The Luckiest Cop on the Planet

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Teton County Sheriff Bob Zimmer received an emotional response last week when he announced to associates and friends he will retire in January, a full two years before his term expires.>Planet Jackson Hole: Since you arrived, what changes in the valley’s social fabric have been the most notable?

Bob Zimmer: When I came here to apply for a job in October 1974, there was a campaign going on and two of the candidates were named Smokey Bear and Davey Crockett, and I thought ‘what the heck have I done?’

But the big change is, there was really no buildings south of the Virginian. You knew everybody. Clay Taylor was on the east side of town and I lived next door to him. He was a crotchety old guy – still is. He had heavy equipment and was a neighbor and a very, very good friend. He plowed my driveway; made me feel welcome – just the salt of the earth kind of people with his wife, Bonnie. He treated me like gold and he still comes by and does my driveway and won’t take any money for doing it. But that’s what Jackson was. 

It’s grown beyond that, in my opinion. We’re still a small community, but we’ve outgrown what it used to be like. When we stopped the kids – Johnny Ryan, Willie and Rob Watsabaugh – you’d stop them for speeding and jerking around and doing what kids do. There was only six city cops at the time. I told them every other time I stop I’m going to give you a ticket and every other time I stop you I’m going to give you a warning. Now that’s the deal, so if I stop you tonight and warn you, you don’t even give me any static next time, you’re going to get a ticket. But you could have those kinds of relationships with the kids. And back then the community worked hard, played hard, drank hard, and when I got here, it was our job to make sure they got home safe. It wasn’t to put everybody in jail for drunk driving. It was a small community. I mean, for me, it was the end of the rainbow. 

It’s evolved to what you see today. Society’s changed, the outlook on DUI has changed. We’ve lost a lot of kids in the community, so I support the changing of the criminal drunk driving. The other negative about a small community when I first got here was when somebody died you knew them, and it wasn’t like that where I came from. That was a big eye opener for me. I mean, you lost one of the kids in the community or a neighbor to an accident, or they got elderly and passed away, it makes a big deal to you. Norris Brown, we put him in the ground last Tuesday – that’s a compliment to him. 

That’s a significant family in my life. That’s one of the big downsides of being in a small community in my opinion. But again, you get to know folks, you become a lot closer to people in a small community and I wouldn’t trade this for where I came from for anything. I’ve said it I don’t know how many times lately: I’m the luckiest cop on the planet.

All I ever wanted to do was be a patrol sergeant with an organization somewhere. I accomplished that here at the police department.

But to be the sheriff? In Teton County? Jackson Hole, Wyoming? You’ve got to be kidding me. Do you know how lucky I am? And, I wouldn’t leave this job for anything else. The hardest thing to leave is the employees. But you’ve got to draw the line somewhere and 40 years is enough. I don’t want to die sitting in this chair. I’ve got another round of golf somewhere to play. And my folks, that’s really the big engine that’s driving this is my parents’ health.

PJH: You fit the image of a sheriff of the Old West. And the moustache certainly doesn’t hurt the idea of an old fashioned sheriff. Do see yourself as a symbol of the ‘Old West’?

BZ: You know, I’ve never perceived myself that way, but obviously with the moustache, most everybody else does. When I first got here, I don’t think I had a moustache. In law enforcement there are requirements – it can’t be beyond the corner of the mouths, etc. When Clint Eastwood filmed [Any Which Way But Loose] here in 1978, I did not have the moustache. 

That’s not significant, but after that movie – that’s the last picture I’ve seen of myself without one. That’s when I started growing a moustache and Dick Hayes was the chief of police. So it started like yours. I just kept letting it grow and grow and grow and I’m wondering when he’s going to tell me it’s too big. Well he never did, and today I owe him a lot of thanks. I don’t know, maybe it’s what a trademark is; maybe my identity is related to the big moustache. I didn’t know Danny Glick, the sheriff in Cheyenne, or Jim Hahn, the sheriff in Laramie, before they were sheriffs. They both have moustaches. Theirs are nowhere near as distinguished as mine. That’ll be a barb to them, because we get along really well. 

When I go to conferences wearing the Western hat and the uniform, I often hear about it. Is it nice to hear? Yeah. Does it help promote the community? I think so. And is there a benefit for me? Yeah, I guess I get my ego stroked a little bit. I think we all have egos, but I’ve always put a lot of value on promoting the community of Jackson Hole. When I worked for the police department, I had a couple of horses, and a big black horse, and I’d work mounted patrol downtown. People would come up and ask ‘Where can I get a trout dinner?’ Or ‘Where can I get some firewood?’ It might sound corny, but I’d take them to my house. I used to have 15 cords of wood there, cut and split. I mean I used to want to have the biggest pile of wood in town. 

So I’d give it to them and then I’d go to the house and go to the freezer and get some trout out that I’d caught ice fishing. They’re going to remember the cop that gave them the fish, remember the cop that gave them the firewood. I’ve always tried to project a real positive image of law enforcement and this community. Is it reward that I got elected sheriff? Maybe.

PJH: Would you offer them whiskey as well?

BZ: I didn’t think that would be real good coming from a uniform. If I thought I could get away with it, I probably would’ve.

PJH: Have you ever witnessed what you thought to be real brutality here in Jackson Hole?

