The highest Law Enforcement Authority in any given area is the County Sheriff. He is an elected official and thus has more authority than any appointed commissioner or chief. This is by design. He is the arbiter of law enforcement and sets the tone for how laws are enforced in his area.
Most Sheriff’s are solid patriots that hold the Constitution close to their hearts. As do all patriots in our Nation.
In the light of the recent political dialogs, we feel a great pressure against the Constitution, specifically against the Second Amendment. Most of the new regulations that are threatening our rights are not applied to Law Enforcement. Famously, the New York 7 Round restriction was not written to exempt Law Enforcement and it was quickly altered. Weapon types, Magazine restrictions, all of these Reasonable Infringements on That Which Must Not Be Infringed, are Law Enforcement Exempt, and only apply to “Civilians”.
Let me make something very clear. Law Enforcement Officers are Civilians as well. A Local PD Officer or Sheriff’s Deputy, for all their authority, are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the UCMJ. As such, they themselves are also “Civilians”. They are US and we are Them.
The Sheriff and his deputies swear Oaths, just like those of us who enlist… to uphold and defend the US Constitution and the Rights of the People.
Here is how you do it. The Sheriff has the right to appoint special deputies. I submit that the Sheriff’s in Utah swear in everyone with a Concealed Carry Permit and everyone else he knows to be a Patriotic American that is legal to buy a gun and carry it… Swear them in as Volunteer “Special Reserve Deputies”. Put them in a Roster and assign them a Badge Number. Thus doing so, any Federal Regulation that would effect the masses, would not effect them. Allow these people also to purchase a “Badge” of some sort with that number. This also will serve as a National Carry Permit. This way, the Sheriff’s Constituents, and Citizens, can travel anywhere while being Armed and Safe, thus increasing their safety and the safety of those around them.
All of this would only take the Sheriff a moment and for the Department to keep an extra Spreedsheet file. So if someone is stopped, the officer doing the stopping can verify that the person is on file and is legal to carry, just like they already do.
They could even allow these Patriotic Citizens to attend, at their own cost, training classes, which could in effect help pay for the training for the rest of the department. I am pretty sure that in our local county, it could pay for the training of the deputies themselves and then some.
This would cement the relationship of the Deputies with the Citizens and foster much greater cooperation between the Agency and the Public. This also gives the Sheriff an large roster of willing people to call immediately in the face of an emergency or other event that could overwhelm the capabilities of the department.

A Sheriff doing this, would also pretty much never have to worry about getting re-elected and would then be able to focus on what he was elected for and not have to play the politician every four years and waste that time and money… as long as he serves the public well. And in doing this, he would.