Oregon's public safety board unanimously stripped Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan of his law enforcement certification for three years over a drunken-driving arrest and the lies that followed — a pace of accountability that working Americans rarely see applied to progressive prosecutors who unleash violent criminals back onto the streets.

The state Board of Public Safety Standards and Training adopted the recommendation Thursday without discussion, according to The Oregonian, acting on moral fitness violations tied to Rowan's May 2025 arrest. Body-camera footage published by The Oregonian showed Rowan leaning against vehicles to steady himself while repeatedly denying he had been drinking after a sergeant pulled him over doing 91 mph on I-84 in an unmarked county truck.

Rowan pleaded no contest to reckless driving and driving under the influence of intoxicants. He completed a diversion program, and the reckless driving charge was dismissed in March. But the dishonesty caught on camera — a sworn law enforcement official lying to another officer — is what drove the decertification.

Rowan apologized to the board's police policy committee in August, asking members to weigh his 37 years of service, his completion of inpatient alcohol-abuse treatment for first responders, and his ongoing counseling and weekly 12-step sessions. He told the committee he was "deeply ashamed" of his actions and "poor decisions."

The board wasn't buying it. Neither was the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association, which permanently expelled Rowan by a unanimous vote of 25 sheriffs on Sept. 14, according to association executive director Tim Svenson. The association rejected Rowan's offer to voluntarily suspend his membership pending the state board's ruling. Rowan had previously served as the association's president.

Here is where the system's gears slow down. Rowan notified the board he intends to appeal. That appeal could take at least a year before a state administrative law judge, and Rowan keeps his certification pending the outcome, according to Sam Tenney, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. Under state law, a sheriff must be certified within a year of taking office, and the county governing body is required to declare the office vacant if the sheriff is not certified. But that clock doesn't start ticking while the appeal hangs.

So a sheriff caught drunk at the wheel of a county vehicle, lying to a fellow officer on camera, gets his day before an administrative judge. Meanwhile, progressive district attorneys in cities across America who refuse to charge violent offenders, who dismiss felony cases wholesale, who let repeat offenders walk — they face no disciplinary boards, no certification reviews, no unanimous votes of expulsion from their peers.

Two candidates have already announced campaigns for the Umatilla County sheriff's seat in 2028, when Rowan's term ends. Rowan, 62, did not return messages seeking comment. He resigned from the state public safety board and police policy committee after his arrest.

The question isn't whether Rowan deserved what he got. The question is why the same machinery of accountability never seems to turn toward the prosecutors who do far more damage to public safety from behind a desk.