It's metaphor. He's not singing about an actual sheriff or a deputy.
It's about intolerance and injustice. The sheriff I think is the police force as a whole, and he is saying "Yeah, I want to change the police". But he is also saying he can tell the difference between the police as an institution and the policemen who do it as a job. That is, he doesn't hate them, but what they stand for.
It's metaphor. He's not singing about an actual sheriff or a deputy.
It's about intolerance and injustice. The sheriff I think is the police force as a whole, and he is saying "Yeah, I want to change the police". But he is also saying he can tell the difference between the police as an institution and the policemen who do it as a job. That is, he doesn't hate them, but what they stand for.