About Sheriff Shawn Messerlie

Sheriff Shawn Messerlie has been serving the Colfax County community since 2004. He started his career in law enforcement as a Reserve Officer in Woodbury County Iowa in 1990. His career in law enforcement specific roles has been vast, working in the 1990s as a dispatcher, a corrections officer, a transport officer, and he eventually graduated as a certified law enforcement officer for the state of South Dakota in 1999. Sheriff Messerlie moved to Nebraska and became certified through the State of Nebraska in 2000 and served in Leigh, NE, located in Colfax County, as a part-time Police Officer from 2004-2016. Sheriff Messerlie began working for Colfax County Sheriff in 2009 as a Deputy, and in 2016 Leigh Police Department disbanded and was contracted to the Colfax County Sheriff.

Since 2009 Sheriff Messerlie has been employed in many roles for Colfax County Sheriff. Early on in his career Sheriff Messerlie could be seen working in the local schools, greeting students and staff and ensuring positive community engagement with students. Additionally, Sheriff Messerlie worked road patrol, worked courtroom security, jail administration, and eventually was appointed Sheriff in May 2020 by the Colfax County Board. Then the people of Colfax County elected him as their Sheriff in 2023.

As Sheriff in Colfax County, he has led the way for new divisions and changes for the department. He established the first K9 program with Sargent Acosta and K9 Mars. He established the Pink Patch Project for Colfax County, which focuses on breast cancer awareness and early screening and is a national program that began in law enforcement agencies in California. He hired the first female patrol deputies ever in Colfax County. He established a full-time investigator for the county, which allows cases to be more personally investigated for the citizens of Colfax County. He also began a program for engagement with children through Deputy Brown Bear, a program that he purchased out-of-pocket to ensure that there was a program to encourage, educate, and interact with Colfax County youth. Colfax County will also be starting its DARE program through Deputy Palensky; a community commitment Sheriff Messerlie has been interested in establishing since the onset of his leadership at Colfax County. Lastly, Sheriff Messerlie re-established the command role of Chief Deputy to more efficiently and effectively ensure leadership fulfillment and command support for the department. Prior to this, the Chief Deputy position had not been an active command position since the early 1990’s within the department.

Sheriff Messerlie cares deeply about a department mission that focuses on serving and protecting but also ensuring community engagement through organizational outreach and utilizing community partners to best serve the needs of the citizens of Colfax County. To accomplish this goal, Sheriff Messerlie volunteers on several different community organizations:

Colfax County Food Pantry Board Member
Troop Leader for Scouting America
Thriving Family Safe Children Team
Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force
United Way Committee member
Strong Starts Schuyler Committee
Center for Survivors Board Member
Knights of Columbus
Parishioners Religious Education-St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Community and Family Partnership Collaboration Committee
Colfax County Behavior Health Coalition Committee
Communities Against Substance Abuse
Green Dot
Nebraska Sheriff’s Association/Police Officer’s Association National Sheriff’s Association/ Police Chief’s Association