BZ: I can’t say that I have witnessed it, because a lot of times that stuff doesn’t usually occur in front of a cop. But there have been very brutal calls for service that I have responded to. And then you go to crime scenes and see the victims of fatal car wrecks, homicides, felonious assaults.

PJH: But you’ve seen it all after the fact?

BZ: Everything I just said I’ve seen since I’ve been here. There were the Tim Smith homicides on East Broadway, the bludgeoning death of the guy down in Hoback, the fatal accidents that I’ve handled here.

PJH: Anything go unsolved that keeps you up?

BZ: The big bronze seal in the middle of the courtroom was stolen probably 32 years ago. It was about six feet in diameter. I always wanted to solve that; I always wanted to be the guy who brought the big seal back to town, strapped to the top of my car or something. I always thought that would be just a great case to be able to say I participated in resolving. It’s still missing. I missed it by two weeks in Montana – even saw the house where it was. I came close, but never got it.

PJH: Favorite aspects of the job?

BZ: People. Co-workers. The citizens that live here and the visitors.

PJH: All warm and fuzzy interactions?

BZ: Yeah, and even the ones that aren’t. I told a guy who was in here yesterday, I said you know, I can go to court right now and testify that every single car I’ve approached for a traffic stop in the last 40 years, I’ve said, ‘May I see your drivers’ license, please?’ And I believe that everybody that walks in here and everybody we deal with are customers. And customer service is what we provide. And every one of those cars I can testify under oath that that’s what I said. Now, the fun begins when they get to be assholes, and we can deal with them. 

But I’d rather do the real positive promoting our community, promoting law enforcement and treating people with respect. And then when they change it we need to take a different position. Then it’s what we get paid to do – deal with jerks. A lot of times it’s alcohol that will change someone’s personality and you have to throw that in the equation. But the people is the reason why I’ve stayed as long as I have. The hardest thing for me is walking away from my co-workers here. The community will be tough to leave when I look over my shoulder as I’m driving out of town going…more than half my life was spent here, and the better part of my life.

PJH: What’s been the most difficult part of the job?

BZ: I don’t know that I’ve got a hard thing with this job. Even when I got here – working graveyard shifts maybe.

PJH: There hasn’t been any murder in a few years, is this in some ways a safer community now than before, or do you think we’re in the usual lull in between high profile crimes?

BZ: I mean, there was always fights going on in the bars and that’s what we’d respond to. Back then, the Vietnam War vets were anti-establishment and we had to deal with that. On Fourth of July it was motorcycles. But it was a different environment.

PJH: As in the Hell’s Angels on motorcycles?

BZ: Yeah. We used to get gangs coming through. The Angels had a big rendezvous in Cody, and a bunch of them would come through Jackson. We dealt with them differently than we do today.

PJH: How’s that? Were you tougher on them?

BZ: You could get away with a little bit more. You kind of told them what to do. It was funny: one time I went over and saw Bob Stewart, the Justice of the Peace. He sold insurance. We had teletypes that 16 or 18 Hell’s Angels were coming from Salt Lake up towards Jackson on their way to Cody. So I went, asked the judge, I said, ‘So wouldn’t you think that if a reasonable man stopped the Hell’s Angel’s down at the south end of town and made a reasonable request, that they would go along with it? And if they didn’t go along with it, wouldn’t you think they’d be drunk?’ He said, ‘Sounds good to me.’

So we went down and met them at the south end of town. We just didn’t want any hassles. I went to the guy and I said, ‘Is somebody here the leader?’ I’d never worked undercover or any of that stuff. One of the guys goes, ‘What can I do for you?’ I told him, obviously we knew they were on their way to Cody, and I told him they’d be doing us a big favor if we could get them some gas and they’d just keep going right on through town. 

He told me they had a guy in the van, with his bike in the van and he’d gotten hit in the face by a bee and he’s all swollen up and he needs to go to the hospital and they asked if they could take them to the hospital, and I told them absolutely. Treat them with respect. They treated us with respect. We made a simple request. If they hadn’t gone along with it you and I could only speculate what would’ve happened. We would’ve come up with some way to resolve it. 

But they weren’t going to come in here and ruin one of the bars or get in hassles with some of the residents. We were going to make sure that they know that we’re running the show – not them – in this town. That’s kind of what it was like. Today, if the deputies I worked with tried to do that out there, Holy Moley, we’d have to tell them you can’t do that. So times have changed. For the better? Times have changed. Somebody else can be judge if it’s better today than it was then, but I liked it then. It’s a different community.

PJH: As you see the county continuing to change, what kind of person is it going to take to be successful as sheriff? What are the qualities needed, what does Teton County need?

BZ: He’s sitting next door to me right now: [Captain] Jim Whalen, without a doubt. Jim Whalen, in my opinion, is the only law enforcement person in this county that should be placed in this position. We have similar philosophies, similar ways of dealing with issues in the community. We both believe that there are rewards and consequences for staff. I can tell you without hesitation that the standards and the ethics and where the bar is in professionalism in this organization is a direct reflection of Jim Whalen being a captain and in charge of operations for 10 years. And I am proud to stand anywhere in this community and say ‘this should be your next sheriff.’

PJH: Your parting words to the people of Jackson Hole?

BZ: The simplest questions can be the hardest … Thank you for allowing me to do this job in this community, with this organization. But that seems so shallow; it doesn’t say enough. I don’t know if there are any words for it, but thanks. It’s been a great ride. PJH