Law Enforcement Appreciation: Sheriff Bill Eckelberry

January 9 was Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. In honor of that, we wanted to learn a little more about a couple of people who work at the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office! This feature is on the man who runs the office, Sheriff Bill Eckelberry. Eckelberry has worked in the law enforcement field for 37 years. He is in his ninth year as sheriff.

1.) How long have you worked in the law enforcement field? (Specify what other L.E. jobs you’ve had also)
This is my 37th year in law enforcement

2.) Explain some of your duties and jobs.
Overall operations of the office.

3.) What is your favorite part of the job?
This is a tough question to answer, I enjoy all aspects of what we do. But if I were to pick just one, it would be: Helping someone through a difficult time in their life, something had just happened turning it upside down. Some may have tried to correct the issue themselves but were unable to do so. So, they reached out to the Sheriff’s Office for help.
At times I took risks to bring about the end of an incident. When it came time to tell them it’s been taken care of and its over, the look on their face and hearing the words: Thank you… Made it all worthwhile…. Priceless…

4.) Why did you decide to have a career in law enforcement?
Watching the cop shows back in the seventies got me interested. So, when I applied for and was put on as a Reserve Deputy in the early eighties, I was excited. When a full-time position opened up, I was called in for an interview. At the time I was an auto mechanic at a local dealership. Jean and I talked about the possibility of a career change and I told her the following: If I don’t try, I will always wonder…. What if?

You know the rest of the story…..