PORT HADLOCK — After nearly 30 years in law enforcement, Jefferson County Undersheriff Ken Sukert will retire at the end of March.

Sukert, 52, plans to relax. For a while.

“I am going to catch up on the long list of projects and eventually, I will probably seek employment,” he said.

“(I’m) not sure at this time if it will be in the field of law enforcement.”

Sheriff Mike Brasfield well knows the lure of post-retirement police work.

“I would not be surprised if there is an opportunity later for him to get involved with law enforcement again,” said Brasfield, who himself had retired twice prior to being elected sheriff in 2003 to replace the retiring Pete Piccini.

“Some people are very comfortable at retiring and not doing a lot,” Brasfield said.

“But I think Ken is the type of person who would not be able to retire for very long.”

Sukert has served 10 years as undersheriff to Piccini and Brasfield.

He will be replaced in the No. 2 position by another retiree who is returning to law enforcement, Timothy Perry of Port Ludlow, the former police chief of Clyde Hill in eastern King County.

Native of the Peninsula

Born and raised on the North Olympic Peninsula, Sukert graduated from Sequim High School and attended Peninsula College in Port Angeles, where he earned an associate’s degree in forestry technology.

Sukert became a reserve police officer in the Sequim Police Department in 1975, after working in the timber industry in Forks for five years.

“My hope had been that I would be able to maintain a position at the Sequim Police Department, but at that time no positions were available,” he recalled.

Sukert instead joined the Forks Police Department in 1978 and enrolled in the state police academy — when, coincidentally, Brasfield was the academy lieutenant.

Sukert never met Brasfield, which he said was fortunate for him as a cadet.

“You wouldn’t want to know the lieutenant of the police academy,” Sukert said.

The same year, ironically, Perry — Sukert’s successor as undersheriff — was one of the instructors at the academy.

“A small world,” Sukert said, smiling.