The Greene County Sheriff’s Office recently hired a new deputy.

Deputy Matt Meyer is a Fort Dodge native and graduated from Fort Dodge High School in 2011. He then went to Iowa Western Community College, where he changed his major a couple of times from sports medicine to general studies, before transferring to Iowa State University in the field of conservation. In 2015, Meyer decided to change career paths again to law enforcement and started with the security staff at Prairie Meadows Casino in Altoona. 

Then in 2016, Meyer became a patrol officer with the Fort Dodge Police Department. He then worked as a School Resource Officer (SRO) from December of 2022 to May of 2023. But when funding was cut to the SRO program, Meyer went back to being a patrol officer. Meyer had heard about a deputy opening with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and was hired and officially started on January 22nd. He talks about why he chose the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.

“Coming from a larger agency, it’s nice to have that change of pace, have more area to go out and do my job, rather than be confined to a city within its jurisdiction. And then having some friends down here and seeing what (Sheriff) Jack (Williams) was doing, and seeing that he’s doing good things, and being a part of that. Also serving the area that my parents actually grew up in and that our family farm is housed in, it’s kind of cool that I get to be a part of that tradition.”     

Meyer talks about the impression he’s been getting from the community.

“It’s been awesome. Just the other day I was up at Scranton, at the bus stop, and the kids run up and give me a hug. I’m like, ‘I know you don’t know me. I’ve only been here for two weeks.’ But to see that tradition of they see the uniform, they see the marked car, and they just have their kidly trust and come in and give me a hug, I’m like, ‘That’s awesome (that) the community still sees us like that.’”     

Deputy Meyer adds he is looking forward to continuing that public trust and that law enforcement is there for them whenever they need help or assistance.