Two Democratic candidates are facing off in the June primary for Eagle County Sheriff. The winner will run against incumbent Republican James Van Beek in the General Election on Nov. 3.
The candidates, Rebecca Anderson and Jason Boston, are both from Gypsum, have experience in law enforcement and agree that the sheriff’s office's biggest problem is its top-heavy management structure.
Anderson worked at the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office from 2005 to 2022 as a field training officer and master patrol deputy. She said her mental health was “severely affected” by the workplace culture, so she left for a job as a patrol sergeant at the Vail Police Department. Her past four years in Vail have been “refreshing,” she said, and ultimately inspired her to run for sheriff.
“I know that we can bring that sort of internal culture — that sort of support and professionalism — back to the Eagle County Sheriff's Office,” Anderson said. “When you have happy deputies, they're going to be working harder and better in the community.”
Boston started his career at the Aspen Police Department before becoming the El Jebel-Basalt resident deputy for the Eagle County Sheriff's Office. He currently works as the chief investigator for the 5th Judicial District Attorney’s office.
Boston said collaborating with more than 20 law enforcement agencies across Colorado’s 5th Judicial District has given him valuable work experience.
“You have to be in that mindset to find those creative solutions,” Boston said. “Because I don't have all the answers, but somebody at the table may.”
While the candidates have a lot of common ground, they disagree on how and why the system should shift.
Agency restructuring
According to Boston, the sheriff’s office has no organizational structure or succession plan currently in place.
By creating new departments and providing strong leadership, he believes the agency can serve the community more effectively.
“When you only have one person that's in charge, or two people that are in charge, you start to lose efficiency,” he said. “You're not properly managing those departments that are so crucial to the overall success of the sheriff's office, but also to the overall public safety of the community.”
If elected, he wants to boost staff retention by improving the work environment and employee training.
Anderson said she would look more to community members and staff for feedback on how to restructure the sheriff’s office. She suggested creating more individualized plans for the different municipalities across the county.
“With the diversity of Eagle County, … the policing cannot be one size fits all,” she said. “It needs to be really formatted for what those communities want — how they want their police officers to work. And right now, I don't think that that's happening.”
She wants to bring back the resident deputy program, in which deputies are stationed in a particular community, like Basalt, long-term.
Trust with immigrant communities
Colorado state law does not allow local law enforcement to arrest or detain people based on their immigration status. But an uptick of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Eagle County over the past year has created fear among immigrant communities in the county.
Last January in Vail, “death cards” were found in abandoned cars following ICE arrests, according to Voces Unidas, a Glenwood Springs-based Latino advocacy nonprofit.
Anderson said, as sheriff, she would continue to uphold state law and serve as a resource for residents, regardless of immigration status.
“My message would be that we will provide the same service to every resident, every guest, every visitor to our communities,” Anderson said. “We're not going to ask anybody's immigration status. … We can't stop a federal immigration operation, but we will be there to support our residents that are there.”
Boston said he approaches the issue by engaging in the community. He said he goes to high school classes to inform students of their constitutional rights.
“That's also a way for us to be able to start building … trust from that younger generation,” he said.
In that vein, Boston suggested creating a specialized unit of community engagement officers focused solely on bolstering the relationship between the sheriff’s office and local residents.
Effective communication with non-English speaking residents, especially in emergency situations, has been a challenge in the past.
In 2018, the Lake Christine Fire burned more than 12,000 acres across Eagle County, including neighborhoods close to Basalt and El Jebel.
Some Spanish-speaking Latino residents in the area said they didn’t have adequate information about the progress of the fire or evacuations.
To address those barriers, Boston said he would partner with local nonprofit organizations to boost the agency’s capacity to communicate effectively.
Anderson said she would utilize the agency’s bilingual staff members to translate information across online and social media platforms.
Automatic license plate readers
Across the Roaring Fork Valley, law enforcement agencies use automatic license plate readers to investigate crimes. But data collected by the devices can be accessible to private companies and public agencies. This has led to various privacy-related concerns.
Some local jurisdictions, like the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, have recently changed their policies to stop sharing license plate tracking data with federal agencies directly involved in immigration enforcement.
Anderson said while she thinks license plate readers can help solve crimes, the security risks could warrant a policy change.
“The way that the information is shared does need to be reviewed,” she said. “It seems like there are some opportunities for those to be locked down a little bit more.”
Boston was less skeptical about the devices, noting that they have been helpful in his work at the District Attorney’s office.
“I know that they are somewhat contentious,” he said. “But I will say from an investigative standpoint, that there's huge benefits to being able to have access to some of those types of informations that come from that type of technology.”
Primary Election Day is June 30, 2026. Voters can find their polling places, learn about how to register to vote and see who’s on the ballot by reviewing Aspen Public Radio’s 2026 Primary Election Guide.
