Seth Thompson turns Sheriff’s Log into book
Readers of the Custer County Chronicle’s weekly Sheriff’s Log, rejoice; the Sheriff’s Log is now a book.
For years, former Custer County Sheriff’s Office deputy (and still current reserve) Seth Thompson has written the weekly Sheriff’s Log in the Chronicle, and for years, has been told by those who read it how much they enjoy it, and that it would make a good book.
“I toyed with the notion for a long time. Different people would say ‘you should publish a ‘best of’ collection,’” Thompson said.
When he retired and was able to shift into the mental space to spend the time it takes to collect his archived material and edit it—along with grappling with the new frontier of digital publishing and cyber business—he considered it even further.
“Plus, you guys told me I should,” Seth said of Chronicle staff on a summertime visit to their office. “I had to be mentally distant from the job before it was going to happen.”
A manuscript was put together, with a first draft becoming a reality in July. After some editing from his wife, Kim, and some finishing touches, the book was published on Amazon.com Oct. 4.
“The Custer County Sheriff’s Log: Life, Death, Shenanigans and Tomfoolery in the Black Hills of South Dakota, 2005-14” is available both as a digital book for $3.99 and a 180-page paperback pook for $9.95.
The book contains his favorite Sheriff’s Log entries from 2005-14, as well as some collected “Night Shift” columns he wrote for the Chronicle, along with a diary of working at the Sturgis Bike Rally entitled “Rally of the Damned.” Purchasers should note the Rally portion of the book is more adult-themed than the rest of the book.
“To leave out the actual language, etc., would not be telling the story,” Thompson said of that portion of the book.
The journey Thompson took from law enforcement to published author is both interesting and circuitous, as he chronicles in the foreward of the book.
Even though much of his life was spent with various law enforcement entities he has always been a writer. He started college as a journalism major but ended up as a criminal justice major.
He started out as a reserve for the Hot Springs Police Department before coming to Custer County in 2005. He has also worked for Game, Fish & Parks as a conservation officer and at the state as a correctional counselor at the now-defunct State Treatment and Rehabilitation Academy.
When he started at the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriff’s Log was already a staple of the Chronicle, although at the time it was just rote facts. Eventually, former deputy Ritchey Walk told Thompson the office—then under the command of sheriff Phil Hespen—wanted him to take over the log for the paper.
“They claimed it was because I had the least amount of spelling and punctuation errors in my reports,” Thompson said.
He said he soon realized writing the log was a lot of work and “they wanted to foist it off on a rookie.”
At first, Thompson said, the log was nothing more than extra work. He wasn’t a fan of the way the office was doing it, so he decided it would be easier for him if he looked at each call and write what he wanted to rather than be given a sheet with notes.
“As usual, I got bored with it and started having some fun with some things,” he said. “That’s how all this got started.”
The Sheriff’s Log has been among the most popular parts of the Chronicle ever since. So much so, in fact, that when Thompson stopped writing the log upon leaving the sheriff’s office in 2014 the Chronicle had readers threaten to or actually cancel their subscription since he no longer wrote the log.
Once he found his groove in writing the log in those early days he plunged headlong into the world of alliterations, puns and pop culture references. He likened his early bits of humor as his “gateway drug” to the humorous log the Chronicle now prints on a weekly basis.
“First it’s a simple pun, then you’re shooting up straight from the alliteration bag,” he said with a laugh.
Thompson said Hespen was supportive of the way he approached the log, although he adds the caveat, “I don’t think he actually ready it, honestly.”
“Nobody required I have them review it at first, which was probably a mistake on their part,” he said.
Be that as it may, Thompson said Hespen reported he was getting positive comments around the community about the log.
Before long the log was receiving attention from other media, and in 2008 the Rapid City Journal did a feature story on the log, and a reference to one of the entries was even mentioned on the David Letterman show during his “Small Town News” feature.
That now-infamous entry:
“Sheriff’s Log. Suspicious people were doing something with flashlights. A deputy checked and found the people were not suspicious, but merely Canadian.”
“I’m not sure where it all went sideways,” Thompson said with a laugh. “I’m not sure where we jumped the tracks of normal newspaper writing.”
Thompson now turns mundane calls into comedy, and has created iconic phrases and references that all Chronicle readers can recite.
There is the semi-popular convenience store that is always referenced. There is the crumbling cabin compound east of Custer. There are the Pringle Cows. Oh, and the gas stations that still don’t require customers to pay before they pump, a particular source of angst for Thompson.
“I would consider my life to have been worthwhile if I can get all gas stations to change to pay before you pump,” he said.
And as far as those Pringle Cows, those references arose out of frustration, with Thompson saying at one point the beasts were getting out of their fencing literally every day.
“I became a little frustrated, but it also seemed like a great opportunity to have some fun with it,” he said.
The owner of the cows does not see the humor, and has told Thompson as much in person.
Thompson cites his biggest writing influences as the late Hunter S. Thompson and PJ O’Rourke, and references to their style is often peppered throughout a weekly log.
Thompson said a sense of humor is necessary as a police officer.
“You have to be able to see absurd in what people see as awful situations,” he said. “It helped me not go a little crazy.”
And while he enjoys injecting humor into his writings, there are of course things that happen that he will not make light of, including murders, suicides, etc. He doesn’t expound on issues with juveniles, and he doesn’t list addresses or give out names, whether personal or business.
Some people, he said, have wished he would have given their names, such as years ago when he wrote there was a disturbance at a house. The disturbance? A couple having loud sex.
Turns out the couple wasn’t particularly ashamed of their noise, but took offense to it being called a disturbance, as all their neighbors knew from which house that log entry generated.
“They wished I had put what happened,” Thompson said, saying they felt “disturbance” had a bad connotation. “They were like, ‘everybody knows who it is.’”
Thompson said he is pleased with the finished product of the book, and is now going about promoting its existence. He adds it’s a little weird to see his name attached to a published book.
“Had I thought about this over the course of my life? Writing the great American novel? Absolutely,” he said. “It’s strange to look at this fairly sharp book and realize what is in there is what I wrote.”
Since the book is only the logs through 2014 there is plenty of material for a follow up, and Thompson will continue to receive new material as he has no plans to stop writing the Sheriff’s Log in the Chronicle anytime soon.
“All in all it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.
Search Seth Thompson or the name of the book to purchase it on Amazon, or visit https://a.co/d/fm8Gu6m.