TOOELE COUNTY, UT – Ryan Carver, a candidate for Tooele County Sheriff, today issued a call for a fundamental shift in the leadership of the county’s primary law enforcement agency. Citing a "crisis of truth and morale," Ryan Carver pledged to rebuild the Sheriff’s Office into a non-partisan institution where integrity is the only prerequisite for success.

“I do not care if you are a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, or a Libertarian,” said Ryan. “Being a person of values and national pride is what matters. No deputy, trooper, or agent should feel more fear and threats inside the agency building than they do outside of it. Currently, there is a toxic strangulation of enthusiasm and belief in what is right because of top-down intimidation.”

Ryan Carver’s platform centers on the direct link between internal agency health and community safety. The campaign argues that when morale is destroyed by toxic leadership, the quality of service to Tooele County residents inevitably suffers.

My Plan for Tooele County includes:

• Ending "Political Policing": Ensuring that hiring, promotions, and law enforcement priorities are based on merit and public safety, not political loyalty.
• Restoring Internal Integrity: Implementing zero-tolerance policies for coercion, abusive character assassinations, and retribution within the department.
• A "Success First" Culture: Prioritizing the tools, support, and mental health resources necessary for first responders to meet modern challenges safely.

“Leadership requires a vested interest in the organization's success, not the preservation of power through fear,” Ryan Carver continued. “We owe our law enforcement a commitment to genuine, non-toxic leadership so they can focus on what they do best: keeping every citizen in Tooele County safe.”

For more information on the campaign and the plan for a safer, more transparent Tooele County, please visit ryancarverforsherrif@gmail.com.

