GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — As fallen officers from around the nation are being honored in Washington, D.C., this week, the one Kentucky lost in 2023 is still vividly on his boss's mind.
“I go to bed thinking about him, I wake up thinking about him,” Sheriff Tony Hampton said of Deputy Caleb Conley.
Deputy Conley was shot and killed last May while making a traffic stop along I-75 in Georgetown. Since then, the Sheriff has wrestled with his own emotions while trying to lead everyone else in the office who also still feels Conley’s loss.
“It’s something we don’t like but we have to accept it,” he said from behind his desk. “That was the hardest thing when it happened was accepting that it happened,” Hampton continued.
He also noted that nothing could’ve changed the outcome, and that, too, has been difficult to overcome.
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“That hurt deeply,” he stated.
Sheriff Hampton didn’t feel it would be appropriate to attend the ceremonies in Washington, given he’s on the ballot in next Tuesday’s Primary Election. (The sheriff is running to be state representative in House District 62.) He did, however, send a contingent from the Scott County Sheriff's Office to be there with the deputy’s surviving family members.
“They were all very close with Caleb, we were all close with him, and not a day goes by that we don’t miss him and think about him,” Hampton said, “But them being there with his spouse is special, and I’m glad they do this,” he added.
Later this month, Deputy Conley’s name will be etched into the fallen officer monument in Richmond on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. The sheriff said he will attend that ceremony. As it happens, Tuesday’s primary election will be the one-year anniversary of that fateful traffic stop.
“It’s a part of what we do, it’s a part of life and it’s something that’s been hard for us,” Sheriff Hampton concluded.
