Hampton Is February Responder Of The Month

By Shawn Yorks

news1@ulyssesnews.com

Grant County Undersheriff Craig Hampton is the February Responder of the Month and is in the running for Responder of the Year. Hampton has been in law enforcement since 2008 and is currently the Grant County Undersheriff. The Grant County native began his law enforcement career at the Grant County Jail, then moved over to Animal Control and eventually a patrol officer, moving through the ranks from canine handler to corporal for the Ulysses Police Department, then Sergeant for the sheriff’s department and is now undersheriff. Hampton was appointed undersheriff four years ago by current Grant County Sheriff James Biddle.

In the absence of the Sheriff, the Undersheriff assumes full responsibility for this Office. Undersheriff Hampton assists in supervision for all divisions of the Sheriff’s Office.

“Basically, I’m second in command and by our state constitution, if something happens to the sheriff, then I would be acting sheriff,” Hampton said. “That way, the community always has an acting sheriff.”

Hampton is responsible for field training new officers and is also a taser instructor and a radar instructor. Hampton works with the Southwest Kansas Critical Response Team, which is a regional SWAT team made up of officers from across the southwest corner of Kansas.

“We work with Haskell, Stanton, Seward and Meade,” Hampton said. “We work a lot with Garden City SWAT.”

Among the most recent highlights of his career has been the joint cooperation between agencies, especially Haskell, Stanton and Seward counties, to stop some of the bigger player in the crime world.

“Some of the interagency cooperation has been really fun, we’ve really been helping each other out,” Hampton said. “It’s not uncommon for them to come help us over here and then we go over and help them. They and our sheriff are working really well together and allow those of us who are out here doing a lot of the investigative work to travel back and forth to help each other. A lot of us small town agencies just don’t have the manpower. When you need to search five acres of land, we can kind of work together really well. It’s been a very even push and shove, back and forth as far as getting manpower in different locations.”

His favorite part of his career was when he was a K-9 handler.

“I love dogs,” he said. “I enjoyed being with my dog – I joked I was with my dog more than I was with my family because when I was at work, my dog was with me, when I was at home, my dog was with me. The kids, they loved having the dog at home.”

He said between the sheriff’s department at Ulysses Police Department, there are some good officers in the community.

“I like to see law enforcement be a good aspect for their community,” Hampton said. “That’s always been my drive for my career field.”

Hampton loves interacting with the community. He’s cubmaster for his son’s Cub Scout Troop, and serves on the Junior Leadership Board.

“I like to be in the community, I like to be helping with the kids, I like to be helping bring up the next generation of leadership,” Hampton added.

He’s also a bridge between law enforcement and the community.

“It’s not uncommon to see me at a scout meeting in full (uniform) because I’m either coming on or coming off a shift,” he added.

Hampton was nominated by Kim Hampton and was the January 23 responder of the week. Each Responder of the Week is in the running for Responder of the Month every month, and each Responder of the Month is then eligible for Responder of the Year. The Ulysses News utilizes a program in which the names of those nominated are put into and the winner is then selected electronically.