Clallam County law enforcement and firefighters followed Ron Cameron home in a procession in his honor on his last day as undersheriff on Dec. 15.
Cameron, who had served with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office for 38 years, passed through a friendly gauntlet of fellow employees as he left his office, where he most recently served as undersheriff, emergency management department manager and emergency operations center project manager.
“Undersheriff Cameron has left Clallam County and the Olympic Peninsula better than he found it and his legacy lives both inside and outside the agencies on the Olympic Peninsula and inside our staff every day,” Sheriff Brian King said.
“He was the friendly, capable and professional face of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office,” King added.
Cameron, 65, was honored soon after he made his last radio call, which indicated his final end of watch, as well as filing his last Friday report on the weather — a popular feature on the Clallam County Sheriff’s Facebook Page.
He was escorted home by personnel from just about every law enforcement agency operating in Clallam County, King said, listing Washington State Patrol; Clallam County Sheriff; Port Angeles, Sequim and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal police departments; US Customs and Border Protection; Border Patrol; Clallam County Search and Rescue; Clallam County Emergency Management; and firefighters with Port Angeles and fire district 2 and 3.
The procession went through the center of Port Angeles at about 4 p.m., tying up traffic briefly.
Cameron started his career in 1979 as a Makah police officer.
“I spent five years there and built my career, family and life from what I gained serving the Makah People through their kindness,” Cameron wrote in his farewell on the sheriff’s office Facebook Page.
“What I left Neah Bay with was a gift that would guide me throughout my life … a gift I will never be able to repay.”
He joined the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office in 1985, working as a deputy primarily on the West End.
“Again, I learned what it is to be a community-oriented law enforcement officer by working with neighborhoods and those that live in Forks, Clallam Bay, La Push and all those special areas of the west end,” Cameron said in his statement.
“I truly believe that the 10 or 11 years I spent out west were the best of my entire career because of the people I became engaged with and those I worked with.”
In 1990, he was promoted to detective and he and his family moved into Port Angeles.
King said that Cameron has held nearly all operations positions in the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, including detective, sergeant, captain, chief criminal deputy and director of Emergency Management.
He worked many years as a drug task force detective, eventually serving as commander of the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team (OPNET).
He became undersheriff in 2015.
Cameron served under five sheriffs: Steve Kernes, Joe Hawe, Joe Martin, Bill Benedict and King.
As undersheriff, he provided direct supervision of the chief criminal deputy, chief corrections deputy, chief civil deputy, and emergency management and indirectly managed more than 100 employees and volunteers.
He was instrumental in the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office obtaining the distinction of dual accreditation with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (W.A.S.P.C.) in Operations and Corrections, King said.
“I have had the rare opportunity to spend my entire career working in the community I love, the one where I was born and raised,” Cameron wrote.
”Thank you everyone for your confidence and support over all these years,” he continued,ending with: “The weather? Oh yeah. It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest. It’ll be wet and cold, so… Stay safe.”
