Deputy Justin Gurley doesn’t like being in an office. He’d much rather be out talking to people.

He spent eight years as a deputy sheriff in Florida, two years as a police officer at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, and the last 16 working at the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Gurley, who was born in Alabama and has lived in seven states, said the experiences between three agencies are vastly different.

Where Clark County will have 14 deputies available for patrol, in Florida, the departments would have hundreds and hundreds of deputies with a definitive chain of command.

“A regular deputy in Florida is not calling the sheriff directly,” he said. “I met the sheriff one time. (The sheriff’s departments) run the jails. Usually the police departments are smaller. You don’t have a state police. They have a highway patrol.”

Here, Gurley said he sees the sheriff practically every day and often outside of work.

At EKU, the difference was the sheer number of people.

“Working at the campus PD, you’re dealing with a lot more people at one time,” he said. “During the day, you could have 10,000 or 20,000 people on campus.

“Working here, you have a little more time to sit down and talk to people. If I’m out in the county and I see someone mowing their yard, I may stop and talk to them for 20 minutes. That’s what I enjoy doing.”

Gurley started his law enforcement career in Florida, after he moved there with his family. One of his brothers is a police officer in Florida, and Gurley said he was looking for an opportunity to serve.

“I always knew I wanted to serve, either my country or my community,” he said. “I was always in Boy Scouts. I had a friends in law enforcement in Florida and talked a lot to him. Next thing I know, I’m in the academy and I’m hooked.”

He moved to Winchester after working in Florida for about eight years.

Gurley said he loved being in a position to help people.

“Sometimes its people needing an accident report,” he said. “They have questions sometimes. They may have been driving for 50 years and never had an accident (and not know what to do). I just get a real good sense about supporting the community.”

It doesn’t overshadow the seriousness of police work, though.

“We technically have the power to take someone’s freedom away,” he said. “That’s huge. That’s not something I take lightly.”

The hardest part, he said, is dealing with death, especially when children are involved.

“You may have to inform a child someone they love won’t be around,” he said. “Sometimes you have to step away from your family. That’s part of being a first responder.”