Capt. Sterrin Ward of the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office received the Distinguished Service Award at the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association Conference.
The OSSA was tasked with putting together a process for law enforcement agencies to accept applications and issue Measure 114 permits. This process had to be created from scratch as no such system ever existed.
Ward was the work group chair and is one of the most knowledgeable resources in the state relating to the state process of issuing a concealed handgun license.
She helped lead the group to produce a detailed 49-page permit process that provides a roadmap even for agencies who have never been involved in similar work.
The measure, while modeled after Oregon concealed handgun licensing statutes, left a lot of questions as to how the process should actually work. The process was under intense scrutiny and had multiple complex technical aspects to it.
According to a press release by the sheriff’s office, Ward excelled at providing the leadership and did not hesitate to meet the challenge head on. Her dedication to the project often led to her working on the project during the weekends and late into the evenings.
