Shawnee County Sheriff Herman T. Jones II, from Kansas City, Kansas, has been named the next superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol, assuming command on April 3.
According to a news release from Gov. Laura Kelly, Jones served from 1982 to 1992 as a state trooper with the Kansas Highway Patrol, and from 2000 to 2011 he was the KHP director of administration.
He served as Shawnee County undersheriff in 2011 and was named Shawnee County sheriff in April 2012. He was subsequently elected to the sheriff’s position in 2012 and 2016.
Jones attended the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, including Northwest Junior High and Wyandotte High School, where he graduated in 1976.
He then attended Emporia State University, where he took a job as a dispatcher while a student. Subsequently he became a student night guard, and later a campus police officer.
He also was an officer with the Emporia Police Department and has been a police instructor at the University of Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center.
“Sheriff Jones has 40 years of impressive and diverse law enforcement experience,” Gov. Kelly said in the news release. “He has worked in municipal, county, and state law enforcement and he has been a leader in law enforcement training and education. Sheriff Jones is the right person to lead the Kansas Highway Patrol at this critical time.”
Jones was honored by the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools in its Reasons to Believe program in 2013.
“I’m honored to be selected by Governor Kelly to serve in this important law enforcement position,” Jones said in the news release. “I’ve dedicated my career to public safety and look forward to again working with the women and men of the Kansas Highway Patrol to strengthen our agency and improve public safety across Kansas.”
Jones is a graduate of Emporia State University, the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy, the Kansas Highway Patrol Academy, and the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center.