A Powell man with 36 years of law-enforcement experience has filed to run for sheriff.

Bruce Olson, who has worked for the Park County Sheriff’s Office for 33 years and was a Powell police officer for three years prior to that, announced his candidacy Wednesday.

“I’ve worked for the sheriff’s office for a long time and I just want it to be a better place,” Olson said. “We’re losing really good people. It didn’t used to be that way.”

Olson will run against Sheriff Scott Steward in the Aug. 19 primary. Steward announced his candidacy on April 10.

“I look forward to the upcoming election and hope to serve Park County for another four years,” Steward said then.

Steward started with the Park County Sheriff’s Office in September 1990 and has worked as a dispatcher, detention deputy, patrol deputy, patrol lieutenant, undersheriff and sheriff.

Steward was appointed to the office in November 2005 following the resignation of then-Sheriff Dave Doyle.

Steward won four-year terms in 2006 and 2010, defeating Dave Brown by an almost three-to-one margin in the 2006 primary and running without opposition in 2010.

This year’s primary winner would face a Democratic opponent, or a third-party or independent candidate, in the Nov. 4 election. If there is no other candidate, the winner of the GOP contest would assume the office in 2015.

Olson said if elected, he would seek to immediately improve the environment in the office, ensure all employees know they are valued members of the team, expand training to ensure better service to citizens and improve communications with other agencies.

Olson said the sheriff’s office must work and communicate better with local police departments and the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Right now, that is not happening, he said.

Olson has worked as a patrol deputy, patrol sergeant, jail administrator and as a member of a Division of Criminal Investigation task force member during his career with the sheriff’s office.

Olson and his wife, Vicki, have been married 33 years. They live in Powell, where they have raised their six children. Olson, 60, is a Minneapolis native who moved to Wyoming on his 23rd birthday.