NORTH HAVERHILL — A 30-year-old part-time Littleton police officer who promises “pro-active policing” has been elected the new sheriff of Grafton County.

Democrat Jill Myers, of Lisbon, defeated Bath Police Chief Todd Matthew Eck, 28,937-23,098, according to official election results released by the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office on Friday.

Myers will succeed Democrat Jeff Stiegler, who is completing his third term as sheriff and did not seek re-election.

Myers’ victory returns her to the sheriff’s office where she worked as a deputy for 21 months between 2021 and 2023. The job comes with an annual salary of $75,000.

Last year, Myers threatened to sue the county for nearly $400,000 after she accused Stiegler of creating a hostile work environment, making crude sexual remarks and launching a retaliatory internal affairs complaint against her, according to two complaints she filed with state authorities.

“I am just happy people could see through everything and chose me to be sheriff,” Myers said on Thursday.

Eck, a 28-year police veteran in Grafton County, said he called Myers to congratulate her. “I sincerely wish her success in her service to our county as the new sheriff,” he said in a statement to the Valley News.

Myers prevailed over Eck, a North Haverhill Republican, in only 18 of 42 municipalities in Grafton County, but still won more than 55% of the vote. She dominated in the Democratic strongholds of Hanover, Lebanon and Lyme, where the votes collectively exceeded her 5,839-vote margin of victory.

Eck came out ahead in both Lisbon, where Myers currently lives and her husband’s family are prominent business owners, and Landaff, where she grew up.

As sheriff, Myers said it’s her goal to turn the prosaic work of the department — which is principally responsible for prisoner transport, court security and serving civil warrants — into a more active police agency. She also wants to raise the department’s profile in county through community outreach programs, encouraging deputies to respond for assistance on calls and rebuilding morale among deputies.

Despite the unhappy circumstances surrounding her departure in 2023 when she subsequently joined the Littleton Police Department as a special investigator, Myers said she enjoyed working as a deputy because “you weren’t stuck to one town. You could go out and network with as many people across the county, across the state, and really across the country as you could. But I knew that the sheriff’s department could be so much more than it was.”

Myers will emphasize greater training for deputies and working closer with other law enforcement agencies in the county and state to make sure “everyone is on the same page,” she said.

She envisions the department offering its services under contract with Grafton County towns that do not have their own police departments, a strategy that is pursued aggressively by some county sheriff departments in Vermont, where funding is a constant challenge.

Asked where the money would come from to pay for the ambitious plans, Myers said “there is a lot of grant funding out there.”

Myers said she believes the Grafton County sheriff’s department — she cites Hillsborough County sheriff’s office as a model in the state — should be taking on more of the duties of regular policing and deputies should have more of a mindset to look beyond their traditional custodial role.

“When I was there (policing) was kind of like frowned upon,” Myers said. “People would say, ‘Why are you doing that? Why are you going on calls?’ Which is crazy to me because we’re in law enforcement and we should be helping people when we can.”

“I want people to know if they are on the road and need help, a deputy is not going to drive by,” adde Myers, who noted she’s heard of this happening. “Or if there is a domestic and there’s only one officer in that town the deputy is going to back up at very least.”

Grant funding, for example, could help to pay for training of a SWAT team, Myers said.”We don’t have a SWAT team close by in the North Country. If something happens, like an active shooter, it’s going to be an everyday beat cop responding,” but a trained SWAT team is part of “critical incident management.”

Moreover, training costs can be shared among multiple police departments, Myers suggested, which would bring down the overall costs.

She plans to implement more community outreach programs — Myers cited the Littleton Police Department’s participation in a softball game to raise money for breast cancer research as an example of things she would like to introduce with the sheriff’s department. She also wants to develop a website and social media presence for the department that will communicate news and information about the sheriff department.

A “lot of it is public service announcements, like ‘This accident is happening here, try to avoid it’ … It’s nice for people to actually see what their department is doing,” adding that social media can “also help with investigations.”

Myers said she also wants the sheriff’s department to become accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, or CALEA, which would “clarify policies and procedures” and align them with the nationally recognized standard.

Myers said after college at Plymouth State she initially wanted to become a probation and parole officer. She was attracted to the “rehabilitation side” of law enforcement. The work appealed to her because “you can have a good influence on people, to be a positive person for someone coming out of a tough situation.”

But when “I discovered there were no jobs in probation and parole” and “wanting to stay in Grafton County and the North Country,” Myers applied for a job with the Littleton Police Department and found policing “was a great experience and great environment to be in.”

In an interview Thursday, Myers declined to discuss matters regarding her husband, James Myers, who faces misdemeanor charges of harassment and disorderly conduct for his alleged involvement in a September incident that led a Lisbon man to seek and the court to approve a 12-month restraining order against Myers and three other men involved.

Under the restraining order, James Myers is forbidden to possess firearms or have them in his control.

Typically such orders bar access to firearms in the household, which raises questions regarding any firearms under the control of Jill Myers.

An attorney for Jill Myers referred the question to her husband’s attorney on Friday. James Myers’ attorney said via email to the Valley News the question should be referred to law enforcement.

The Lisbon Police Department did not respond to an inquiry.

Myers was one of two women to win a county sheriff’s race in New Hampshire in this week’s general election. Former North Hampton Police Chief Kathryn Mone won her bid to become Strafford County’s next sheriff.

Although New Hampshire has had women appointed county sheriff — going back to 1909 — this past week is believed to be the first time in state history that women were elected to the office.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.