I have thought long and hard about what to put here. Do I write about myself in a politically correct manner, use AI, or a filter to speak to you about what has forged my beliefs and made my principals what they are. I have decided that I will not, and yes, this is really my belief, my thoughts on a good many things. I come from a family that prized business and a work ethic over family time or baseball games. My grandfather was known throughout the state for his tough work ethic, and his company was very well known in local trucking circles. I learned everything I know about honoring your word and the absolute priority of principles from him. When I decided to leave trucking and follow a very different path, I had two brothers already in the military, both in the United States Marine Corps. But for me, growing up watching the John Wayne movies, and other shows from the golden age of Hollywood, back before California became the dumpster fire it is today. I always rooted for the ships and the Sailors, and for the idea of being in the Navy. I joined the Navy in 1998, went to boot camp in the dead of winter, and learned there how to work with people who have little in common with me, varied life experiences, and very different backgrounds. During my boot camp, I served as the recruit chief petty officer. Responsibilities that have led me to understand the extreme importance of being on time and looking down the road for whatever comes your way. I had lived a life that was very different from what many people my age had lived, but in doing so, I think that, despite all the experiences that most kids had that I did not have, I came out the better for it. I served in the Navy's aviation branch during my first enlistment, working on carrier-based fighter attack aircraft. After experiencing all that, I got the chance to change things up a bit. I went ot sunny Southern California and served with a helicopter squadron. Here, I got my chance to serve on a cruiser and deployed to the war in Iraq. Here, I learned about service on a whole new level. I learned about what it actually meant to be an American. When you stand on the deck of a guided missile cruiser, just a few miles away, you watch air ops onboard a United States Aircraft Carrier, and all of a sudden, the ship you are on goes to general quarters, you are in a warzone, and then you learn an aircraft is down.  You do not know them, you may have never seen them, but you watch as nearly 200,000 tons of pure American muscle start running at flank speed and hurling every helicopter available into the air to find the downed plane and aviators. Well, that is the moment you learn the value of the team, the people who stand up, the ones who are counted. It is a moment I will never forget, and a lesson I have kept close. I finished my deployment, I headed home to my base, and changed jobs. I got my wish and was cross-rated to Master at Arms, then I went overseas to Europe. There, I really got a lesson in thinking outside the box. On day one of my new job as a military cop, I was assigned as a section lead for the Delta section of the Marathi NATO pier complex. I ran a security section on both the dryside and wetside of the piers. Soon it became nothing to one day protect an aircraft carrier or a ballistic-missile submarine, and the next day protect half a dozen allied navy ships. I learned the meaning of the term "Greek tragedy": everything in Greece is a shouting match; they are a people who are loud, fun, and always willing to have a drink. When I left there, I spent time at shore duty. Then I got my big chance, Afghanistan, and not just there as a Sailor doing some menial task, but protective services for combatant commanders. Great way to say bullet sponge. I deployed as part of the protective services team for the big boss himself, Army General Stanley A McChrystal, and that guy was impressive. I learned how to move a crack team of Navy and Army soldiers through the streets of Kabul and other cities. We would put on the music in two uparmored Chevy Suburbans and head out to see what happens. I remember playing IED Bingo; the rules were that you had your dobber, and you headed out. No card, no balls with numbers on them; just you, your dobber, and whatever happened. If you made it, then you lived another day; if not, well, BINGO. I learned how to get a General into a presidential palace, and I learned how to get my point across with people who did not see things my way. Maybe I didn't learn the best way to do that consistently, but it worked. Mostly, I learned about the lives of my Sailors and Soldiers. I learned that when you find people willing to raise their hands and be counted, well, you do everything you can to make damned sure they come back alive, or at the very least, the butcher's bill is hard won if they do not. Taking care of my people has always felt more important than almost anything in life. When I left Afghanistan, I had more medals; hell, when I started in the Navy, I was dreaming of a Navy achievement medal, and now I had a Bronze Star, and memories of life, death, and dedication to a cause that was bigger than all of us. I will admit that having that medal was important for about twenty minutes, but the lessons learned there would ultimately forge my belief in standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. I came home, went to work for the city where I grew up. Looking back, I wonder why I ever left the Navy, seeing what has become of my home, my state, my country, for that matter. I worked patrol when West Valley was a really fun place to work, the era of Crown Victoria rollers, and the streets were poping. I was a patrol officer, field training officer, later a detective, department instructor, hostage negotiator, and then November 6th happened. 