Adams County New Undersheriff
Adams County has a new Undersheriff! We are excited to welcome Ken Boell to the Sheriff’s Office and to the community. Ken Boell recently moved to Council from Molalla, Oregon, where he served in the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office for over 27 years. In Oregon, he started out as a reserve in the city of Canby, but he didn’t stay in reserve long, and was quickly hired as a patrol deputy for Clackamas County. He had a wide variety of experiences there, and eventually he became Lieutenant, in charge of a shift, and for a while was also the chief detective for the agency and in charge of internal investigations. He retired in December of 2020. Since retirement, Boell has been working as a private investigator, which he says isn’t nearly as fun as the stories make it out to be. “It had nothing to do with, like, Magnum P.I.. It was all insurance company follow up basically,” he said. What was supposed to be a part time gig ended up taking more attention then he expected, and since he has already had some time to play around in retirement, Boell was excited to be working in a more active capacity again. “I wasn’t really ready to retire when I did,” he said.
Ken Boell and his wife have two children, one of whom lives in Payette. Fueled by a desire to both get out of Oregon and to be closer to their son and grandchild, they set their sights on Council as a community that was aligned with their values and had the sort of terrain they were looking for. He likes outdoor activities and was drawn to the mountains and trees in Adams County. They had been searching for a home in the area for several years but only recently found the one they were looking for. Boell knew that he would likely get involved in the Sheriff’s Office in their new community, however, he had originally thought it would be in a volunteer position, perhaps helping with search and rescue, which is something he frequently did in Clackamas County. However, when he saw the job for Undersheriff being advertised, he knew he had to apply, and within a few days of moving into the new home, he had already started in the new position. “It’s all happened very fast,” said Boell.
Boell is excited to be back to work. He brings a wealth of experience to Adams County, and comes from an area that was dispatching a thousand calls a day, where they would see a wide variety of situations with much more frequency then in a small County like Adams. He said what might be a once in a lifetime call for a smaller agency he may have seen on a monthly basis or several times a year. Boell also investigated multiple officer-involved shootings as a detective sergeant. His varied experience will be highly valuable to the county.
Boell is looking forward to becoming a part of the new community. Besides his work in law enforcement, he enjoys off-roading and helping with search and rescue. At one time he had built up his Jeep Cherokee to go anywhere and also taught classes for search and rescue conferences in Oregon. He also used to enjoy instructing people how to use their winches and recovery gear to avoid getting stuck in the first place. Currently he has a UTV, but is looking forward to building another Jeep. Over the next year, he will be busy learning the differences between Idaho and Oregon law, so he can challenge the Idaho police officer standards and training curriculum so he can move his certifications over. So far, he has really enjoyed being in Idaho. “Everyone I meet, everyone’s just nice down to earth people,” said Boell, “it’s just a nice community.” One that he is looking forward to becoming a part of. When asked what he would like residents to know about himself, he answered “Even though I’m from Oregon, I’m not one of them.”
Welcome, Ken Boell, to Adams County!
