Last week our new county sheriff (January 10, 2023) gave our club an awesome, fact-filled, and rapid-fire account of personnel, services and plans from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff John Feyen started with a brief personal history (see Rotogear June 11 for details). Throughout, you could tell he was “feeling blessed” to be our sheriff and proud of his personal and product.
The mission – “We protect and preserve life, liberty, and property in Larimer County through the delivery of superior public safety services.” Their vision - “One Agency, One Mission: Public Safety”. Our county is large, with both rural (Red Feather) and urban (Fort Collins) places. The LC Sheriff badge is 7-pointed, representing the statutory duties of the office – Law Enforcement, Keeper of the Jail, Search and Rescue, Hazardous Materials, Court Security, Officer of the Court, and Fire Warden. Duties somewhat unique to Larimer County are fire warden and keeper of the jail.
Key figures in the command structure were pictured and described. There are 550 full-time employees. This swells to over 700 in the summer mostly due to fire duties. Sheriff Feyen has made changes to ensure that each of his officers will become familiar with other division’s duties by rotating assignments. Other changes will recognize and include the important employees who work without the uniform.
Next, we learned about the various divisions and their duties. Patrol Officers are those uniformed that we are most likely to see on duty. The county is divided into 7 areas which are very diverse in size and population. Complimenting Patrol are the various volunteer groups - Explorers, Reserves, and mounted Posse. The All-Hazards/Crisis Response Group smartly includes members of the SWAT team because they are the folks who can communicate and deploy quickly to emergencies like the recent Cameron Peak fire. Traffic Enforcement includes patrol cars and motorcycles (They are actively and patiently involved in getting the Sheriff a motorcycle certification). Bomb Squad personnel are usually described as a little different than the rest of us. They are helped by robots (as seen in the movies). K9 has 7 patrol dogs and 2 narc dogs at the jail. A bomb dog is in training.
As mentioned, running the Jail is a task assigned to the Sheriff’s office rarely (only 3 other counties in the US). The primary function of the jail is to safely and securely detain both pre-trial detainees and sentences. Jail logistics and booking involve numerous tasks - searches, scans, fingerprinting and recently, iris scanning. Logistics also provides services to the courts including over 20,000 trips to the LC Justice center and assistance to the Loveland Police and courts. Inmates are serviced by Narcotic dogs and a SWAT team for the jail (SERT). A major expansion of the LC Jail is nearing completion and will add 200 beds.
The next division is Crimes Against Persons - homicides, assaults, robberies, missing persons, unattended deaths, and child pornography. Property Crimes include burglary, theft, computer crimes, forgery, ID theft, arson, and criminal mischief. Our high-tech local Crime Lab can do screening/presumptive DNA. Strategic Enforcement is busy with gun and drug crimes. For Emergency Operations fires are the biggest activity in Larimer County. Search and Rescue is supported by various civilian volunteers. Professional Standards manages internal affairs with policies, audits, and background investigations. Communications handles 911 calls (over 12,000 per month).
The Sheriff’s priorities for “Year 1” are data and transparency, mental health (external and internal), outreach and narrative.
Great information today - afterward members could be heard sharing their confidence in our speaker (“feeling blessed?”), Sheriff Feyen, as he leads this all-important Larimer County team.