Local News

Brady reflects on decades of service

ELKINS -- For the first time in 44 years, the last name Brady will be missing from the Randolph County Sheriff's Office when the calendar year turns over.

On Dec. 31, Mark Brady will wrap up his second term of sheriff and in the process end a run that has been a part of his family since the late 1970s.

Mark and his brother Paul "Slugger" Brady Jr. both worked within the department for decades. Both got their start as deputies as young men, and both eventually worked their way up to the highest rank of sheriff.

"January will mark the first time since 1976 that a member of the Brady family will not be working with the sheriff's office," said Mark Brady. "My brother started in 1974 as a police officer with the town of Mill Creek and went to the sheriff's office two years later.

"Together between the two of us there has been four decades of continuous service. That's 40-something years that every year, everyday there has been a member of the sheriff's office with a Brady patrolling the communities in Randolph County. When you total the amount of law enforcement between the two of us, we have a total of 58 years of service."

Mark Brady began his law enforcement career in 1986 when he was hired as a deputy by then-sheriff John Arbogast. After serving a stint there, he accepted a post with the Mill Creek Police Department and was named Police Chief.

"I had a couple councilmen that helped guide my career back then in Bob Defibaugh and Bill Currence. They were always very supportive of law enforcement back then," he said. "Back then even at that time drugs were a big issue in the county. It's always been a focus but we never really had the manpower or funding to fight it the way we needed to."

As Mill Creek police chief, despite not having all the necessary resources at his disposal, Mark Brady was involved in helping take down a major drug trafficking ring that stretched through several local counties and reached all the way to the Midwest. The case, which involved cocaine, was eventually handed over to federal authorities.

After his stint in Mill Creek, Mark Brady accepted a job at the Randolph County Prosecuting Attorney's office with Earl Maxwell. He was hired as the office's first-ever criminal investigator.

"I learned a lot as an investigator with the prosecutor's office," he said. "I learned how a case is put together and what is really necessary to proceed through the court system. The time there really helped my career in all aspects of being a law enforcement officer."

Mark Brady then joined forces with his brother, who was now the sheriff, at the Randolph County Sheriff's Office as a deputy sheriff in 1999. He has been with the department ever since.

"Working as a deputy sheriff and taking all the knowledge I learned from four different sheriffs made me a better sheriff," said Brady. "I learned a lot from each one, John Arobogast, 'Slugger' Brady, Willard Herron and Jack Roy all taught me something valuable. I was able to identify each of their strengths and each of their weaknesses and take something from it. I learned a different aspect of law enforcement and how to manage the sheriff's office from each one of them and I took it with me when I was elected (sheriff) back in 2013."

Mark Brady said the biggest advances he's seen over the years has been equipment updates and the way officers are trained

"When I first started in law enforcement we had no portable radios and communication was very sporadic throughout the county," he said. "We actually had to use the paid telephone systems to call back into the com center. The technology has really come a long way over the years and the officers are prepared much more because of their extensive training."

Even though things differ now when it comes to equipment and communication, Brady said the values of the past are still critical to law enforcement.

"It was such a different time of how you did law enforcement, but some of what we did back then still holds true today," he said. "Just being a good community police officer is very important. You went out and worked in the communities, you spoke to business folks, you talked to the farmers on the streets. You listened to people who were involved in your community."

Brady said that being promoted to the chief deputy sheriff position by the last sheriff he served under, Jack Roy, was instrumental in giving him the confidence to run for sheriff himself.

"Jack (Roy) gave me an opportunity and promoted me to chief deputy and that allowed me to run for sheriff in 2013," he said. "I learned so much from Jack, he was a tremendous sheriff and just an all-around good man. He mentored me through and helped me a great deal."

During his two terms as sheriff, Brady said he was able to accomplish a lot of what he set out to do.

"I wanted to move the department in ways we could help the officers and help the community," he said. "I started with six deputies and now after eight years I'm finishing off with 14 full-time deputies, and one part-time. We've got a court security program implemented in which I've hired six court security officers that handles all the bailiff and court duties so that the deputies can go work on the roads and take the calls."

Another thing that has changed while Brady has been in office is the training and hiring process for each officer.

"The training of the deputies is so much better now," he said. "Everybody goes through a background investigation and psychological exam to determine whether they are mentally ready to be a deputy. We send all of them to the academy and put them through a field training program with a senior officer. Those were things that were never done when I was a young man getting started."

Brady said the department has also made leaps and bounds in terms of equipment.

"When I stated I never had a bulletproof vest, my parents actually bought me my first one to help me get through," he said. "Now every deputy before they start work has a bulletproof vest, along with a rifle and shotgun that we never had back in the day.

"The cruisers we have now are mostly new and each deputy usually gets one with under 20,000 miles when they start. And they are all police-specific vehicles and have more equipment in them than probably most agencies in West Virginia due to our rural, mountain terrain."

Brady will be handing the reins to incoming Sheriff Rob Elbon, who was elected to the post in November. The two actually worked together within the sheriff's department when they were both deputies back in the 1990s.

"I worked with Rob on several cases on one of his final days before he left the department," said Brady. "We had a call from the Valley Bend area where a lady called about a snake being on her back porch. Well, when we got up there it ended up being a large rattlesnake and Rob ended up having to shoot it. We tried to remove it several other ways, but it kept coiling up and striking at us."

Brady said he is unsure of what lies ahead for him after leaving office, but is grateful for all the years he served with the Randolph County Sheriff's Office.

"Leaving is bittersweet," he said. "There were a few things I would have liked to have gotten done during my term as sheriff, but I've really enjoyed all my years of service – it's been a great career. And the people of the county have been very supportive and you can't expect much more than that."