genesee County.
Through the D.A.R.E program Dehm was able to reach 5th and 6th grade students.
D.A.R.E. helped to build decision-making and problem solving skills and strategies to help students make informed decisions and resist drug use, peer pressure, and violence and helped to provide students with alternatives to drug use.
Unfortunately the program went to the wayside.
“To this day former students stop me and say, “Hey I was your D.A.R.E student,” and most of them are now 36 years old.”
Dehm will be working alongside Principal Paul Kesler at John Kennedy School and hopes to put his years of experience working with local youth to good use.
“They are 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders and to me they are like little sponges,” says Dehm.
“I will be able to be a good role model to them and maybe correct some of their misbehaviours and encourage them to be good citizens and students. I think I could be a great asset to the school helping out as far as monitoring discipline.”
Dehm started his work in law enforcement in 1980 working at GCC in security, ranking 2nd on the Civil Service Exam list, he quickly moved to the Sheriff’s Office as a Deputy Sheriff and then eventually was promoted to the Criminal Investigation Division, then to Youth Officer in 1993.
Recently Dehm has been involved in investigating sex offenses in the County.
“We are really involved with the Child Advocacy Center which is part of the Sheriff’s Office. We have helped a lot of kids who are victims of sex offenses and we are trying to bring more education about it into the school districts in the community to make people more aware and throw away some of the myths about sex abuse cases. Knowledge is power, we want to show them how to react and how to report it.”
Working at the Sheriff’s Office has been a team effort over the years.
“We work pretty well together and we are all of the same mold, we want to help people and I think Genesee County should be really proud of the employees we have here and the dedicated people we have that always give their help.”
“I always know I can trust John and his judgement,” says Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster.
“His work ethic is the best I’ve seen of anyone, from the day he walked in to the day he walks out he has had the same energy and drive for his job and that is rare, there is nothing he wouldn’t do. It’s going to be about impossible to replace him.”
At Friday’s retirement party at the Sheriff’s Office, Dehm says it was an honor to go out retiring with Senior Dispatcher Barbara Eddy who will retire at the end of the month after 36 years.
“Our dispatchers here are top notch and without them we wouldn’t go anywhere, we have the best of the best who are highly trained, very skilled, calm and cool, a lot of them would not want to do our job, but I would not want to do their job as they are the first to take that call. We all deal with a lot of stress here and I think Genesee County should be proud we are here to protect and serve them.”
Dehm says he can tell story after story after 37 years.
“There are funny ones and serious ones, things that will stick out in my mind forever, there are areas in the county where I can drive to and tell you a story about what happened, but that is just through my eyes.”
“I truly know what it means to serve the public, help them through their hardships and it has been a privilege for me to have been in this position and I am thankful.”