A new era is soon to begin at the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, and Allen Cooper will be leading the charge.
The 65-year-old Republican candidate was elected as Fremont County’s new sheriff Tuesday, beating out independent candidates Boyd Canterbury, 66, and Skip Moreau, 68, in the General Election.
Cooper garnered 61.25 percent of the votes, compared to 23.95 percent for Canterbury and 14.81 percent for Moreau.
“I just want to thank everybody for having the confidence in me to elect me to this position,” Cooper said. “I really want to do the best job that I can for the people of Fremont County, and I am ready to start working.”
Cooper will replace Jim Beicker, who was elected four times and held the office longer than any other sheriff since Fremont County’s first one was appointed in 1861.
Cooper said he wishes to thank the voters who cared enough to get out and back their candidates.
“That meant a lot to us,” he said. “We were well received at every function we attended. I personally was glad that people approached me and asked questions and allowed me to give them a response to those questions.”
Cooper said he also was pleased with the voter turnout in Fremont County.
“I think that credit can be given to all the candidates because we were all actively pushing to get the votes out regardless of whether people voted for us or not,” he said. “We felt this race was important enough that we needed everybody’s vote to make sure that everybody got a chance to voice their opinion.”
Of the 19,860 ballots cast in Fremont County, the race for sheriff garnered 18,713 votes.
Canterbury said it’s hard to run against a Republican candidate in Fremont County, however, he was pleased to have been part of a “good, clean race.”
“Allen is a good man,” he said. “Hopefully, he’ll do well and go forward for the betterment of the sheriff’s department.”
This was Canterbury’s second run for sheriff, but he said it will be his last.
“I knew we had a hard road ahead going into this,” he said.
Cooper ‘s first order of business as sheriff will be to put together a transition team made up of subject matter experts to audit the entire sheriff’s office that will provide him with feedback on areas that are working well and areas that need work. He said this is something that typically is done when there is a significant change of command.
“Then I want to take those individual reports and put those together in a document and then present it to the county commissioners as a state of the office,” he said. “My hope is to accomplish that before I am sworn in, if possible.”
He also plans to meet with the commissioners in the next couple of weeks before formally announcing his selection for undersheriff.
Cooper, who has lived in Cañon City since he was 16, is married to Sandy McCoy-Cooper and has three sons and five grandchildren.
He started his law enforcement career in the 1970s with the FCSO and eventually became a volunteer reserve officer with the Cañon City Police Department. He started working at the CCPD full time in April 1988, taking a job as a night patrol officer.
In the rest of his time with the department, Cooper has worked as a range officer, patrol sergeant, SWAT team entry, sniper and a team leader. Additionally, he has worked as a detective sergeant, commander of support services, commander of operations and commander of the Fremont County Combined Investigative Response team.
When former CCPD Chief Paul Schultz left the department last year, Cooper served as the interim leader until Cañon City hired current Chief Daric Harvey. Cooper said he decided not to apply for that position.
Cooper told the Daily Record early in his campaign that if elected, one of his first goal’s for the department would be to plan a patrol schedule based on the number and types of calls for service received.
Cooper said he also would focus on homelessness and mental health issues, as well as changing the way deputies are hired.
Carie Canterbury: 719-276-7643, canterburyc@canoncitydailyrecord.com