Sheriff Carl DuBois Reflects on 20 Years Service for Community

Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois in his office in Goshen, N.Y. on Nov. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Orange County’s longest-serving sheriff Carl DuBois said he made the office a better place than he found it.

First elected in 2002 as a change agent on the Republican ticket, DuBois turned a scandal-burdened office into a nationally accredited operation, securing the recognition of standard-setters in almost every facet of the profession.

He sailed to reelection four times, mostly facing zero challengers from either party.

Retiring at the end of the fifth term, DuBois told The Epoch Times in an exit interview that he was most proud of the accreditations his office has earned and most regretted about his late dabbling in election politics.

A retired Middletown police lieutenant and former Mount Hope town justice, DuBois launched his sheriff bid 20 years ago by challenging embattled Republican incumbent Frank Bigger.

Carl DuBois (L) dressed up for an undercover narcotics buy as a young police officer in an old photo that was hung on his office wall. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

At the time, Bigger was running for a third term amid a myriad of mismanagement scandals, including scam charity run by reserve deputies, double-dipping by deputies working part-time at local police departments, and fraudulent fundraising at a foundation where he served as a director.

DuBois ran as a reform candidate, beating Bigger in the Republican primary by a 2-1 margin.

After winning the general election, DuBois brought in longtime state police investigator Kenneth Jones and state prison deputy superintendent Dominick Orsino to overhaul the office.

“The state police—that is our model. They are a very organized, disciplined agency. That’s what we want to emulate,” he said.

The team used accreditations as a blueprint, overhauled policies and procedures, and trained deputies accordingly.

Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois holds a newspaper frame that displays news articles about the change he made as a new sheriff in the early 2000s in his office in Goshen, N.Y., on Nov. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

In two years, the office secured accreditation from the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services. Soon, the New York State Sheriff Association also accredited the office.

After that, the office obtained three national-level accreditations—also called a triple crown—from the American Correctional Association, the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare, and the Commission on Accreditation from Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA.)

It was the first sheriff’s office in New York to receive the triple crown.

Only 71 sheriff’s offices nationwide share the crown, according to National Sheriff’s Association.

A certificate of CALEA accreditation in the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Goshen, N.Y., on Nov. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

“It is not just a one-time but a reoccurring thing,” DuBois said. “Every year, we trained people on accreditation standards on both sides of the house—law enforcement and corrections.”

“There are two constants in law enforcement: the change and the training to keep up with that change,” he added.

Participation in accreditations is voluntary.

The accreditations are not only a demonstration of the professionalism of the office but also a practical tool to deter litigations against deputies and decrease insurance rates, DuBois said.

Compared to local police departments, the sheriff’s office has more funding and personnel, so it is in a more advantageous position to develop specialized law enforcement functions for the benefit of the entire county, DuBois said.

Orange County Sheriff's Office in Goshen, N.Y., on Nov. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

One such example is the special operation group for hostage and active shooter situations.

“Many times, when you have a situation that unfolds in a couple of minutes, you can’t wait a couple of hours for the state police,” he said. “They had a great team, but we felt we needed something local.”

He tasked Anthony Weed to build on the unit through enhanced training and more advanced equipment.

“Our people were well-trained enough to [be qualified to] work with the FBI hostage rescue team—the premier agency when it comes to special operations,” he said.

The office also worked with the district attorney’s office to establish the county drug task force in 2015.

Sheriff deputies supply the bulk of task force members, whereas most local police departments, save for five, balk at the unreimbursed manpower commitment.

In the past seven years, the task force resulted in around 500 arrests and convictions, according to a previous interview with District Attorney David Hoovler.

Competitiveness

It has also evolved from being a quick response to street-level dealings to focusing on long-term, large-scale drug trafficking.

DuBois said his office also improved the canine unit, worked on the FBI violent gang task force and U.S. Marshal fugitive task force, and supplied school safety deputies to districts across the county.

Gaining accreditations and building law enforcement functions make it easier for the office to hire and retain people, DuBois said.

“In a lot of people’s minds, the sheriff’s office was not a premier law enforcement agency. We were just correction officers and deputies transporting prisoners. There weren’t any nuts and bolts to the agency,” he said.

“We raise the standard, and we raise the pay,” he said. “We are competitive with other agencies, so people want to stay here, and people are leaving police departments and coming here.”

Orange County Jail in Goshen, N.Y., on Nov. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Currently, the Orange County Jail suffers short staffing, but DuBois attributed it to the national trend.

It is almost the only jail in the greater New York City metropolitan region that still holds inmates for U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE.)

DuBois said the ICE contracts brought in millions of dollars of revenue for the county. They also made it easier for inmates—who might end up in southern states had his office refused to house them—to see family members traveling up from New York City.

He added that being an accredited jail facility, it offers high standard living conditions for inmates.

Regret Over Support

After announcing his retirement in the spring of 2021, DuBois threw his full weight behind undersheriff Kenneth Jones, who was competing with colleague Paul Arteta in the Republican primary.

Arteta, a captain, left the sheriff’s office later that year following an alleged coverup of a use-of-force incident.

He won the primary by an almost two-to-one margin.

In the leading up to the general election, DuBois told Mid-Hudson news that he was supportive of the Democratic candidate Bernie Rivers, mainly because he believed that Arteta had compromised his credibility during an internal investigation of the above incident.

Boxes of personal belongings of Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois in his office in Goshen, N.Y., on Nov. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Following the incident, Arteta was placed on a list of law enforcement officers with credibility issues in use by the county district attorney’s office, according to a document obtained by The Epoch Times on Oct. 12 through a FOIL request.

In a previous interview with The Epoch Times, Arteta said he did not cover up the incident.

On Nov. 8, Arteta won the general election by a 20-point margin. He will resume the office in January.

DuBois told The Epoch Times that had he done it over, he would stay away from supporting candidates.

“Sometimes sheriffs can be too political. Maybe I’m guilty of it a little bit,” he said.

“I think the sheriff’s office should be apolitical, like judges,” he said. “Judges run for office, but after they are elected, they are apolitical.”

After retirement, he plans to split his time between Maine and South Carolina and perhaps pick up a seasonal job, he said.