Wichita County Sheriff David Duke will step down as the county’s top law enforcement officer on Aug. 31.
His retirement one day before his 62nd birthday will come after serving 20 years in that job and more than 40 years in law enforcement.
He said it was a decision he made with his wife, Kellie.
“We just have some things we want to do. We like to travel, and we want to do some things with our property,” Duke said. “A lot of people think it’s yippee-aye-ay to be a sheriff, but it’s a 24-hour job with pursuits, manhunts, barricaded people. I always wanted to be out there so the guys would know we’ve got their backs.”
Duke got his first taste of the harder side of life when he was 8 years old and rode in the back of an ambulance his father, Randy Duke, operated.
“My dad wanted me to see what life on the street was about,” the sheriff said.
He became the youngest jailer in Wichita County history in 1982 when he was 18.
“I was told by the jail administrator I wouldn’t last more than six months,” he said.
He also credits his father for teaching him how to get along with everyone.
Duke recalled something his father told him: “It’s not the color of the skin that makes the man. It’s the heart and soul.”
Everyone includes criminals.
“I’ve looked into the eyes of demons,” Duke said.
Duke went through the Wichita Falls Police Academy and became a field deputy for the county when he was 20 years old.
By the time he was 25, he was promoted to the Criminal Investigations Division where he stayed for 20 years, working his way up to sergeant, lieutenant and captain. He recalls those as years of “hunting the bad guys.”
“These are the hardcore guys that would burn your house down and kill your cat,” he said.
But the memories are good.
“We had just a great time going after bad guys and catching them. We had a lot of foot chases and car chases,” he said. “I never saw any deputies abusing any inmates or guys we captured. Sometimes had to fight with them.”
The toughest case he ever worked was when a man drove his two young daughters into the county from Oklahoma and shot them point blank before shooting himself.
“It will affect you. Everyone working that scene was crying. It’s hard to do your job when everybody’s crying. It was unbelievable that someone would do that to their own children,” he said.
Former Sheriff Tom Callahan decided the county needed a fire investigator. Duke happened to be working as chief of the Wichita West Volunteer Fire Department.
“None of the other deputies knew anything about fighting fires, so they said, ‘You ought to let Duke do that. He’s a firefighter,’” Duke said.
So he became county fire investigator in addition to his other duties.
He ran for sheriff in 2008 when Callahan retired. Duke recalls it was a hard-fought campaign with five people contending for the office. He won that election and every contest since.
Duke said he will recommend to the county commissioners that they appoint his chief deputy, Will Rutledge, to the post when he steps down. He said he will support Rutledge if he runs for his own term in the office.
Duke isn’t entirely hanging up his badge, though.
“I’ll do some fire investigative work for the Sheriff’s Office because that’s a niche I’ve got. Maybe work patrol, too,” he said. “I won’t be working every day like I do now.”
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: You won’t last, his boss said; 40 years later, the Wichita County sheriff will retire soon
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
