Sheriff Bill Masters on Peace Keeping and the Drug War

Sheriff Bill Masters discusses peace keeping and how that relates to the war on drugs. Masters, of Telluride, San Miguel County, is the longest serving sheriff in Colorado history, having taken over the position in 1980. Masters also is the author of the 2001 book, Drug War Addiction: Notes from the Front Lines of America's #1 Policy Disaster (which I helped to edit). This interview was recorded on May 23, 2022, as the Self in Society Podcast #27.

Time Markers

00 Intro

1:40 On being sheriff for 42 years

2:50 Peace keeping vs. law enforcement

4:11 What troubles Telluride: crime, rescues, wildfires

8:27 Peace keeping through the pandemic1

0:07 Helping people with mental illness and addictions

12:34 Today’s political parties17:48 Being pro-immigrant

20:13 The war on drugs

27:33 The problem of addiction

31:09 When drug distribution is rights-violating

33:13 Civil liberties and the drug war

40:00 On speaking out

40:56 Legal marijuana in Colorado

44:06 The promise and problems of body cameras

50:54 Peace officers are held liable, judges and legislators aren’t; cigarette example

55:11 Laws imply a potential deadly use of force

57:20 Telluride’s Covid tourism ban

58:34 A sheriff's discretion

59:00 An honorable profession; “We need to have fewer laws, not more laws.”

1:00:13 The downside of mandated auto insurance

1:02:14 The problem of hiring good peace officers

1:07:06 What gets rewarded?

1:10:14 Oriented to resolving conflicts

1:12:36 A need for thorough training

1:15:09 Don Coram and the Vietnam veteran

1:17:59 Bill's trip on the Nile

1:22:03 The charm of Telluride

1:23:58 What’s new at the sheriff's office

1:27:55 Wrap-up

I mentioned Dwight Radcliff, who holds the record as longest-serving sheriff in U.S. history. (I think Masters is the longest-serving sheriff currently serving in the U.S.)

Masters’s office posts its shared principles.

As I mentioned, a Telluride man was charged with the January 6 Capitol invasion.

CPR ran an article about Masters (which I cite) some years ago.

Eric Garner is the name of the person killed in New York over selling cigarettes.

Colorado passed relatively good asset forfeiture reforms some years ago, but I think they need revisiting, and other states have worse rules about that.

Update: Complete Colorado ran my article summarizing aspects of my discussion with Masters.