Colorado native Stan Hilkey was appointed Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS) in June 2014 by Governor John Hickenlooper and reappointed twice by Governor Jared Polis in 2018 and 2022. CDPS is one of the largest departments in Colorado state government with 6 divisions.  

Executive Director Hilkey also serves as Chair of the Colorado Fire Commission, Chair of the Homeland Security Advisors Council, POST Board member, Board Member of RMHIDTA and the Rocky Mountain Intelligence Network, in addition to other Cabinet work groups, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice task forces, advisory boards and commissions.

Stan’s career started in public safety. He served 28 years in the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, where he was the elected Sheriff of Mesa County for 11 years. During his tenure as Sheriff, he was President of County Sheriffs of Colorado, a POST Board Member, two-time Chair of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Board, Colorado State Methamphetamine Task Force, and a member of the Pretrial Detention Task Force of the Colorado Commission on Crime and Juvenile Justice.

He is a graduate from the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management In Policing (SMIP), the FBI National Academy, and from the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command. Stan has been POST certified since 1986 and has served on the POST Executive Board since 2014.