Sheriff aims for re-election

Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell is seeking a second term.

The former Rock Springs police chief announced his candidacy in an email Friday afternoon.

Lowell, a Democrat, was elected in 2014 after defeating then-Sheriff Rich Haskell.

Lowell credited the sheriff’s office employees’ hard work and dedication as a team in helping him reorganize the office based on merit, as well as increasing patrols and services within the county. In 2017, the sheriff’s office logged more than 23,000 public service hours, a 20 percent increase from the previous year.

Among’s Lowell’s earliest goals was the creation of SNAAG (Sheriff’s Narcotics and Arrest Group), a team which as been involved in more than 400 arrests and fugitive apprehensions, some of which took place outside of Sweetwater County and as far away as Alaska, Kentucky and Florida.

The office has stepped up drug enforcement, building the office’s K-9 teams and providing them extensive training for patrol work. Since Oct. 2017, the sheriff’s office has seized more than half a ton of marijuana and other illicit drugs with a street value of more than $5 million.

Under Lowell, the sheriff’s office also conducted the first Sweetwater County Detention Center audit and has upgraded the sex offender registry system and increased the number of face-to-face contact sex offender compliance checks conducted by the office.

Lowell has worked to improve security within both the county’s circuit and district courts; has taken a lead in serving domestic violence, stalking and civil orders and has upgraded training for personnel within the office.

Lowell is a member of the National Sheriffs Association, the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the NRA, the American Legion, USMC Heritage Foundation, a founding member of the National Museum of the Marine Corps and the Governor’s Task Force on School Safety and Security.

Lowell was the chief of police in Rock Springs for 12 years prior to his election. He spent 32 years with the law enforcement agency.

He has a bachelor of arts degree in history and an associate of arts degree in liberal arts, with an emphasis in criminal justice. He also served in the United State Marine Corps, both on active duty and as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve. He and his wife, Virginia, have six children and 14 grandchildren, with No. 15 on the way.

“To judge our level of success and over the past three years, just check the record,” Lowell said in his campaign release. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your sheriff and I would welcome the opportunity to continue leading the committed professionals of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office in their most important duty: protecting what you value most.”