The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office recently promoted two current employees. 

Sheriff Adam Infante says Austin Myers is a new sergeant and Jeff Larson was formally promoted to a lieutenant position. Infante says both of these men have 10 plus years of experience in law enforcement and have been with the Sheriff’s Office for multiple years. He tells Raccoon Valley radio what it takes to become a sergeant. 

“What you want is a good leader. You want somebody that the other people are going to respect and look up to. You want somebody knowledgeable who knows what they’re doing. First and foremost, though, I think the biggest attribute you’re looking for is somebody reasonable. Being a leader isn’t necessarily about being right. It’s about being reasonable. You know, not everybody needs to go to jail. Now, everybody needs to be disciplined for messing up. You need to have somebody with compassion who can balance that line.”

Infante explains they had five quality candidates for the open lieutenant position but settled on Larson because they were impressed by his years of experience in every division in the office and the variety of assignments he’s worked on. 

“The lieutenant position in our department supervises more people than a sergeant. Almost triple the amount of people. So we want a seasoned sergeant who’s obviously capable of doing that job to be promoted.”

Infante expresses that the best feeling is to hire someone and then be able to promote them because that means making the right hires. Myers has spent 11 years in law enforcement and three years with Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and Larson has 17 years of law enforcement experience and 10 years with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office.