Noticias

Dan Covault has been working in law enforcement in San Miguel County since 2000.

He started at the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office. He left to work at the Mountain Village Police Department for a number of years before returning to San Miguel County.

In 2025, the San Miguel Board of County Commissioners appointed Covault to the position of San Miguel County sheriff following former Sheriff Bill Masters’ retirement.

Covault is now running for San Miguel County sheriff as an independent. He spoke with KOTO’s Julia Caulfield.

Julia Caulfield (JC): Why are you running for sheriff?

Dan Covault (DC): I’ve been in law enforcement for just over 26 years. All of that has been in San Miguel County, with the exception of a little bit of work with the Olathe PD at the very beginning of my career. I have been with the sheriff’s office for about 21 years, and I did a five-year piece with the Mountain Village Police Department. So I have a pretty long history in the county. My first few years here, I lived in Montrose and commuted back and forth, but then I moved over here in early 2005. So I’ve got about 21 years as a resident of San Miguel County. Not just as a peacekeeper, but as a member of the community here as well.

That has given me the opportunity over the years to see what has worked and what hasn’t. Areas that I have felt we could possibly improve on or expand. I’ve been able to work with the demographics of Mountain Village and Telluride as well as that of Wrights Mesa and the Egnar area. It’s truly four different lifestyles, if you will. So being able to learn to relate to all those people, work with them, accommodate their needs, that’s all extremely important to the Office of Sheriff.

JC: You mentioned that all of these communities are different. They have different needs. With that in mind, What do you think policing in San Miguel County should look like?

DC: First and foremost, it needs to be impartial. It’s quite frankly, one of the reasons I’m an independent. Impartiality is extremely big for peacekeeping services, especially in these smaller areas. The concept of anonymous policing is something you will see in the metropolitan areas. You may deal with a person today and never see that person again in the rest of your life. Our world isn’t that way. In our small rural communities, Mountain Village and Telluride combined, they’re pretty small, pretty rural.

The victim of today’s crime might be tomorrow’s suspect. How you treat and interact with those people are going to be a deciding factor in how each of those endeavors turns out. If that person was a suspect before they were the victim, and they felt like they weren’t treated fairly or appropriately, then they’re not going to be a cooperative victim, and vice versa. If you treated someone well as a victim, and then they’re a suspect in something, then they’re far more likely to be amicable, assist possibly. You never know a person’s own thought process, but in my career, it has served me well to treat everyone differently as if I would treat my grandmother. That’s what I tell my deputies is, would you do that with your grandmother? If you wouldn’t, then you’re probably off base here a little bit.

JC: You mentioned you’re running as an independent in this race. Why did you make that choice?

DC: When I was in the academy, one of the things that was taught when we’re learning about the branches of government – the things most of us should have learned in high school, but they reiterate in the academy – when our Supreme Court justices are seated they’re supposed to give up party affiliation because they are supposed to be the ultimate in impartiality. It kind of dawned on me that peacekeeping and law enforcement is the very front line of the judicial system. Why should we have to wait until we reach the U.S. Supreme Court to have ultimate impartiality? In my mind, being an independent is the forefront of being impartial because I don’t fall into all of the party politics. I’m here for everyone, no matter what their political stance or views are. We are to be the impartial forefront to the judicial system.

JC: Why do you think you’re the right person for the job?

DC: I have a great working relationship with our county commissioners, county managers, our HR department. We are able to sit down and communicate, say, ‘here’s our problem. How do we best fix this problem? Where is the compromise? Because I really need this. So how do we come to a compromise to get what I really need, but still not overburden our budget or our taxpayers?’

It also comes down to the time I have spent with our employees here. We have many, many employees here with more than 10 or 15 years of experience. With our combined knowledge, we are able to implement those values, those philosophies down to our newer people that may just be coming into the job. That’s very difficult to do without that many people with that many years of experience. When you’re all on the same page, it makes it that much easier. That’s something that I already possess with the staff as it currently exists.

JC: When you think into the future of law enforcement in San Miguel County, what do you hope that that looks like under your tenure should you be elected?

DC: For me, what I’d like to see is stabilization. What I mean by that is with all of the current political turmoil in the United States, this is a very uncertain career. I would like to see our office be a part of the bigger things taking place at the state to help bring some of that calmness or some of that solidity to our ranks here. So people aren’t wondering every day if they’re going to have a job or if legislation is going to change to the point they don’t want this job. I would like to see our agency become a forefront for the smaller rural agencies to say, ‘look what San Miguel County is doing. Can we do that too?’

I think in the long term, I want to become the agency that other rural agencies can look at and emulate.

Dan Covault is an independent candidate for San Miguel County Sheriff.

Lane Masters has also announced his candidacy, running as a democrat. You can find an interview with Masters at koto.org.

The candidates will likely face each other in the general election on Nov. 3.