Boone County Sheriff Mike Helmig announced his retirement in December, about two years after his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.
Helmig was first appointed as sheriff in 1997, and throughout his tenure, he oversaw massive institutional changes to policing in the county. Family members and colleagues sat down with LINK nky to reflect on Helmig’s time in office and unpack his legacy as a public figure.
Helmig began as a deputy with the sheriff’s office in 1982 and attended training through the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training the same year.
This may not seem terribly remarkable at first glance, but the state agency did not begin offering basic training courses designed specifically for sheriff’s deputies until 1987, according to the department’s website. Given that sheriffs are elected positions, historically there has been no guarantee that a sheriff had undergone professional police training before taking office.
Helmig’s time at the academy presaged many of the changes he would later institute, especially as it related to training and professionalism within the sheriff’s department.
“Mike was actually the first sheriff in this county to ever go through the academy,” said Boone County Sheriff’s Colonel Les Hill.
“He kind of was the leader in establishing professionalism and training being one of the utmost important contributors to an agency or to your people,” said Major Gary Peace.
Previous Sheriff Ronald Kenner died in 1997, and Helmig was appointed shortly thereafter. Even starting off, Helmig’s colleagues said he displayed a dedication to punctuality, discipline and professionalism, arguing he set an example for everyone else.
Many attributed this characteristic to Helmig’s background in team sports, having been both a football player and swimmer in high school before later becoming a coach. In fact, several of the deputies who now work for the department first encountered Helmig as a coach.
Sports influenced other parts of Helmig’s life, too.
“Michael and I met when our children were doing Pee Wee football,” said Mike Helmig’s wife of 33 years, Bonnie Helmig. “My daughter cheered, and [his son] played.”
Bonnie Helmig and Mike Helmig got married in 1991, having both been divorced once before. Bonnie Helmig had yet to go nursing school at the time (she’s retired now), and Mike Helmig was still a normal deputy. Even then, Bonnie Helmig said, he was very “career-driven.”
“They used to laugh and said that anything that was moving, he pulled over that was going two miles over the speed limit,” Bonnie Helmig said. “So, [he was] very into his job, very much dedicated. He did that too when we married because we had a blended family, and never once did we ever call our children ‘stepchildren.’ It was our family.”
Helmig went on to win every sheriff’s election after his appointment. Arguably, the most notable institutional change he oversaw was the merger between the now-defunct Boone County Police Department and the Boone County Sheriff, which became official on July 1, 2001. The merger wasn’t without its hitches, said many of Helmig’s colleagues, with “tribalism,” as one major put it, lingering between the departments’ personnel.
“I didn’t want it…,” said Peace, who was with the sheriff’s office before the merger. “We didn’t want it. We felt like we were doing okay by ourselves, but his vision and his ability to see the what it could be,… it worked. And I would have never thought it would.”
Before the merger, the two departments served the same jurisdiction but in different ways. The police department took care of conventional patrol duties, whereas the sheriff’s department was more focused on court services.
“It wasn’t the easiest transition in the beginning,” said Major Philip Ridgell. “He navigated through that and has talked about it time and time again, about giving everyone – either if you were with us or you’re coming to us – everyone starts with a clean slate. Everyone had a fair shake.”
Eventually, the old county police department was completely absorbed into the sheriff’s department, which is now one of the largest and most robust law enforcement agencies in the commonwealth. Today, the department handles not only patrol duties but also court transport, financial and cyber crime investigations, crime scene investigations, cold cases, a SWAT team and a large training enter, complete with a gun range and a broken-down cruiser that trainees can use to practice traffic stops and other situations involving vehicles. The sheriff was also instrumental in the development of the county’s school resource officer, or SRO, program, which had 36 SROs throughout all of the county district’s schools, as of the end of 2024.
“It went from an agency where the sheriff’s office was mostly for court security and paper service,” said Major Ryan Walters. “He took it to a 24-hour, full-service police law enforcement for the county.”
It would be wrong to say the department’s reputation has been spotless, however. One case that brought negative attention to the department occurred in 2014, when former Deputy Tyler Brockman shot and killed 19-year-old Samantha Ramsey as she attempted to drive away from a party in Hebron. A civil lawsuit followed, which ended in a $3.5 million settlement to Ramsey’s family and the passengers who were in her car at the time. Brockman would go on to be hired by the Elsmere Police Department last summer, in spite of the disapproval of some community members.
The settlement also required the sheriff’s department to equip its patrolmen with body cameras and for the department to revise its use-of-force policies. It also sparked a conversation about prescription drug use among police, as some have speculated that Brockman’s use of anti-anxiety medication may have altered his judgement.
“We looked at a lot of our processes, and not just involving force,” said Major Tom Szurlinski, former police chief of Florence who now serves as the sheriff’s staff attorney. In addition to implementing body cameras, “we looked at vehicle operations… We were already discussing with him, and he was very strong about, should we be a little more cautious on pursuing vehicles.”
Colleagues also spoke highly of his ability to cultivate relationships with other jurisdictions, including ones out of the state.
“Don’t matter what state you’re in; you could call from Alabama,” said Peace. “We could go in and say, ‘We just got a call from an Alabama police department, and they need a dog.’ And he’d say, ‘Well, how can we get him down there?’ He would make it work.”
Around the time of 2022 election was when people started to notice something was amiss.
“We realized something was wrong,” Hill said. “He was dropping things, and we told him that ‘You really have something going on here. You probably should get this checked out.'”
Speech problems appeared first, Bonnie Helmig said, “then it became the shaking, the tremors.”
Bonnie Helmig said that the pathology arose from a lack of blood flow to the right side of his brain. It develops gradually, she said, so he may have been sick for years without displaying symptoms.
“If you’ve ever seen a stroke victim not be able to use their left hand at all, that’s what’s going on with him,” Bonnie Helmig said. “It’s his left side that’s being punished.”
Finally, in December, he announced his retirement.
“I have never stopped fighting and worked tirelessly to find solutions, but I now realize that my decline is irreversible, debilitating and is preventing me from effectively performing my duties as sheriff,” Helmig said in written statement. “I have too much respect for my staff, the citizens of Boone County and the Office of Sheriff to allow my decline to hinder our continued success.”
“He created something that most men couldn’t…,’ Bonnie Helmig said. “He had the type of leadership that was needed [for] the way the county has grown. He stood up for things that he did. He will tell you, and I will tell you what he has said: ‘I’m not a politician. I’m a law man.'”
“He’s a historic figure in Boone County,” Ridgell said.
The sheriff’s health prevented him from doing an interview in person, but he left some parting words in written statement for the community before he finally retires on April 15.
“I have always believed in showing compassion, putting people first and serving the citizens of Boone County,” the sheriff wrote. “I am also a firm believer in the power of a team. I am proud of my team, and the work they do everyday serving the community. I have seen firsthand the amount of support they receive daily. My office has earned the reputation of being one of the most well-respected law enforcement agencies in the commonwealth of Kentucky, and this has always brought me an immense amount of pride.”
