LINCOLN–(KFOR Nov. 11)–Eight days after he won the bid to become the next Lancaster County sheriff, Johnny “Jay” Pitts has kept busy with a number of things to set up the transition period, including getting fitted for his uniform.
Pitts, 53, won the election on Nov. 3 and defeated Chief Deputy Ben Houchin to become the county’s first new sheriff in 32 years. Pitts, who got into law enforcement with the Lincoln Police Department in 1995, left law enforcement briefly in 2000 to work as a car dealer, but returned five years later as a deputy with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and a criminal investigator with LSO. For a second time, Pitts left law enforcement in 2011 to take over work for an insurance agency but soon returned to law enforcement in 2012, working as an officer for the Lincoln Airport Police, where he has been the past 14 years.
Pitts’ father, John Pitts, Sr., a former Nebraska football player, became an officer with Lincoln Police in 1973…