Don Pray hanging up the badge

Jim Cornelius, News Editor | Last updated Jun 24, 2014 12:0pm0

Jim Cornelius count

Don Pray on his last day in uniform in Sisters.

After serving the Sisters Country for a quarter-century, first with the Sisters Police Department, then with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Deputy Don Pray has retired from the force.

Law enforcement was a second career for Pray, and he found it almost by accident.

He had already worked for two decades for Dominick's Foods in Chicago, where he was managing stores for the company.

"I started with them when I was in high school," he recalled. "I wanted to do something different after 20 years. I didn't know what I wanted to do."

He had family in the Sisters Country and he and his wife Corinne decided to move here. Don commuted to work for Food Connection in Eugene for nine months, but that was neither a change nor the place he wanted to be, so he "up and quit." He worked for a year-and-a-half for Keeton-King Construction when a classified ad in The Nugget caught his eye.

"They had an ad for a (Sisters PD) reserve officer in The Nugget at the end of '88," he recalled. "I had no inkling before I saw that ad that I wanted to go into law enforcement."

An unusually eventful ride-along right at the beginning set his course.

A man suspected of murdering his wife was believed headed through Sisters Country in a vehicle with a couple of other men. The officer with whom Pray was riding spotted the vehicle on Highway 20 and called for backup. Officers stopped traffic in both directions and made a felony stop on the suspect. The officer handed Pray a shotgun "just in case it goes bad," and he had a ringside seat for the action, which ended up with the murder suspect in the custody of Sisters PD.

"That hooked me, right there," he said.

Pray served as a reserve for two years before coming on full-time with Sisters PD. When the department disbanded in 1997 and contracted with DCSO for police services, he went to the sheriff's office. Since then he has worked in drug enforcement, as a detective investigating child abuse and sex crimes and, most prominently in recent years, as a school resource officer in Sisters schools, where he is affectionately known as Deputy Don.

And he's loved the work.

Working in a smaller, semi-rural department has many advantages. Investigators and deputies can stay involved in cases and see them through to resolution, where in major metro department, they often must just move from case to case and never really have any connection to outcomes.

"You don't get to follow up and see what happens," Pray notes. "You do here, and that's great.

"Honestly, I don't know if I would do this work in Portland or L.A. or Chicago where I came from. I definitely wouldn't do it in Chicago, I can tell you that."

He found his greatest satisfaction as a detective working sex crimes, because there was real resolution. Drug offenders often get spun out through a revolving door. Not so sex offenders.

"When you're done and you put somebody away - you put somebody away."

The rural nature of the work can create some amusement. Pray has raised a chuckle or two because he carries a lasso in his vehicle as part of his regular equipment. Sometimes a deputy has to round up a loose horse...

In recent years, Pray has been riding herd on kids in Sisters schools. That's not too tough, he acknowledges - he thinks Sisters has the best kids in Central Oregon. That doesn't mean there are no issues however (see story, page 21).

Pray sees the primary role of school resource deputies as creating and maintaining wide open lines of communication with students. That way he can work with families experiencing issues with bullying or harassment, drugs or potential violence.

It's law enforcement, but it has to be handled with a light touch.

"We walk that fine line," he said. "Kids are kids. All kids make mistakes. Our goal is to get them to understand where they're making their mistake. The goal is, we try to get them to change their behavior."

Pray has four children and six grandchildren, so a top retirement priority is to spend time with them. And he and Corinne plan to travel. But Pray won't be pulling up stakes. He's invested in the Sisters community and plans to stay.

"There's no finer place to live than here," he says.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
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Resource deputies play a key role in Sisters schools

School resource deputies have come to play an integral role in the life of Sisters' schools.

The deputies are the first line of defense against violence in the schools, an issue that has become increasingly prevalent in the past 15 years or so. But the role of protector is far from the only role played by law enforcement officers in the schools.

For the past several years, that role has belonged to Deputy Don Pray, who retired last Friday (see related story, page 1).

Whether it's heading off violent behavior, stopping bullying and harassment, or keeping drugs out of the schools, the key is a trusting relationship with students, Pray says - one that fosters open communication.

"That's the main line of defense - open communication with the kids around the schools," Pray told The Nugget.

While folks in Sisters generally feel much safer than they might in other places, Sisters schools are still subject to the same dangers and threats. Horrific experiences in other communities reminds law enforcement and school officials that they must always be vigilant, especially when it comes to behavior that might tip them to potential violence.

"There are students that I worry about now, still, that we keep an eye on, " Pray acknowledged.

Having a presence in the schools allows school officials and law enforcement to coordinate efforts in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

"We do share," Pray said. "And that would never happen if I was just a deputy out in Sisters and not in the schools."

Students are the best source of information about trouble brewing. That includes the use of drugs. Pray notes that the only times drugs have been found in school, it was the result of a tip.

"It has come from other students," he said. "We'd have never found it by a (drug sniffing) dog being there that day."

Pray acknowledges that there remains a resistance among teenagers toward "ratting out their friends," but the school culture has placed an emphasis on reporting illicit behavior not only as the "right thing to do" but as necessary to keep kids - including perpetrators - safe.

There have been few incidences of kids being busted for drug possession or use at school - but that does not mean that there is not a problem in Sisters.

"There's still quite a bit of usage with our kids," Pray said. "They'll admit to it."

Pray says that "marijuana is the big issue - always is and always will be."

Unlike with alcohol, where a deputy can cite a teen as a "minor in possession" just by smelling it on him, Pray says that it's much more difficult to pin an MIP rap on a pot smoker who doesn't actually have anything on him. And the kids know it.

"The kids are smart enough not to bring it to the school," he said. "Do they go out and smoke it at lunch time? Yeah, we know that for a fact."

Pray has some concerns that the trend toward legalization will legitimize marijuana use.

"I've had 18-year-olds who are still in school who have medical marijuana cards," he said.

"Pallet parties" - where kids stack up pallets for a bonfire and gather to drink - are more rare than they used to be, Pray said.

"For the most part, we don't have them anymore," he said.

Law enforcement pressure on popular spots and increased parental awareness about kids "going camping" has reduced their frequency or moved the parties out of the Sisters area.

Pray worked closely with Forest Service law enforcement officer Fred Perl to close down partying in the woods - which is not only a problem involving kids and alcohol, but also a fire hazard.

The deputy recalled working with Perl on a case about two-and-a-half years ago involving an elaborate treehouse created as a party pad out in the woods near Sisters.

"It had a couch, a wood-burning stove, drop down windows," Pray recalled.

There was obviously some construction skill involved, and the site was very well camouflaged.

Pray was able to figure out who built it and, he said with a grin, "it came down by the hands that put it up."

The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office will provide a new school resource deputy next school year, who will go about the task of building up the trust and communication that "Deputy Don" enjoyed amongst the students of Sisters schools.