Following the recent retirement of Captain Andy Rorex from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Mike Allen gave two current command staff members the opportunity to rise through the ranks of the sheriff’s office.
Kevin Malone was promoted from captain to undersheriff and Sean Wilkin was promoted from lieutenant to captain, effective June 3.
“With the retirement of Captain Rorex, it provided me with an opportunity to reorganize and restructure the sheriff’s office," Allen said. "When I was elected sheriff I brought Rorex and Malone to the captain level at the same time together and when Captain Rorex retired, that gave an opportunity to restructure the sheriff’s office. Both Captain Rorex and Captain Malone have demonstrated their loyalty and dedication to the community, to myself, to the sheriff’s office and I would never put one over the other but that kind of opened the door to promote Captain Malone and I think it’s a good choice.”
With the change, Allen said Undersheriff Malone will be second in command.
He will continue oversight of patrol, detective division, off highway vehicle (OHV) program, coroner, central control and will take on the responsibility of dispatch, which Rorex previously managed.
Captain Wilkin will oversee the jail (previously managed by Rorex), emergency management, courts, hiring, animal control, internal affairs, SRT, the K9 officer program and search and rescue.
Wilkin just completed a four-week FEMA certified emergency management training program spread over a period of four months for one week per month, 160 hours in total. Allen said only 1,500 people in the nation have been through the FEMA certified emergency management program.
“Nobody in this county has done that, we’ve been one of the only law enforcement agencies that do emergency management,” said Allen.
Wilkin added, “The goal is to have an emergency manager trained to take a whole community approach to emergency management to benefit the public in areas of preparedness and planning, training exercises and things for us in the agency and there was a lot of good training in that class."
Allen said he’s going to evaluate the change for a short period before making a decision whether the division is going to promote someone else to the lieutenant level to replace Wilkin.
Malone has been with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office since 1999, prior to which time he served in the US Navy. Malone started in detention, transferred to patrol in 2003, to detectives in 2007, worked in dispatch intermittently due to an injury and went back into patrol in 2010. He was promoted to captain in 2015 and most recently undersheriff.
“Since I’ve been with the sheriff’s office I have performed every function with the exception of sheriff now,” said Malone. I’ve been fortunate; I’ve been able to do a lot here.”
Malone attended and graduated from the prestigious FBI Academy in 2016 and has been a part of the special response team for approximately 15 years. He also started the dual role law enforcement medical provider program in Humboldt County in 2007 and graduated paramedic school in 2014.
“It (paramedic school) is literally the single hardest thing I’ve ever done, and doing it while being a full-time cop,” said Malone.
Malone was also shot in the helmet in the line of duty in October 2010 by a sovereign citizen, unharmed due to the ballistic helmet he was wearing.
Wilkin started the POST academy in 2001 after spending five years in the Marine Corps. During his career he has worked in patrol, K9, narcotics task force, patrol, sergeant, warrants, oversight of K9, taught at the Nevada POST academy and has been a firearms instructor and range master for many years.
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Wilkin worked in Humboldt County for just under three years, went to White Pine County Sheriff’s Office and returned to HCSO in 2017. He was promoted to Lieutenant in February 2018 and most recently to captain.
“They’ve both done outstanding jobs in their previous responsibilities and I know that they’ll continue to serve the community and the county outstandingly,” said Allen. “I want the public to know that we always have an open door policy, feel free to call or come in. I take great pride in serving the community and that’s what we try to instill in the entire agency.”
Former Captain Rorex was in law enforcement for over 20 years in Humboldt County and is a third-generation law enforcement officer.
“He (Rorex) did an awesome job with us here,” said Allen. “He’s truly going to be missed and he was an invaluable asset here to us in overseeing his responsibilities and we have to take a little bit of time to readjust but I know that we can still continue to operate and serve the community.”
