Profile: Tom Boyer Write-in Candidate for Sheriff

To say Tom Boyer is not the typical candidate for sheriff is a bit of an understatement. Boyer has only a few years of law enforcement experience and unlike many, his reasons for running are not to cap off his career, or change a flawed policy. Instead, Boyer was thrust into the position of sheriff candidate by circumstances far outside his control.

So who exactly is Deputy Tom Boyer? Boyer, 49, is originally from Missoula, and he says that as a young man he had intended to pursue law enforcement, inspired by a law enforcement officer with the Missoula Police Department, but that his father encouraged him to seek other paths. "Basically my dad said, 'No way,' and instead I went to nursing school," explained Boyer.

Boyer completed a degree at Missoula College and went on to become a licensed practical nurse. He would eventually come to work at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula on the surgical orthopedics ward before taking on a job as a clinician for a medical supply company, working his way up to general manager.

Following a series of random jobs working as a salesman and doing background investigations, and back to medical supply, Boyer moved out east to Glasgow to work for an underground utility locating company in the Baaken Oil Fields.

Boyer says he then moved back to Missoula to be closer to his daughters, but would return to Glasgow to be with his now wife, Annette (Fassett) Boyer. That move led to his pursuit of his adolescent dream to become a law enforcement officer, and he submitted an application for a sheriff deputy slot. That application would actually land him a job working in the county detention center before getting the opportunity to apply for a deputy spot a number of months later. In January 2017, he was hired as a deputy and attended the Montana Law Enforcement Academy shortly thereafter.

Boyer says that what he lacks in law enforcement experience he makes up for in life experience. He touted his past business and medical acumen as benefits for the role of sheriff and took on the idea of having little experience, citing recent examples such as former Sheriff Dan Taylor. Boyer stated, "Dan Taylor said to me, 'maybe the inexperience is a good thing right now.'"

Boyer's motivation for seeking the top law enforcement seat was circumstantial but he still plans to take on the job and he sees room for improvement from his view and that of the other deputies.

"To build a strong house you need a strong foundation, and over the last few months we've had a crumbling of that foundation," explained Boyer before going on to describe his desire to get the department back to basics, and, "Be the sheriff's office Valley County needs and deserves." A primary concern for Boyer is training, recruitment and retention of deputies, an ongoing struggle for the county in the middle of nowhere.

Boyer delicately took on his opponent in the race speaking about Joe Horn saying, "I don't know Joe Horn, I've never met him, and I don't have anything bad to say about him. A concern I have is someone who has been out of law enforcement for three years, who knows nothing about our department, who does not know what it will take to lead our department right now and the rumors indicate he wants to take us back to the '70s is not the guy we need for Sheriff. We need someone who is firmly in the 21st Century."