Public safety can feel like a distant concept until you realize how much of everyday life it quietly touches. A single arrest flows into the county jail. A medical emergency becomes an organized response. A budget decision becomes meals, medications, maintenance, and staffing. A leader’s job is to connect those dots.

Aaron Perry, a candidate for Davis County Sheriff, builds his case around one simple idea: the sheriff’s office is not just about patrol cars and high profile calls. It is a large organization that must run every day. And according to Perry, the sheriff needs the kind of experience that comes from seeing public safety from multiple angles, including corrections and administration.

His pitch is rooted in a lifelong connection to Davis County, and a career that has included EMT work, paramedic training, police academy, patrol duty, SWAT leadership, city-level perspective, corrections chief responsibilities, and leadership training focused on culture and mindset. It is also grounded in the kind of leadership lessons you only pick up when you have served in the middle of the work, not just talked about it from the sidelines.

PoliticIt Radio – Every Day It Runs — Aaron Perry Anthem

A lifelong Davis County resident with law enforcement depth

Perry’s background starts with place and people. He was born and raised in Davis County, grew up in Centerville, and graduated from Viewmont High School. He and his wife later moved to Layton, where they have lived for decades. He describes himself as a lifelong resident, and that connection matters to his campaign because, as he puts it, the decisions made by county leadership impact his family and neighbors year after year.

That commitment to the community also shows up in the way his career began. He worked at the sheriff’s office in an early role that combined public service with emergency care. Davis County used to have an ambulance division, and Perry was hired as an EMT. He even tells a personal origin story about meeting his wife at the sheriff’s office. In his telling, that is more than trivia. It sets the tone for the way he approaches the work: public safety as something relational, human, and local.

From there, he built a professional ladder that is both specialized and broad. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Weber State University and later completed a master’s in public administration from BYU, including the Salt Lake Center program while working. During that time, he was already in the patrol world, including experience as a patrol sergeant and SWAT team leader.

His training path is also distinctive. Because Davis County’s paramedic program ran through the county system at the time, he describes a pipeline where deputies were cross trained as paramedics. Perry started on the ambulance side, then attended paramedic school at Weber State, and after graduating was sent through the police academy. After that, he transitioned into the patrol division as both a deputy and a paramedic.

When asked about how such a background helps a sheriff, Perry emphasizes that it creates understanding across the full spectrum of operations. You cannot lead a sheriff’s office effectively if you only know one part of the machine. The job requires credibility in the streets and competence in the administration.

Why city experience and administration both matter

One of Perry’s strongest points is that a sheriff’s job is not only operational. It is managerial at a scale that many people do not fully grasp.

He argues that administrative experience is crucial, especially because sheriff’s offices manage multi million dollar budgets and complex legal and personnel issues. In his view, corrections is only one part of the organizational picture, but it is one of the biggest and most misunderstood parts.

He also makes a practical argument about collaboration. Perry says he gained meaningful “city perspective” during his time working in Roy as an assistant police chief. In a city setting, police departments and the county sheriff work closely together, and the collaboration has to be intentional. He believes that experience helps a future sheriff anticipate how decisions from the county side affect city chiefs, city priorities, and day to day public safety outcomes.

Administratively, Perry stresses that a sheriff functions like a chief executive. He gives an example to explain what that looks like: when running a jail, the sheriff is effectively managing a business that operates daily. It involves feeding incarcerated people three times a day, ordering supplies, providing medical services, transporting individuals to court, paying utilities, and negotiating contracts. He describes budgeting and contracting as constant work, not occasional work.

In other words, the sheriff’s office is not a single department. It is a system. And the system must work even on the days people never think about.

The jail is essential, and many people do not even notice

Corrections becomes a central theme in Perry’s case. He describes how often people drive past jail facilities and do not realize what they are looking at, or even where the jail is located. He recounts a conversation with a neighbor who asked if Davis County had a jail, and then seemed surprised by where it is.

Perry connects this to something he believes citizens should recognize: the work inside jails is difficult, essential, and often overlooked. If the community does not even know where the jail is, it cannot easily measure the quality of the operation. That creates a leadership challenge for anyone seeking to run corrections responsibly.

His approach, again, is rooted in experience. Perry says that when he moved into corrections leadership at Weaver County, he quickly learned to respect the people doing the work in the jail environment, including staff supporting incarcerated individuals and maintaining safety and order.

Corrections, he says, is not an afterthought. It is central to public safety. State law places responsibility for the jail on the sheriff, and because Davis County has one jail, every arrest from law enforcement agencies across the county can lead to the jail intake process. For Perry, that means corrections leadership cannot be treated like an administrative footnote.

Corrections leadership during COVID: a master level game of Tetris

Perry’s corrections experience included the added complication of COVID. He describes arriving in corrections leadership with about one year to get “feet wet” before the pandemic hit. Even with that runway, the pandemic created a difficult environment, especially because guidelines changed often.

