SHERIFF'S OFFICE PRIORITIES
As a democratically elected position, I believe the future direction of the Carbon County Sheriff’s office should be dictated by community input. However, there are three basic tenets I’d like to address in conjunction with community expectations.
COMMUNITY INTERACTION
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As a deputy I am many things. But first and foremost, I am a husband, a father, and a community member. Those all come before being a deputy. A strong sense of community is integral to successfully providing this county with effective public safety. Implementing meaningful community interaction is one of the highest priorities of my operational platform.
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As members of the sheriff’s office, we oftentimes find ourselves working with a variety of emergency response entities from around the county. Despite the frequency of our interactions in emergency situations, we currently fail to implement any type of cooperative training. Incorporating beneficial multi-agency training is an integral piece of my operational platform. Not only will it improve the working relationships between individuals and entities, but it will help provide better and more cohesive emergency response services to the members of this community.
AREA COVERAGE
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Carbon County has one city, nine towns, two census designated areas, seven unincorporated communities, and almost eight thousand square miles. The proper implementation of an effective coverage strategy is necessary to provide the county the type of emergency response and community coverage it deserves.
STAFF INVESTMENT
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Over the past five years, the employee turnover rate at the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office has exceeded approximately eighty percent. That means that county funds are being used to hire, train, and develop staff members, only to have them take their talents elsewhere. While it is true that many professionals are leaving law enforcement, this does not tend to be the case in Carbon County. Employees are not quitting law enforcement; they are quitting the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office. In the last five years, we have had deputies leave the sheriff’s office to go to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, the Encampment Police Department, the Rawlins Police Department, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, the Medicine Bow Marshal’s Office, the Hanna Marshal’s Office, the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office, the Wyoming State Penitentiary, etc. It is not fair to the citizens of this county that we as an office continually fail to retain qualified staff and incur training and recruitment costs that could be avoided with proper staff retention. My goal is to cut the turnover rate from ninety-plus percent to thirty percent. This not only cuts back on recruitment and training expenditure, but more importantly, it provides us the opportunity to build long-term, positive relationships with members of the community.
