FARMINGTON -- The Davis County Sheriff's Office is breaking new ground with the promotion of Jennifer L. Daley from sergeant to lieutenant and assistant patrol division commander.
Daley is the first female patrol division lieutenant in the history of the agency, which was established in 1853, said Sgt. Susan Poulsen.
The sheriff's office goes through a full testing process before promoting deputies, Sheriff Todd Richardson said, and Daley recorded top scores.
"When I look at promotions, I like to look at them with a blind eye" regarding race or gender, Richardson said.
"She deserves that promotion."
Before she was promoted, Daley was the sheriff's office liaison with Fruit Heights, a city that contracts with the sheriff's office for law enforcement services.
Richardson said the promotion was "the next step in the evolution" of Daley's career.
But Daley, who has been with the sheriff's office for 22 years, does not view herself as a trendsetter.
"I believe hard work pays off, and if that is a trend, that is beautiful," said the 45-year-old Layton resident.
Daley named Davis County Sheriff's Sgt. Eileen K. Knighton, who died of cancer in 2009, as her mentor.
Daley, who grew up less than a mile from the Mason-Dixon Line, the state boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, has held many positions within the sheriff's office here.
Two months after moving to the area in 1989 -- and living on her own in a bare apartment with no bed, Daley said -- she was hired as a dispatcher and reserve officer.
She worked as a dispatcher for five or six years before spending a year as a court bailiff while waiting to attend paramedic training.
Daley also worked undercover for one year as part of the Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force.
"I dabbled in a little bit of everything," said the self-described chip off the old block. She credits her father, who still lives back East and is a skilled machinist who never missed a day of work, for her grounded work ethic.
"We were poor, but I saw my dad going to work every day," Daley said.
She said she will bring that work ethic to her position of supervising the 50 full-time and part-time deputies in her patrol division and serving the residents the department protects.
"I'm as happy today as the first day I ever put the uniform on," said Daley, who has been warned that the busiest job in the office is the patrol division commander.
But hard work doesn't concern the no-nonsense Daley.
She said she loves Utah for the opportunities it provides professionally and recreationally, as the state's features help her hobbies of gardening and hiking flourish.
Poulsen said other recent sheriff's office promotions include Patrol Division Capt. Arnold Butcher moving up from lieutenant and Patrol Division Sgt. Shane Archibald moving up from deputy sheriff.
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