He emphasizes that jails were not built for the specific quarantine and isolation needs that COVID required. During early phases of the pandemic, there were guidelines for quarantine and isolation periods for new arrivals and those with exposure. Perry describes the operational challenge as constantly reorganizing people, processes, and space to align with public health direction.

In his words, the team worked through it like “a master level game of Tetris.” Command staff and medical teams met repeatedly to figure out where each piece fit. The goal was to keep both staff and incarcerated individuals safe while still running the day to day functions a jail must run.

This is a detail that matters because it speaks to a leadership capability that is difficult to fake. It is one thing to discuss theory. It is another to show up during a crisis where systems are stressed, guidelines are evolving, and safety is non negotiable.

Perry uses this experience to reinforce his larger point: public safety leaders manage large organizations with complex obligations, including health and safety standards that cannot be improvised.

Building a path home: education, experience, and the decision to run

Perry describes his leadership path as something he was actively shaping while he progressed through his career. During his master’s program, he met with then Davis County Sheriff Bud Cox to ask whether pursuing public administration training made sense. Perry says Cox’s response was direct: if Perry only intended to “ride out” a career and accept promotions as they came, then the program would not be worth it. But if he was aiming to lead and help the agency, then the program could be valuable.

That conversation planted a question that Perry says came back to him during the end of the program. He felt that he was supposed to run for sheriff. But he also recognized what he calls gaps in his resume at the time, specifically corrections experience and administrative experience. He decided not to run then.

Instead, he continued building. He gained administrative experience at Roy. He then took on corrections chief responsibilities at Weaver County, which he describes as the missing piece. Over time, he aligned his career experiences with what he thought he needed to bring home to Davis County.

He frames the decision to run as both strategic and personal. Perry emphasizes that he lives in Davis County, grew up here, and has deep family ties. He also describes concerns that connect his campaign to future generations, including housing challenges. In his argument, it is not enough to be qualified. A sheriff should also be invested in how county policies shape residents long term.

What the sheriff’s office does for Davis County

One of the more practical questions Perry answers is how the sheriff’s office directly benefits the people of Davis County.

He highlights the sheriff’s jail responsibility under state law. Davis County has only one jail. That means arrests across the county feed into the same system, and the jail must be ready to function properly so other agencies can do their work. When the jail functions smoothly, it enables the rest of the county’s public safety ecosystem to operate efficiently.

Perry also explains why he values that corrections component as part of his campaign. He knew corrections experience was needed, even before he fully had it. When Weaver County’s leadership asked him which chief position he wanted, he originally leaned toward enforcement because it aligned with his existing experience. But he says the sheriff’s guidance was that corrections was the better fit. Perry credits that decision with filling the missing piece he needed to lead effectively.

A leadership philosophy built on culture and mindset

Perry’s vision for improving Davis County’s sheriff’s office focuses on culture, not just policies. He uses a story from his early career to explain why culture matters.

He describes joining the profession because he wanted to do the work, particularly the medical side and the law enforcement side. He also admits he did not fully consider what the job would cost his family early on: nights, weekends, and holidays.

He says that within five or six years, he had already worked multiple Christmases, often in graveyard shifts. He recounts one Christmas Eve where his wife called him multiple times to ask if he could stop by briefly to say goodnight to the kids. Each time, service calls interrupted. He ended up handling multiple calls instead of being home.

By the last call, he describes himself as not in the best headspace. He felt unseen and unrecognized and struggled to connect the “purpose of service” with the reality of being called away again and again. During that call, an individual approached him and asked for time after the service was completed. Perry says he thought something like, “What problem have you taken years to create that you want me to fix in the next 10 minutes?” That mindset, he implies, was a barrier.

Then he turned around to see the person and their family holding a crate of oranges. They sang a Christmas carol and thanked him for sacrificing time with his family to serve. Perry says the gesture was profound. It helped him feel seen. More importantly, it reminded him why he entered the career in the first place.

He says that from that day forward, he tried to work in a way that saw people, not just tasks or calls. He believes that at the end of long shifts, in intense conditions like 100 degree heat while wearing protective gear, it can be easy to treat the next person asking for help as the next obstacle. A leadership culture that actively trains people to see others as people can counter that default tendency.

This idea became a program. During his time at Weaver County, Perry says he brought in training from the Arbinger Institute called “Outward Mindset in Public Safety.” He describes it as giving deputies tools to recognize their own mindset when approaching calls or meetings.

He explains that “mindset” can show up in subtle ways: seeing a person as an “object” rather than a human, or dismissing others internally, or even treating another chief as competition rather than a teammate. The training, in Perry’s account, teaches people to recognize that internal shift, then change it so collaboration becomes possible.

He claims they saw results, and he emphasizes that the best outcomes came when employees brought back success stories themselves. He describes one such success when a jail unit was refusing to lock down and was close to a riot. A special operations team prepared to respond with force, but a sergeant who had just taken the training approached an individual and engaged in conversation through the cuff port.

