Take this job and... No cowboy hats prompts veteran sheriff deputy to retire

Gene Bryson, a Sublette County sheriff deputy, is retiring after 28 years with the
department because a new policy prohibits deputies from wearing cowboy
boots and cowboy hats while on duty.

No  More "Friendly" Looking Cops

The militarization of the police goes on and on.

(Casper Star Tribune)  -  There’s a new sheriff in an Old Western town, and his first order of business is to ban deputies from wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots.

Stephen Haskell has been sheriff of Sublette County since Jan. 5. The county covers eight communities, including Pinedale, which True West magazine recently named one of its 2015 top 10 true Western towns.

The same month the list was published, Haskell decided the Western look no longer belonged on his officers.

So he decided on new uniforms: black trousers, a tan shirt, black boots and a black ball cap. And you won’t see Gene Bryson wearing any of it.

Bryson, 70, was the deputy who wore the brown cowboy hat, brown cowboy boots, summertime leather vest or wintertime wool vest.

He retired on Friday after 28 years with the Sublette County Sherriff’s Department, 40 years total in law enforcement, the only guy on the force still wearing a cowboy hat.

“That’s kind of the reason why I retired,” Bryson said. “I am not going to change. I’ve been here for 40-odd years in the Sheriff’s Office, and I’m not going to go out and buy combat boots and throw my vest and hat away and say, 'This is the new me.'

“That’s not going to work.”

Bryson was born and raised on a ranch in Montana, then moved to work on a ranch in Colorado and Wyoming.

He went into law enforcement in 1974. He was sheriff of Niobrara County from 1979 to 1984 and has also been an undersheriff, a captain, a sergeant, an investigator and more.

“And I’ve had a cowboy hat on since 19-I-don’t-know,” Bryson said. “I’ve always worn a cowboy hat, all my life.”

Bryson’s Old West look was popular in town, enough so that tourists and locals would constantly ask for pictures.

“That’s what looks good to me in the Sheriff’s Department,” Bryson said. “It’s Western. It’s Wyoming.”

To Protect and Serve Who?
NYPD on the subway.

Somehow They Kept The Peace

Without looking like Stormtroopers western law officers somehow mananged to keep the peace.  Original photograph of the 'Dodge City Peace Commission' in June 1883. Front, l-r; Chas. E. Basset, Wyatt Earp, Frank McLain, and Neil Brown.
..

Back, l-r; W. H. Harris, Luke Short, W. B. Bat Masterson, and W. F. Petillon. This is the version with Petillon beside Masterson.