After two decades, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy is retiring. Three Republican candidates are vying for his seat.

  • Steven Burch, Chuck Kanehl, Mike Prendergast run for office
  • Jeff Dawsy retiring after two decades
  • Aug. 30 winner will face Mike Klyap in November

Steven Burch, 61, cites his 28 years of law enforcement service.

"I started with the Clearwater Police Department in 1980, served for 24 years, retired as a lieutenant," he said, "had a varied career, had a lot of high crime areas of Clearwater, did community policing in Clearwater, ran the traffic homicide unit, retired in August of 2004 to be the chief of Crystal River, served there for four years."

Chuck Kanehl, 68, said he's been a leader "since I was 19 years old leading troops in Vietnam."

"I've got 43 years of continual law enforcement experience," Kanehl said. "I've been a leader in every facet of the criminal investigation division, the patrol divisions to the three agencies I worked for.”

Mike Prendergast, 59, touts his military experience. "Over the three plus decades in uniform I was a military policeman my entire career, I held every law enforcement position that you could hold in the military police corps, to include four tours of duty as a provost marshal," Prendergast said.

All three would like to find ways to retain deputies with competitive salaries.

Burch wants to focus on training. "When they review a report, they should be looking for what's missing, what could have been asked, what's not there so that they could help that deputy or that detective build that better case to not only achieve an arrest, but a conviction," he said.

Kanehl plans to hit aggressive drivers. "I want to create a dedicated traffic unit that basically will take care of and make our roads safer by going after the aggressive drivers that we have out here today," he said. "I want to enhance the narcotic unit as far as strategic, maybe long range investigations."

Prendergast said he also plans to tackle the county's drug problem. "We don't want drugs in our communities," he said. "It pervades itself through not only the schools, businesses, and home life here, and it destroys families. We want to go after that very aggressively."

The three will face off Aug. 30. The winner of the Republican primary will face non-partisan candidate Mike Klyap in the general election.

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