According to Perry, the dialogue revealed a personal context: the individual had turned off phone lines when talking to his grandmother and needed someone to help connect him to the family member who was still reachable. The sergeant arranged for that conversation. Then the individual told her that he would get everyone locked up, not for the team coming in, but because she saw them as people rather than animals.

For Perry, this story illustrates the difference between superficial compliance and trust based leadership. It supports his claim that culture is not soft. Culture affects safety, de escalation, and outcomes.

From “boss” to “leader” through shared accountability

Perry’s campaign language makes a clear distinction between being a boss and being a leader. While many candidates speak in generalities about professionalism and accountability, he grounds his argument in how people experience the organization from inside.

His target is a culture where employees see each other and stakeholders as humans, not as obstacles. He describes his goal as creating an environment where teams work through difficult challenges to find the best result for everyone involved.

In Perry’s framing, the “win” is both public safety and fiscal responsibility. He says candidates often want to provide good public safety at a good cost, saving taxpayers’ funding. But he argues that saving money is not just a budgeting exercise. It comes from organizational competence and a culture that helps people solve problems without unnecessary conflict.

This is also tied to collaboration. Perry connects mindset training to practical improvements: deputies who can reset their internal frames and see people as people are more likely to engage effectively during crises, reduce unnecessary escalations, and solve problems collaboratively.

Why outsiders can’t replace local leadership

Perry acknowledges he has experience across multiple law enforcement environments. He makes the point that he is the only candidate with experience from multiple sheriff’s offices and across three law enforcement agencies.

But he also pushes back against the fear that outside experience means abandoning Davis County. He states he does not want Davis County to become Weaver County or Roy. Instead, he argues that outside experience can be used as a toolkit while the sheriff remains grounded in Davis County’s needs.

His pitch is essentially: a leader should bring home lessons learned elsewhere, then adapt them to local realities. That requires both competence and connection.

As a candidate, Perry claims a unique blend: he has 19 years with the sheriff’s office, plus corrections leadership and administrative roles. He frames this as a “huge amount of experience” to draw from as problems arise, rather than scrambling for answers once in office.

Public safety is solved through competence, not just response

At the end of the conversation, Perry gives a graduation speech style message to officers. He encourages them that their career is like writing chapters in a book. The implication is that leadership is cumulative. Each shift, decision, and interaction contributes to the story of the agency.

He shares a story from early patrol duty about a burglary. The typical expectation for patrol officers, he says, is to take the initial report and hand it off to investigations. Perry made a different decision: he worked the case, solved it, and returned about $150,000 worth of property.

He uses that example to say he would be that kind of sheriff who does not merely “get by.” He would use experience to write better chapters for Davis County, building on what has already been done while pushing for outcomes that residents can feel.

So why should voters choose Aaron Perry?

Perry closes with a direct argument for his candidacy. He believes voters should choose him because of connection, experience, and a practical vision for culture and operations.

• Local connection: He describes himself as a lifelong Davis County resident with strong family ties across the county.
• Long tenure with the sheriff’s office: He claims 19 years of experience connected to the sheriff’s office and local public safety operations.
• Multi agency and multi environment experience: He says he is the only candidate with experience across multiple sheriff’s offices and three law enforcement agencies.
• Corrections and administrative leadership: He emphasizes that running a jail and managing multi million dollar budgets requires knowledge and responsibility that goes beyond patrol.
• A culture focused on seeing people as people: He argues that training and mindset are practical tools that improve collaboration and outcomes, especially during high stress incidents.

What Perry’s vision would mean in practice

It is one thing to talk about culture and leadership. It is another to connect those words to how a sheriff’s office would actually operate.

Based on Perry’s emphasis, a practical approach would include:

• Stronger jail operations: Recognizing that the jail is an essential part of public safety and managing it with safety, medical competence, and accountability.
• Better coordination across city and county public safety: Using city experience to ensure that county decisions help rather than hinder city chiefs and daily collaboration.
• Administrative competence: Treating budgeting, contracting, legal risk, and staffing as central executive responsibilities.
• Scenario based training for mindset and de escalation: Building tools for deputies to recognize when they are treating people as objects and resetting to a person centered approach.
• Leadership that is present at the right times: Perry supports the idea that leaders should lead from the front in critical moments, while still ensuring the day to day organization runs effectively.

Final thoughts: public safety as a system, and leadership as stewardship

Perry’s story is ultimately about stewardship. His background makes a case that leading a sheriff’s office is not just about responding. It is about maintaining a system that keeps residents safe and keeps the organization functional under pressure.

He argues that culture is not an abstract idea. It can reduce the chances of escalation. It can create better conversations. It can help staff navigate the fatigue and stress that come with 12 hour shifts and high volume emergency calls.

And he ties all of it back to a defining theme: connection to Davis County. He wants to take lessons learned elsewhere but keep the mission rooted in the community where his family lives and where, in his view, the sheriff’s choices shape the future.

In the end, his pitch is clear. A sheriff should understand the streets, the jail, the budget, and the people. Perry believes his combination of experience and mindset training gives him a foundation to lead that kind of system.

 

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