A 28-year veteran of the Sublette County, Wisconsin Sheriff's Office decided to leave his job in rather than conform to a new dress code that would require him to hang up his cowboy boots and cowboy hat.

The Associated Press reported 70-year-old Deputy Gene Bryson said the rules imposed by Sheriff Stephen Haskell were "kind of the reason why I retired."

Haskell, who has worked in law enforcement for three years, is requiring deputies to wear black trousers, a tan shirt, black boots and a black ball cap in an effort to present a safe, professional and uniform image.

Bryson, born and raised on a ranch in Montana, worked on ranches in Colorado and Wyoming, however, and was not quite ready to adapt.

"I am not going to change. I've been here for 40-odd years in the Sheriff's Office, and I'm not going to go out and buy combat boots and throw my vest and hat away and say, 'This is the new me,'" Bryson, who has worked in law enforcement since 1974, said. "I've had a cowboy hat on since 19. ... That's what looks good to me in the sheriff's department. It's Western. It's Wyoming."

The department's 53-year-old head told the Casper Star-Tribune that uniformity was needed.

"I had my patrol deputies wearing one uniform," Haskell said. "I had detention wearing another uniform. It looked like the Skittles platoon. We had a rainbow of colors. Who the heck is who?"

There were also practical concerns, he added.

"I'd rather my deputies were concerned with their safety and the safety of the public than trying to chase down a fly-away cowboy hat," Haskell explained.

The sheriff insisted, however, he too is a fan of the Western lifestyle. His jurisdiction includes the town of Pinedale, which True West magazine recently crowned a "true Western town."

"I'm very much for the Western way of life and the look, and that's the way I dress," Haskell said. "However, for a professional outfit ... I like everybody to look the same. We are one team unified in one purpose. That is to do our job."

For Bryson, being a part-time cowboy was not really an option.

"That's the way I dress," he said. "Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days out of the year."

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