Outgoing Tama County Sheriff Dennis Kuceras sits at his desk in Toledo as he prepares to retire and pass the torch to his successor, Casey Schmidt, at the beginning of the new year. Kucera, a North Tama High School graduate and Traer resident, became a full-time deputy in 1983 and was elected sheriff in 2000. NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY

TOLEDO — When he was grinding his way through the coursework at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy all the way back in the early 1980s, Dennis Kucera can recall a testing module predicting that he probably wouldn’t have a long career in the field. As he prepares to finally retire four plus decades later, the 24-year sheriff of the county where he grew up is happy to have proved the test wrong.

At 71, Kucera doesn’t have any grand plans ahead of him other than to spend more time with his wife Gayle, their three adult children, nine grandchildren and first great-grandchild, but he’s walking into the next chapter in his life having set an example that his successor — Sheriff-elect Casey Schmidt — aims to follow in the years to come.

“It’s been very humbling to have him, in a calm demeanor, explain how things go. Obviously with a new sheriff, there’s gonna be different ways of doing it, but that doesn’t mean that what he’s been doing the last 24 years and 40-some years hasn’t been working,” Schmidt said. “It was his way, his method, and it obviously worked. And I’m very thankful that he has shown me ways to do this job in a very professional and experience-driven manner.”

‘It’d be pretty cool to be a cop’

Kucera, a native of rural Tama County — “dead center” between Traer, Toledo, Clutier and Garwin, as he put it — came around to his line of work a bit later in life, originally intending to get into the family business of agriculture after he graduated from North Tama High School in 1971. At first, he took a job with Traer Cabinet on a construction crew and began driving a truck.

A poster from Kucera's 1992 campaign. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

“My law enforcement interest came from coming to Toledo, sitting at the Big T, seeing Deputy Kriegel (and) Deputy McBride sitting there having lunch and hearing them talk, so that kind of drew my interest,” he said. “And so then, as time was going on, growing up, I thought ‘Well, that’d be a pretty cool career to get into. It’d be pretty cool to be a cop.’ And that’s how I thought when I was a teenager,” he said.

By the mid to late 1970s, farming had “gotten tough” ahead of the full-blown crisis to come, and through a deputy Kucera knew from Traer, Rex Cook (who would later briefly serve as acting sheriff from 1983 to 1984), he learned about the reserve program. In 1981, he became a reserve both for Tama County and the Belle Plaine Police Department not far to the south in Benton County.

Although his long-term goal was to work full-time in Tama County, his first opportunity actually came in Belle Plaine after the entire police department walked out on the city. Retired State Trooper Jerry DeJoode was appointed as the interim chief, and Kucera, by then pushing 30 years of age, accepted an offer but bluntly told city officials he’d be heading back to Tama County in a year once a position opened up there.

He went off to the academy in Johnston, completed his training, and, as he had promised, put in an application for the Tama County deputy job. Cook, then serving as the acting sheriff, hired him in 1983.

Working his way up

Sheriff Dennis Kucera pictured in the early days of his law enforcement career which has spanned more than four decades now. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

For almost a decade, Kucera learned the ropes doing all of a deputy’s duties and even spending his free time stripping patrol vehicles. The only downside, initially at least, was that he initially thought he had to move to Gladbrook to fulfill the sheriff’s office contract with the city instead of Traer, where he hoped to return, but a few days later, Cook called him and told him he had hired someone else to fill that spot, and Kucera would be able to live in his hometown after all.

In 1992, he was first approached about the possibility of running for sheriff. Three years prior, Kucera remembered a speaker addressing the Full Gospel Men’s Group in Marshalltown telling him “God is going to put you in a role of authority.” He wasn’t sure what to make of the proclamation at the time, but it stuck with him nonetheless.

Encouraged by the support from fellow Tama County residents, Kucera, a Republican, decided to throw his hat in the ring and challenge his boss, Democratic incumbent Mike Richardson, who would ultimately serve until 2000.

