Castle Rock – Douglas County Sheriff Michael Acree will step down with more than a year left in his elected term to take a job with the state.
The Douglas County Commission will name his replacement – most likely undersheriff David Weaver – to hold the post until the regular election next year.
Acree has accepted a job as deputy executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, which includes the Colorado State Patrol, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Division of Criminal Justice and the state Office of Preparedness, Security and Fire Safety.
The department has a staff of 1,400.
“I am honored to have been considered and selected for this position,” Acree said in a statement Friday afternoon.
Acree, a Republican, was elected sheriff with Democratic opposition in 2003. Weaver, a Sheriff’s Department employee since 1981, joined him as undersheriff.
Acree has worked for the Sheriff’s Department for 23 years. Though he has accepted the offer from the state agency, he has not chosen a date to leave his job in Douglas County, said spokesman Lt. Alan Stanton.
Besides his work in local law enforcement, Acree serves on the state Peace Officer Standards and Training board and the state Auto Theft Prevention Authority. Acree also is chairman of the five-member state Lottery Commission.
“Mike Acree brings to CDPS a long history of experience and dedication to public safety issues that affect citizens throughout the state,” said Joe Morales, the former Summit County sheriff who was appointed executive director of the agency in 2003.
Acree began his law enforcement career in the Army in 1972 after graduating from Douglas County High School earlier that year. He has a degree in criminal justice from Metropolitan State College of Denver and he is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
