Custer County Welcomes Our
New Undersheriff Susan Barnes

by Fred Hernandez

Off to a rapid start, the Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith appointed a new Undersheriff who was sworn in at the Courthouse on January 10th. Ms. Susan Barnes is eminently qualified for the position as will be seen from a very recent interview with the Sentinel.
The daughter of an Army veteran, she was born in Augsburg, Germany. Eventually they were moved to Yakima, Washington, where her father just recently finished out a 30-year career with the NSA. She attended a small Christian high school with a graduating class of only nineteen. Moving yet again, Susan attended college in
Cedarville, Ohio; a Baptist/Christian college where she
majored in Secondary Education, English and Performing Arts.
Her mother, a concert pianist who studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the inspiration for Susan’s deep love of music. She plays the piano, the flute and other musical instruments and is also a thespian who sings opera. At this point we might conclude she is not the normal police officer by any means. The inspiration, to be a law enforcement professional, came to her when, as a senior in college, she experienced an event wherein the lifesaving intervention of a state trooper generated a keen interest for her to dedicate her life work to helping others.
Aside from the musical talents, Susan’s life experiences, following a military spouse around the country for 20 years, are enough to fill two resumes. These include her work as the owner of a real estate company, a florist, a personal banker, a paralegal and an event organizer, to name just a few. As a law enforcement officer her experience and training run the gamut of the myriad of duties within a police station. She is POST ( Peace Officer Standards & Testing) certified not once, but twice, the latest being at the Pikes Peak Community College POST ACADEMY after which she signed on as law enforcement officer at Pikes Peak now known as Pikes Peak State College.
Before that she worked in Teller County and while going through her second certification she worked as an officer in the small town of Green Mountain Falls (between Manitou and Woodland Park). At that job she worked her way up to Acting Chief of Police.
The scope of her 14 years of police work spans the jobs of dispatcher, deputy, patrol officer, acting police chief, Sargent in Florence, Colorado, Police Department for two years and has done every conceivable task needed as a deputy or police officer. Susan is a good organizer and administrator and has countless hours of leadership training both in law enforcement and the civilian world. She can plan, lead, organize, streamline operations and maintain effective controls of assets and liabilities of a law enforcement department. In her new job Susan does not foresee making any huge changes. However, she is “big on community policing.” Keeping law enforcement in close touch with the needs of the public she serves. She looks forward to working with the department to more effectively use the time, money and resources they have to keep Custer County residents the safest and most informed they have ever been.
Susan is a very strong supporter of the U.S. Constitution as originally written, especially the 1st and 2nd Amendments.
She is excited to become an active  member in our community and went to work right away to purchase a home just outside of Silver Cliff. There is no doubt that Susan will be a most welcome addition to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office and a great asset to local law enforcement.
We wish Susan all the best in her new responsibilities as Undersheriff of Custer County.