“Obviously, I lost that election, but I got my name out there,” Kucera said.

When he first decided to run, the now-retiring sheriff found a sticker of a hummingbird jumping out of a nest that said “A leap of faith.” He still has it today, and Kucera reiterated that he had nothing against Richardson or his leadership — it was simply an opportunity he couldn’t pass up in good conscience.

An advertisement from Kucera’s 2000 campaign for Sheriff. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Four years later, he took another stab at it with the same result. Richardson was re-elected, and Kucera continued to work for him as a deputy. Finally, in 2000, the incumbent announced his retirement after 16 years to take a job with the state as a jail inspector, and the third-time candidate made yet another leap of faith into the electoral realm.

This time, he won both the primary and the general. At long last, Kucera had been placed in the prophesied role of authority he long sought. He was sworn in the day after the election, and then-interim Sheriff Bruce Bolin didn’t offer much in the way of advice or guidance. The newcomer was forced to adapt to the job on his own.

‘The good always outweighed the bad’

The sheriff’s tenure has been bookended by high-profile cases: just a few months after he assumed office, a baby was discovered deceased on a snowbank in Chelsea. The senseless tragedy, which resulted in the arrest and eventual conviction of the child’s teenage mother, catalyzed Iowa’s “Safe Haven” law, which allows parents of a baby up to 90 days old to give it up at a medical facility and has saved the lives of at least 50 children since then.

As Kucera prepares to leave office, first degree murder charges against Karina Cooper and Huston Danker are still pending with the cases set to go to trial in Linn and Johnson counties, respectively, in 2025, over allegations that the two acted in concert to kill Cooper’s husband Ryan at the couple’s rural Traer farmhouse in June of 2021. On the flip side, however, he was happy to report that deputies and other area first responders recently collaborated to find a missing 86-year-old woman alive in her car covered up in a blanket and trying to keep warm.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

“There’s horrible stuff a guy can remember, but I think you’re not supposed to remember. And there’s a lot of good things that I can keep in my heart and I can cherish forever,” Kucera said.

Over 24 years, plenty has changed in the world of law enforcement, from technological advances in the way reports are taken and processed to the push for further accountability through dashboard and body cameras that have become standard in the field. Some programs, like the K9 unit and the participation in the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force, were simply continued under Kucera’s watch, and others, like the purchase of drones and the eventual incorporation of license plate reader cameras, have come to be during his tenure.

With such a lengthy career now nearly behind him and so many cases and interactions to reflect on, the sheriff freely admitted he can have trouble keeping them all straight.

“There’s a lot of good memories, but talking to other sheriffs, they ask me how many memories I remember, and I say ‘I don’t. I don’t.’ It’s usually people coming up to me and asking ‘You remember when you arrested me?’ ‘No,’ and I get reminded that way,” he said. “One thing I do I remember is (that) the good always outweighed the bad. Whatever happens in your career or the call types and everything, there’s always more good calls that we can appreciate, that we are proud of, that the community’s proud of, than there are the bad calls. And that weight of that good over the bad is what was quite encouraging to keep on going.”

In one humorous anecdote, he recalled that the county’s current K9 unit, Tyson, was fresh out of training back in 2018 when he was called out in an attempt to locate a subject who had hidden in his mother’s basement in Traer. After the suspect headed back outside, Kucera said he must have brushed the dog the wrong way, because he found himself with four puncture marks on his right forearm.

“I was actually the dog’s very first bite,” he said.

In the end, however, the K9 tracked down the suspect and assisted in his eventual arrest. Schmidt, who was in charge of handling Tyson, gave his boss a ride to the emergency room, and thankfully, he didn’t require any stitches.

Colleagues within the office like longtime deputy Trevor Killian, who has worked his way up to the title of detective, described Kucera as a straight shooter who always seeks to put his staff in positions where he feels they can be the most successful.

