The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office congratulates their newest lieutenant. On March 24, Deputy Seth Cutchen was promoted to lieutenant on March 24.
His duties will include patrol, boating enforcement and overseeing the staff of the Page Detention Facility.

Lt. Cutchen is a native of northern Arizona. He grew up in Flagstaff and has lived in the Grand Circle area his entire life. He has been an officer for 25 years starting his career in 1993 with Coconino Sheriff’s Office. He worked in the Fredonia Marshall’s office and then moved back to Page in 1999 to work with the Page Police Department. In 2012, Cutchen went back to the Sheriff’s Office at the Page Station. He was promoted to Sergeant Deputy in 2015 until the former Lt. Deputy Bret Axlund was promoted Chief Deputy leaving a vacancy for Cutchen to fill.

Cutchen believes he has big shoes to fill in following the former lieutenant’s operation of the Page station. One of his first goals is to improve on employee morale.

“[Working as a detention officer] is a really difficult, thankless job and I want to work with the staff to make it a more [rewarding], or better for them and improve on the conditions for the detention site,” he said. “The now-Chief Deputy Axlund did a terrific job running the sub-station and I’d like to keep things the way he had it.”

Cutchen acknowledges the need to upkeep partnerships within the surrounding law enforcement community and its extended family.
“We, of course, want to maintain partnerships with our community such as the C.E.R.T. [Community Emergency Response Teams] program volunteers, who we train to assist first responders,” he said. “We also like to have a partnership with the tribe, so we will to attend chapter meetings and try to work with the [Navajo Nation Police]. Also, with the local law enforcement, we work together because in this area we are small agencies and we are so much more effective when we work together.”

When asked about the neighborhoods within the local communities and how to improve the sense of security,Cutchen mentions the community of Greenhaven. “If we had more unity as a community we can strive for a way to look out for each other,” he said. “For example, one community I noticed was Greenhaven. That community is busy looking out for each other. Greenhaven is a very tight-knit group and they are busy looking after each other’s house.
“What might seem like a little thing might potentially be a large thing for somebody else, like, somebody’s missing dog; that is a member of somebody’s family.”

Lieutenant Cutchen is carrying an optimistic attitude for his new position and is grateful for the support he’s receiving.
“I’m excited about the future,” he said. “I have received a lot of support and encouragement from the community. Hopefully we can maintain our good status quo and look for ways to improve.”