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Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey speaks during a news conference about the arrest of a suspect in the homicide of Ryan Zimmerman in 2021. Zimmerman's partial skeletal remains were found in 2016.
CELINA - On the brink of ending a 44-year career in law enforcement, Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey said these final days in office are bittersweet.
He's certainly looking forward to retirement once his term ends on Jan. 5, excitedly pointing to the traveling he and his wife, Kay, plan to undertake and the time he'll be able to spend with his six grandchildren.
But Grey, 65, said he will undoubtedly miss the close bonds he's forged with his staff, county commissioners, and other government and law enforcement officials.
"Being sheriff, especially if you want to be in law enforcement, is the best job you can ever have, especially in a community like Mercer County, because people support us, even when we make a mistake," he said. "As long as we own our mistake, people support us."
During his 23 years as sheriff, Grey oversaw an agency which diligently and thoroughly investigated high-profile homicides and other felony cases, resulting in convictions, including that of Sarah Buzzard of Marion, Indiana.
Buzzard in January 2022 was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years on one count of aggravated murder for her role in the killing and dismembering of Ryan Zimmerman of Columbus. Grey's office never gave up on the case that was set in motion when skeletal remains were found by a woman walking her dog on Jan. 23, 2016, east of U.S. 127 at the mouth of Coldwater Creek. In January 2020, an analyst with Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's missing persons division saw intriguing similarities between a Columbus missing person report and the bones.
Authorities identified the deceased as Zimmerman and eventually developed suspects.
Though Grey admits he's had a good career, he's quick to give most of the credit to his staff.
"It's because of the people that work here, from the top to the bottom," he said. "I've had dispatchers deliver babies over the telephone, give people CPR instructions."
Soon after taking office in January 2001, Grey laid out his law enforcement philosophy in an email to staff, asking them to reflect on three questions before making a decision: Is it good for the people of the county? Is it good for the sheriff's office? How will it affect other employees?
Grey also took the opportunity to stress the importance of being caring and courteous and using common sense when dealing with the public, even if those qualities were not reciprocated to them.
"We are not in a war zone; the people we have contact with are the people who allow us to govern them; Mercer County is full of good people, good parents, good students, good citizens," Grey wrote.
That email has remained a touchstone document that has guided Grey and his office since, giving rise to a community-minded approach to law enforcement and a culture of high standards and accountability, according to Grey.
"I don't mean this against any other law enforcement agency, but I don't think you see anything in the Mercer County Sheriff's Office where it's 'us versus them,'" Grey said. "It's not us versus the public, it's not us versus another police department or anybody else. It's us providing the best service that we can provide to the people who hire us, which is our citizens."
The sheriff's office conducts in-depth background investigations into candidates applying for jobs, Grey said. In addition to law enforcement training and/or background, honesty and trustworthiness are essential qualities in all sheriff's office staff.
"I always tell people it's hard to get a job here, and when they do get here they should be proud just that they made it through the process," Grey said. "As they're working here we want them to be proud that they're working here."
Once they've made it into the force and proven themselves, Grey steps aside, to a degree.
"I've learned over the years that the best thing for me to do was to communicate to the entire staff, 'This is what I expect,' then give them the tools, the cars, the equipment, the drones, whatever it is they need to do the job, and then I need to stay out of the way and let them do it," Grey said.
Grey said his office developed a quality assurance program to gather public perceptions about personnel performance in an effort to improve protocols and procedures and give credit where credit is due.
"We actually randomly call people on deputies every month," Grey said. "We'll call somebody that got arrested for driving under the influence, call somebody that got a traffic ticket, call somebody that was in jail … and get feedback from the community on 'How did we do?'"
Body camera footage from deputies and corrections officers and 911 recordings of dispatchers are also randomly reviewed to evaluate conduct.
"Very, very, very few times do we get criticism from anybody," Grey said. "I just think that we've got top-notch people here in all facets of it."
Grey, a Republican, said it's been crucial to maintain working relationships with local government officials, regardless of their political affiliation.
"I've always had good commissioners of both parties," he said. "I mean, right now, they're all Republican, but when I got elected I had two Democrats and one Republican. Always had good commissioners, party didn't matter. They always worked well with me. I think they've taken good care of the sheriff's office."
Commissioner Jerry Laffin, the longest-standing county commissioner in Ohio, who is also retiring, proved to be an invaluable source of information on how government works, Grey said.
Looking back on times when he went before and disagreed with commissioners, Grey recalled how Laffin, a Republican, would take him to "the woodshed" - a nearby office - after meetings to explain the flaws in the then young sheriff's proposals.
For instance, Grey at one point wanted all the revenue from a proposed sales tax levy to go toward the construction of the jail, not foreseeing the need for longtime operational expenses. It was Laffin who pointed out the error of Grey's thinking.
"Jerry never slapped me around in front of the press, and he probably could have very easily because that guy knows more about county government than anybody I ever met," he said. "When I figured out he's not trying to pull rank on me, he's trying to help me … that was a huge help for me. Jerry's an ally of the sheriff's office - not that he always said yes, because there were times he said no."
Grey shows off the dispatch center at the newly completed Mercer County Detention Center in 2009.
From the courtroom to the police department, elected officials and agency heads generally work very well together in Mercer County, aside from the occasional squabble, Grey said.
"In so many counties, the sheriff and the commissioners fight. The sheriff having problems in the community, having problems with employees, and we don't have that here," Grey said. "We've got good people, good employees that work hard, that want to do the right thing and they try to do the right thing and we mess up once in awhile."
It's equally important to have good relationships with state lawmakers and statewide officeholders.
"A lot of times it's not what you know, it's who you know," Grey said, pointing to a time he made a call to an elected statewide officeholder who helped get the Bureau of Criminal Investigation to budge from its stance on the number of pieces of evidence it will process for a law enforcement agency.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Robert Cupp swears in Grey to head the Buckeye State Sheriffs Association in Columbus in 2011.
Grey said he has taken a press-friendly stance in order to enlist the public's assistance and to be transparent about the sheriff's office's needs.
"Sometimes we need help and we've got to get stuff out to the public so they know what we're looking for and they can help us," Grey said. "When you look at the sheriff's office and our budget, we're expensive. We cost everybody a lot of money, so they need to know what we're doing, and I need to listen to their feedback. If they don't like what we're doing, I need to change course."
The public, in turn, has been a great asset to the sheriff's office.
"People calling us has helped us solve crimes. Sometimes they'll tell us something that they may not think is important but it's that missing piece that we're looking for that points us in the right direction," he said. "People calling us, even if they're being critical of us, it makes us better."
Grey in January 2023 announced his decision to retire at the end of his sixth term in 2025.
Doug Timmerman, the county sheriff's office chief deputy, was promoted by voters at the Nov. 5 general election to the top elected local law enforcement office of sheriff. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary and faced no opponent in the general election.
"Since I made the decision, I guess, to retire, there has not been a day that I've got out of bed and wished I wouldn't have made that decision," Grey said. "I'm very at peace with my decision to retire, and I feel good, too, because I think Doug is capable of running it. I'm not worried about what's going to happen here. I feel like he's ready to go."
