Meet the deputies

Three new deputies have been added to the Adair County Sheriff’s Office in the last few months which brings the force back to five deputies entering 2020.

The sheriff’s office faced a difficult year in 2019 in terms of manpower.

In March, Will Wedemeyer resigned from the department for another position. James Paup did the same in October. Also, Ron Hrubetz retired in July from his position as chief deputy.

Tyler DeFrancisco, Michael Stofer and Joshua Armstrong are the three men who have answered the call to fill the three vacant positions the department had.

Stofer and DeFrancisco have something in common in that they each come to Adair County with prior law enforcement experience. Armstrong graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in December, and other than that, comes to the department with no law enforcement experience.

Stofer started with Story City Police in January 2017 after he served stints with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office as both a deputy and a jailer. He also was a part-time firefighter with the West Des Moines Fire Department. He comes to Adair County eager to serve a larger population.

“I wanted an opportunity to get back into a county agency. This opening came up and it didn’t take long to know that this is the one I wanted to apply for,” Stofer explained. “With the county [scope], there’s more area to cover, more towns to cover. Adair County is 569 square miles and Story City is just under three. There’s a lot more to do, you work with a lot more agencies like I did up there. I enjoy getting to do everything from traffic to investigations and warrant service. Having more to do or a bigger sandbox to play in is what I was looking to do.”

DeFranciso served on the Stuart Police Department for a little more than a year and also comes to the sheriff’s department wanting to serve a wider population.

“I went through the academy last spring in Waterloo,” he said. “I’ve only been here a few weeks so I haven’t gotten into a whole lot, but I’m just want to help people and cover the whole county.”

Armstrong graduated from the academy Dec. 13 following a four-year stretch in which he served in the United State Marine Corps.

While he was in the academy, Armstrong worked closely with Paup here in Adair County on his off time in order to gain valuable experiences on the job.

“I learned a lot, it was a long 16 weeks. I’m glad to be back and am ready to start working,” Armstrong exclaimed of the academy. “My dad’s been in law enforcement since I [was young]. I just always knew I wanted to go that route. I’ve gotten a family started, so I waited after the Marine Corps to get settled down. I finally found an opportunity close to home.”

Stofer explained that his recent stops in his career has shown him what it’s like for a department to be short staffed like the Adair County Sheriff’s Office has been many times in 2019, and he knows it is good for the safety of residents of the county for the sheriff’s department to be at a greater strength again.

Michael Algreen is chief deputy currently under Sheriff Jeff Vandewater. Willie Tipling is the other deputy in the department.

“At a previous agency I was with we had been shorthanded a couple of different times,” Stofer said. “It’s good to be with these guys and be down here.”