Furlong's pick for under sheriff entrenched in Nevada law enforcement

Lt. Steve Albertsen of the Nevada Division of Investigations once was Ken Furlong's boss when the two men worked together in the state's major crimes unit.

Come Jan. 6, the roles will be reversed when Furlong, Carson City's newly elected sheriff, appoints Albertsen as his undersheriff.

"We are ready to go," Albertsen said. "We've got to get the department back on track. The election is over with. Let's all get going here and work for a common goal."

Albertsen, 47, is no stranger to Nevada law enforcement.

Since 1978, when he moved from Oxnard, Calif., Albertsen has been entrenched in it.

He began his career as a reserve deputy for Carson City Sheriff's Department until being hired full time in December of 1981 when Sheriff Hal Dunn was in office.

For the next 12 years, Albertsen was assigned to both patrol and detectives where he worked property crimes, personal crimes, gangs and narcotics.

In 1993, he was wooed away from the department by the Nevada Division of Investigations and for two years worked in such locales as Winnemucca and Fallon before being promoted to lieutenant in 1995. He was assigned to Lake Tahoe.

"We opened a new drug task force up there that involved agencies from both California and Nevada," Albertsen said. His supervision of that task force lasted for three and a half years, before he was back in Carson City and supervising Tri Net until his assignment with major crimes, where he met Furlong.

Albertsen said Furlong approached him with the idea of being undersheriff when he first decided to run.

"At one point during the election he asked me if I'd consider maybe coming over in his administration, and I told him he'd have to get back to me because he didn't have a job to offer yet," he said, laughing.

Furlong, who won Tuesday's election by a 13 percent margin over Deputy Bob Guimont, had pegged Albertsen as his undersheriff, but wasn't ready to announce it until the election was over.

Minutes after the final results Tuesday night, Furlong officially asked and Albertsen agreed.

"Ken's an honest man and he has some good ideas and some good visions for the sheriff's office," he said.

Married for 19 years to his wife Candy, Albertsen is the father of four and grandfather of six. His newest grandchild was born to his daughter Trisha in Carson City recently.

Daughter Tiffany, 26, is stationed on the USS Kittyhawk. His other two children, Todd and Jennifer, both live in Northern Nevada.

"Our main objective is to get the community behind us," Albertsen said of the sheriff's department that in recent months has complained of low morale among deputies and in which the public has expressed unhappiness.

"Most of the stuff the sheriff's department is doing isn't 'top secret,' and we want to work closely with the press to get as much information out to the public as we can," he said. "The more you put out the more you get back. If the community is behind us, the deputies can get raises and everyone will be happier.

"The (people) gave Ken this job because they want him to do the job."