“It’s better to tell him than for him to hear it from someone else. You may get your butt chewed, but it’s definitely (preferable),” Killian said. “He gives me grief. I give him grief, but he always works to help you out. If I needed tomorrow off, I could come in today. He may (give me a hard time), but he would still give you tomorrow off. (He’s) probably one of the easiest bosses to come talk to.”

Moving into larger investigations, Killian added, has been a great learning experience and a lesson in patience as they are rarely solved and tied up within a day or two. Jail Administrator Brian Randall summed up his thoughts more succinctly.

“I’m gonna miss (Kucera) being my boss. I’m really gonna miss him being my boss,” he said.

Despite Tama County’s relatively low population (estimated at around 17,000), there are still several other law enforcement agencies both within and outside its borders that Kucera has worked closely with in his career, and he’s proud of the relationships they’ve built.

“We have their back. They have our back, and that goes along with EMS and dispatch, the whole law enforcement scenario. You all have each other’s back, and that’s how you become successful and stay successful,” he said.

Current Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley’s experience with Kucera dates back to his own childhood as Quigley’s mother, who worked as a dispatcher when the future sheriff was a deputy, held a garage sale to support one of his early campaigns.

“I was around 10 years old. Dennis handed me a pen, magnet and a campaign flyer. When he handed me the flyer, which had a photo of him on it, he told me ‘Here, you can put this on your dart board.’ That line made me laugh, and I appreciated that he took the time to chat with me when I was that young,” Quigley said. “In subsequent interactions with him during my youth, he always took the time to visit with me. This was one of my earliest positive experiences with law enforcement. These would be core memories that instilled my desire to become a law enforcement officer.”

When Quigley was in college, he did an internship with the Tama County Sheriff’s Office, and Kucera took him on his first ride along — which involved a vehicle pursuit. The sheriff, in his typical deadpan style, quipped that he didn’t want Quigley to take a call from his mother during the chase because he “didn’t want her to be mad that he was here until after they were done.”

In 2005, Quigley was hired as a reserve deputy, a title he held until 2023, and Kucera had the honor of pinning his badge when he graduated from the academy.

“In my time as a supervisor and eventually as Chief of Police for the city of Toledo, Sheriff Kucera was always willing to be a sounding board. He has been there for me in the good times and the low times,” Quigley said. “In my time with the Toledo Police Department, we have always had a positive working relationship with the Tama County Sheriff’s Office. Front line officers with the Toledo Police Department have always worked hand in hand with Tama County deputies and Tama police officers. I can truly say that I would not have had the successes that I have had in my career without Sheriff Dennis Kucera.”

Dysart Police Chief Joe Hols said Kucera has been “fantastic” to work with throughout his time in Tama County, which dates back to 2013.

“Sheriff Kucera has always made the resources of the Sheriff’s Office available (and) accessible, and without reservation. His support, assistance, and advice through the years have made myself and my officers more effective by setting the bar for professionalism and truly looking after your community,” Hols said. “On behalf of the citizens of Dysart, thank you Dennis for all you have done to protect the communities and citizens you served. Enjoy your retirement. You earned it.”

Sheriff Joel Phillips of neighboring Marshall County has worked with Kucera for over 23 years and joked that he would believe his retirement when he saw it after first hearing the news.

“Sheriff Kucera is one of the longest serving sheriffs in Iowa and has experienced a tremendous amount of change in the office of sheriff over the last 40 years. He has always been someone to rely on for sharing past experiences (both good and bad) and guidance through difficult decisions,” Phillips said. I want to share my gratitude for Sheriff Kucera for his unwavering dedication to the Office of Sheriff and Tama County. Sheriff Kucera has always been supportive of Marshall County law enforcement by assisting us during emergencies, joint criminal investigations, special events and operations, an his unwavering support of the Mid Iowa Drug Task Force for dedicating a full-time Tama County Deputy Sheriff to participate in multi-jurisdictional investigations by understanding the far-reaching impact these investigations have on Tama County. As Sheriff Kucera moves into retirement, I thank him for his personal sacrifices he has made over the years, his dedication, integrity, past collaborations with law enforcement agencies that have left a lasting impact on Tama County and setting high standards for future leaders.”