2006 was a year that really changed things for me. January 17th Doug Barney was killed in the line. HIs family lived in West Valley, I knew him, when you come to work and learn a friend is dead, well it makes things different. You walk out to your roller and tell the trainee to get in the passenger seat. Today is not about training, but you get past it, you go to the funeral, a public spectical to be sure, but for the person still wearing the badge, it is a farewell moment nobody wants to have. On November 6th a kid I helped train at West Valley, a kid who used to buy subway gift cards and give them out to the homeless, and people down on their luck. I do not think I will ever forget two dates in my life; 9-11 and November 6th. Both happened when I was on duty, and both happened when it was my job to prevent it. In the end all I could do was stand guard over his body as he lay in the gutter, while the cogs of the investigation churned on. Then I set up his escort, we took him to the medical examiners office. Thank God for the Utah Highway Patrol, they stood the watch during his autopsy. I remeber being so absolutely in rage about how he lay there for so long. In the military, we never let that happen, you fought to recover them, you moved in until you pushed them back and you recovered your dead, you took them off the ground. I honestly thought that no first responder ever died on the ground. In the ambulance maybe, on the helicopter possibly, in the hospital probably, but never on the damned ground. To this day, I still cannot reconcile that day with what happend after his life was over. I have responded to Derek Johnson's death, David Romrell, but I have escorted them all from Jared Francom to Sgt. Billy Hooser. I have made sure that no matter where from Tremonton to Santaquin, I have escorted them all. In the Navy I was honor guard, in policing I was too. Unfortunately I was even able to repay the Highway Patrol for their watching Cody. I stood the autopsy watch for Trooper Eric Ellsworth. I remember Corey Wride, Joe Shinners, Nate Lyday, and this year I was there to make sure the arrival at the medical examiners office was perfect for when Ofc. Estrada and Sgt. Sorensen of Tremonton-Garland police department arrived. I have now become a sergeant at Taylorsville Police department, but the lessons of my life are still the core of who I am. Now I have undertaken the biggest efofrt of my life, I am trying to be a sheriff of a department where I live. I am no politician as this writing will show, but in reality I am not interested in being one. I can run for sheriff, win annd then go back to being a cop. This endeavor has not been easy, in fact I have had more doors slammed in my face than ever before in my life. I may even lose this election for saying the following. In my time and in my service I have known many leaders, many men and women who were good at leading, knew what it meant to build a team and to inspire the men and women that they commanded. I have worked for CHiefs and Deputy Chiefs that were both good and bad. But never in my life have I come accross someone who has such a different public face from the one his deputies see. I have spoken with many of the currently serving and I made it my mission to try to change the fourtunes of this department and the men and women who are trying to serve while dealing with the worst of leaders. Coercion as a comon practice, sgts who think they can threaten junior people with the sheriff seeing that they liked a post on the opponents page. Not one but two, where lieutenants just sit in their offices and look up porperty and farm equipment on department time. Leaders that just reply "I just work here" when frustration grows. I chief Deputy who thinks the line level and investigations people are there for his own personal emotional scratching post for whenever he feels froggy. A sheriff that smiles wide in public, who has many, many friends in big places for a county sheriff. One who treats the trappings of his office as his personal property, who establishes a good ole boy network that only punishes people who have the audasity to ask questions. Yes I am not a politician folks, and I am okay with losing this election if it means that I can say what needs to be said. In the Navy we have a saying "You know there is something wrong with the ship, when the rats are jumping off". Now before anyone goes sideways, I am not calling deputies rats, it is proof of the issues when you cannot keep people, some would have you believe that its cause they want more money, or the benefits are better in town. That is convienent, maybe even partially true. But it sure as hell is not the whole truth. It is funny, I was asked on one of my journeys to collect signatures to run. I was asked if I support the current president, I said I support many things that he has done, she said he is draining the swamp and people out here like that. I said yes ma'am, then she said I am for Wimmer. When I looked puzzled she asked why, I told her in this case, I am the grass roots movement and he is the swamp. Well I guess that is how it goes. I will leave you all with this, teams are forged by a group of people who survive the crucible of adversity, they are destroyed by the crucible of bad leadership. Oh and yes there is proof, but that is not the point I am trying to make. Instead of just saying four more years, how about you go ask a deputy that is not a lieutenant or a sergeant. Do not ask their name, do not ask their badge number. You might be surprised with what they say, I know I was. I am running for sheriff because I believe we owe to those who stand the watch, the best we have so that we meed the needs of those we owe everything too. I do not owe anything to the man who is in it for the power, and does not care about the kid at the bottom. Thats all I have, I hope this little chat has told you a little about me, I am no politician, I am not the politically correct guy. I am a product of my experience, and pretty damn proud of it too.

                                                    Ryan Carver

                                                    Candidate for Sheriff

Ryan Carver is uniquely positioned to lead the Tooele County Sheriff's Office into the future. Having recently served in patrol, he possesses a realistic and current understanding of community needs and the challenges faced by deputies on the ground – a perspective often missed by those long-removed from frontline service. As Sheriff, Ryan will prioritize improving department morale and capabilities by introducing vital units like K-9, enhancing training programs, and creating clear growth paths for deputies to advance their knowledge and experience.

Dedicated Law Enforcement Professional and U.S. Navy Veteran with over 21 years of experience bridging the gap between tactical operations and crisis communication. My career has been defined by a commitment to service—from maintaining rotary-wing aircraft and serving as a Master at Arms in the Navy to protecting the community as a Field Training Officer and CIT Instructor in the civilian sector.

I specialize in Crisis Intervention (CIT) and De-escalation, holding instructor-level certifications that allow me to train the next generation of officers in high-stakes problem-solving. With a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice Administration and advanced training in Force Science and Death Investigation, I am passionate about professionalizing policing through evidence-based training and technical excellence.

Core Expertise: Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) | De-escalation | Protective Services | Field Training (FTO) | Force Science | Military & Civilian Policing