POUGHKEEPSIE – Acting Dutchess County Sheriff Kirk Imperati, a 30-year-veteran of the department, has announced his candidacy to be elected as the next Dutchess County sheriff. Imperati served as the undersheriff to the late Sheriff Butch Anderson for 14 years. Imperati became the acting sheriff after Anderson passed away in September of last year.
“I have the experience, I have the expertise, and I have the drive and desire to take the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office to the next level,” Imperati told Mid-Hudson News.
“We have done a lot of great things over that time from developing an internal affairs bureau to being the architect for the police modernization and reform plan for the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, helping other law enforcement agencies in Dutchess County develop a police modernization and reform and I( think I have what it takes to take it to the next level,” he said.
The married father of two adult daughters said he always wanted to help people since he was a child and law enforcement was his way to do it. As a sophomore at Arlington High School (Class of ’87), Imperati set his goals on a career in police work.
A degree in criminal justice from Dutchess Community College for Imperati was followed by a bachelor’s degree in the field from Marist College, where he graduated in 1991. He was hired by the sheriff’s office in January of 1993 and has been with the county’s law enforcement agency ever since.
Imperati has played an integral role in many of the programs and changes within the office. Starting as a road patrol deputy in the Harlem Valley and working his way to detective in 2004, Imperati instituted the School Resource Officer program, implemented the department’s Internal Affairs Division, and was the architect for the Police Reform and Modernization Plan for the sheriff’s office and other agencies in Dutchess.
Imperati plans to run for the four-year term on the Republican and Conservative ballot lines in November. He has already received the endorsement of several police unions and the corrections officers at the Dutchess County Jail.
Dutchess County GOP Chairman Michael McCormack told Mid-Hudson News that Kirk Imperati is the best person for the job. “His decades of service in the department are stellar and beyond reproach. Dutchess County is so very fortunate to have Kirk watching over and protecting our families and we need to stay the path.”
“I want to be everyone’s sheriff,” Imperati said. “I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, or what you do, if you call me or the men and women of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, we are going to help you because that’s what we do!”
Dutchess County Democratic Party Chairman Julie Shiroishi indicated that her party has no candidates to challenge Imperati yet but she does not envision her party cross-endorsing Imperati.
In October of last year, Democrats in the county legislature asked Governor Hochul to name a new sheriff to fill the vacancy created by Anderson’s death. At the time, the county’s top elected Democrat, Comptroller Robin Lois, told Mid-Hudson News that if the governor had sought her input, she was willing to recommend Imperati. “I will say there is no other choice,” she said at the time.