To the east, Benton County Sheriff Ron Tippett has enjoyed a similarly positive experience.

“Sheriff Kucera has been a neighbor who Benton County has always been able to count on. If we needed help his Office was willing to help. Sheriff Kucera was just a phone call away with sound advice no matter what you were working on,” Tippett said. “Dennis has been a solid leader representing Tama County, and all sheriffs in Iowa.”

As a Traer area native and an active member of the community to this day, Kucera has been encouraged to see local kids grow up and find success in farming, business or whatever other path they choose to pursue.

“It isn’t something you do by yourself that you can brag on yourself about because it’s not gonna happen unless you’ve got the backing of everybody else covering you,” he said.

‘It’s time to go’

Leaning on his stout Christian faith, Kucera waited for God to let him know when it was time to step down, and until relatively recently, the thought had hardly crossed his mind.

“And then all of a sudden, it struck me. It’s time to get out. It’s time to go. It’s time to turn it over to someone else. I’ve done my term,” he said. “And you know, the world’s changing out there. And it’s not surprising to hear a lot of people that that would be one reason, but… I don’t know that I can pull it out exactly, but I just knew it was time to retire.”

He couldn’t have found the success he did without the support of his family, but Kucera acknowledged that it sometimes meant missing games and events. Still, he wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

Schmidt, 38, who won a three-way Republican primary over fellow deputies Killian and Lucas Dvorak before cruising through an uncontested general election, is taking on the role of sheriff at a younger age than his predecessor, but Kucera has been more than willing to assist in the transition, providing a thumb drive full of tasks and responsibilities ranging from contracts with municipalities to the annual budget to the status of the current fleet of vehicles.

“I told (Schmidt) that the advantage he has is that I’m here sharing some of this stuff and giving him an opportunity to look at it. When I became sheriff, the day after the election, I knew nothing about the budget, had nobody to show me except the working relationship I had across the road with the auditor’s office,” Kucera said. “So Casey and I have had some pretty good conversations. I think it’d be foolish to say he’s not nervous because I was nervous… (But) I did tease him and say ‘If you’ve got questions, you’d better be asking me now, because when I shut the door, don’t even call me.'”

In the retiring sheriff’s estimation, it essentially takes a newcomer an entire four-year term to learn all of the duties of the job, but Kucera is glad to see someone like Schmidt who is already familiar with the office and its inner workings stepping into his shoes.

“It’s been very helpful, and that doesn’t even really touch on the actual feeling I get when he’s showing me how to do certain things and why he’s doing that. Knowing that nobody showed him how to do that is very humbling, and I think there’s a lot of respect there that I don’t even think he’ll fully understand,” Schmidt said. “I’m very thankful for the sheriff and (him) just being who he is the whole time he’s been here, and I don’t think any one of us could really say that we’re not thankful for everything he’s done for us.”

He also stressed the importance of building and maintaining strong relationships with other county department heads and the board of supervisors — one of them, outgoing Tama County Auditor Laura Kopsa, shared her positive reflections in an email to the newspaper.

“I have greatly enjoyed working with Sheriff Kucera over the years. He was already a deputy sheriff when I started working for the county. He became sheriff in 2000 and I became auditor in 2006. We have worked together on many projects and issues over the years. He has always been a voice of reason and has provided assistance and advice when I or anyone needed it,” she said. “He has always been a calm presence in the county and has become a great friend to me. I have learned a lot from him and wish him well in his retirement. If anyone deserves it, it is Dennis.”

With his two sons still in Tama County and a daughter in Alaska, Kucera hopes to make more trips up north and possibly do more fishing in retirement, but he’s only certain of one thing: he needs to stay busy.

“I have to keep moving, I guess, or try to,” he said.

A reception for the outgoing sheriff will be held at the Traer Memorial Building on Saturday, Dec. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m. Schmidt will assume the office at the beginning of the new year.