For nearly a quarter of a century, Dowagiac’s Clinton Roach has built his reputation at the Cass County Sheriff’s Office “fighting in the trenches.”
Since joining the department in 1993, Roach has not only served multiple stints protecting the people as a road patrol deputy, but has also worked to keep drugs off the street and to help track down culprits in bank robberies, homicides and other major crimes.
In spite of his track record, Roach never assumed any major leadership positions within the office — until earlier this month.
Sheriff Richard Behnke recently named Roach as undersheriff of the department. Roach will take over the position Behnke had occupied for nearly 14 years before his election in November. As undersheriff, Roach serves as Behnke’s second-in-command, and his responsibilities include overseeing the operation of the county jail, handling many of the day-to-day operations of the department and serving as the direct superior to the road and jail captains.
“I always wanted to be a leader in the department,” Roach said about his
promotion. “Now that I have 25 plus years of experience in both law enforcement and the business world, I felt I could help make a difference and could share some of my experience with the younger officers.”
A lifelong resident of Dowagiac, Roach has devoted much of his adult life to protecting and serving the people of Cass County.
Two years after graduating from Dowagiac Union High School in 1984, Roach became a reserve officer with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, helping out when needed while working full-time in construction. Roach was encouraged to get into law enforcement by a few of his friends who had already joined the force, he said.
“Becoming an officer gave me the ability to help people, to do good things,” Roach said. “It is an exciting job. You do not handle the same thing over and over again. Every day is a different experience.”
After working as an officer with the Dowagiac Police Department for two years, Roach joined the sheriff’s office as a road patrol deputy. He later joined the detective’s bureau, where he worked on cases involving major crimes and narcotics.
In 1995, he joined the Southwest Enforcement Team, a taskforce dedicated to combating drug abuse in eight counties, including Berrien and Cass. Working mainly as an undercover officer with the unit, Roach assisted in many major drug busts and served as an expert witness on narcotics in court hearings, he said.
In 1998, Roach decided to slow down and focus more on family by only working part-time with the sheriff’s office while also focusing on a career in the private sector. After spending several years working with Judd Lumber Company, Roach opened his own garage door business, which he operated until 2011, he said.
“I was able to learn skills through running my own business that can help me now in this job,” Roach said.
He rejoined the sheriff’s office full-time in 2011, and worked for several more years on road patrol before putting his years of experience fighting drugs back to use on the Cass County Drug Enforcement Team. While part of the division, he was assigned to the FBI Taskforce in St. Joseph, where he worked with officers from throughout the region to help investigate major crimes, including a bank robbery in Edwardsburg and several murders in Benton Harbor, Roach said.
In spite of spending most of his career in the field, the new undersheriff has found the transition to his new office easy. He faced his first major test just days after his promotion, where he helped lead the investigation into the fatal stabbing at Cassopolis’ Ameri-Kart factory on Jan. 11. Authorities were able to make an arrest at the scene of the crime, Roach said.
“When you have good detectives and deputies who know what they are doing due to their experience, it is easy to handle major cases such as that,” Roach said.
Among the most important of his new responsibilities will be outreach to the community, whether it is through talking with students studying criminal justice at Southwestern Michigan College or meeting the people he represents at various township board meetings, he said.
“People need to understand what we do,” Roach said. “It is very important we communicate with the public.”