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Mincks leaving Washington County Sheriff post after 20 years in office

Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks, left, is presented with an award in October while his wife Debbie Mincks, left, watches. Mincks received the Distinguished Service Award of the Chapel of Four Chaplains. (Photo Provided)

MARIETTA — Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks will be leaving office after 20 years in the position.

Mincks did not run for Sheriff again in the 2024 general election.

The next sheriff, current Chief Deputy Mark Warden, will take office on Jan. 6, according to the Washington County Board of Elections website.

Mincks was elected Sheriff in 2004 and took office in 2005, and he will be leaving office just shy of 64 years in law enforcement and the military.

He joined the United States Air Force in February 1961 and worked in intelligence, according to Mincks. He served for four years and nine months and then entered the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy after he left the Air Force.

Mincks started working on a college degree while he was in the Air Force and graduated magna cum laude from Marietta College in 1974 with a B.A. in accounting, he said. He worked in the Ohio State Highway Patrol for nine years and 10 months and once he received his degree he started looking for a law enforcement job that involved accounting.

Mincks ended up working in forensic accounting in the U.S. Treasury Department Intelligence Division for four years, he said, then the division was merged with the Internal Revenue Service and he continued to work under them until he retired in 1999, and then he started working at the Sheriff’s Office that same year.

Mincks got into law enforcement because of his father, he said.

“My father was in the Highway Patrol reserve organization … at a young age I had troopers coming in and out of my household,” he said.

Mincks had conversations with the troopers and was excited to talk to them and decided to go into law enforcement, he said.

Before he became the sheriff, Mincks was a chief deputy at the Sheriff’s Office.

During his career he has worked on many things, according to Mincks. He worked on building up the Sheriff’s reserve from the .5% sales tax, which is “very important to the life’s blood of the Sheriff’s Office,” Mincks said.

He also helped the sheriff’s office become part of the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission through the creation of the Washington County Major Crimes Task Force; has worked to make sure there is always a deputy working the five zones into which the county is divided; put school resource officers in all but one of the county’s school districts; and his staff working at the new jail have received two perfect scores on inspections, which is hard to do, according to Mincks.

Mincks credits these successes to the help of his staff.

“I’ve had a tremendous staff that has worked for me and what we have done has been as a team … I’ve been very fortunate for the people who have worked for me,” he said. “They have been outstanding … they’re truly dedicated and committed individuals.”

As sheriff, Mincks has enjoyed the different challenges the job has presented at the pace of the job, he said.

“I would have to say that in all my years in law enforcement I have never hated to get up and go to work,” Mincks said. “It’s never boring.”

Mincks also has liked watching young officers turn into skilled professionals during his career, he said.

One person who has worked with Mincks the entire time he has been at the Sheriff’s Office is Warden, who will be his successor.

Warden was working as a detective at the Sheriff’s Office when Mincks started in 1999, and he has worked directly with him for the past 11 or 12 years, he said.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Warden said. “(Mincks is) a retired IRS agent.”

Mincks has taught him about budgets and things of that nature, Warden said.

“Look at what he’s done for the community,” Warden added.

One of the things Mincks has done for the community is he started the cold case unit at the Sheriff’s Office, which has solved five cold cases according to Warden.

“The asset to the community has been amazing,” Warden said of Mincks. “I’ve got some big shoes to fill.”

Mincks thinks Warden has a lot of fantastic ideas as the incoming Sheriff and that Warden is “certainly well qualified to be the sheriff,” he said.

Mincks plans to relax for a while when he leaves office and then he is planning to do some consulting work at his friend’s forensic accounting company, he said. He also plans to spend time with his grandchildren in Columbus and help his son with his property in Cleveland and watch some Marietta College basketball games.

He is also a fan of Marietta College baseball, Mincks said, and he is “going to follow them a little bit” when they go to North Carolina for spring training.

What Mincks will miss most is the people he worked with, he said.

“By and large it really is a huge family,” Mincks said. “I will miss the people, certainly … I have really enjoyed being the Sheriff of Washington County. It is very rewarding. I’ve never, ever hated going to work.”

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com

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