Patricia Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman that a retired Dutchess County sheriff’s deputy and the office’s first openly transgender employee announced February 14, that she is a candidate for Dutchess County sheriff in November. T. Jillian Hanlon, 57, of Millbrook, said she will seek the Democratic and Working Families party lines. The office is currently held by Republican Kirk Imperati, who became acting sheriff in 2021, following the death of veteran Sheriff Butch Anderson. Imperati is running on the Republican and Conservative lines. “It’s really important that the people in Dutchess County choose a sheriff who is competent and compassionate,” Hanlon said. “I’m more than just about policing. I’m about justice in policing. I’m about justice in corrections and I’m about justice in our communities,” she said. A 24-year veteran of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Department, Hanlon served as a corrections officer from 1997 to 1999 and sheriff’s deputy from 1999 until her retirement in 2021. During her time as a deputy, Hanlon held a variety of positions, including road patrol deputy, school resource officer, analyst, trainer, and public information officer. If elected, Hanlon said she would bring a new vision to the office’s corrections division and to make sure the county’s new Justice and Transition Center is successful. Hanlon said blame for the decades of jail overcrowding and chronic understaffing sits squarely on the shoulders of the county’s Republican leaders. She warned that without a significant cultural change within the Sheriff’s Department, the “new facility will fail.” Hanlon holds an associate’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and communication. If elected, she said she will be the first openly transgender sheriff in the country. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.