STATE OF THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE
January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007

To the Citizens of Humboldt County:

As we close the year 2007 and look forward to 2008, I want to take this opportunity as your Sheriff to reflect upon and share with you some of the accomplishments of the Sheriff’s Office during my first year in office.

To say the least, I am greatly humbled by your support of me during the election of November 2006. It will always be my goal to maintain that support and to foster the greatest possible relationships that I can with you, the members of my community. As a true advocate of “Community Oriented Policing”, I believe that the better relationships we foster between law enforcement and the public, the safer our community will be and Humboldt County will continue to be a great place to live.

When I ran for this office, one of my goals was to make the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office a model agency among all of the rural agencies in Nevada. To achieve this goal, I knew that one of the first things I would have to do is to get our department to full staff. Our agency had several vacancies in the Patrol and Detention Divisions as well as Dispatch. By immediately addressing these vacancies by hiring competent personnel, I knew that we would accomplish two things right away. The first would be to reduce the overtime that was being paid out to the existing staff who were working extra hours to make up for the lack of personnel. The second accomplishment would be to allow our staff to gain some of their personal time back with their families. This has a terrific effect in reducing “burn out” and employee turnover.

To make this goal a reality, I needed a staff of qualified individuals to help me. Therefore, I put into place a personal staff of veteran law enforcement personnel. As my Undersheriff, I appointed Curtiss Kull, a 23-year veteran peace officer; for my Commander, I chose Bill Dalley, a 15-year veteran; and for my Special Programs Director, I hired 30+ year law enforcement professional Thomas Casey. To round out this team, I appointed Beverly Wilson as my Office Manager. Beverly came to me from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office where she served as the assistant to their Undersheriff and two Assistant Sheriffs.

Once my team was in place, we immediately set out to get the Sheriff’s Office to full staff. By summer of 2007, we accomplished that goal by hiring two ladies for our Communications (Dispatch) Division: Haida Caruso and Kathy Wagner. We also welcomed Deputies Hellie Casey, Don Darlington, and Phillip Smith to the Detention Division. Deputy Ed Holsclaw joined the team with the Patrol Division. In regards to staffing and personnel issues, the year saw the promotion of Deputy Dave Milton to Sergeant and Deputy Kevin Malone to Detective. Deputy Dane Olson was selected as the new Resident Deputy to serve the community of Orovada.

We had several deputies successfully pass both the Category One and Category Three Peace Officer in Standards and Training Academies throughout the year. Deputies Damon Kuskie, Victor Castaneda, and Jason Parce all started their time as patrol deputies after finishing the Academy.

One of the most visual changes that occurred during the year was the selection and implementation of our new uniform and our new department patch. Lowry High School Senior Janeanne Knox designed the winning patch that is now being worn on the uniform of all members of the Sheriff’s Office. Another visual change is the new color scheme on our patrol vehicles. In addition to the new colors, we now also have a motto for the agency that is proudly placed on the left and right quarter panels of these units. “Diligent, Honorable, and Steadfast for our Community” is the motto that was submitted by Deputy Randy Close.

One of the greatest changes for the agency came in the spring with the establishment of an active, fully staffed Search and Rescue Team. Under the leadership and organization of my Special Programs Director Tom Casey, we now have a team of extremely committed volunteers from our community who are broken down into horse mounted teams, ATV teams, and Jeep teams. They have all undergone numerous hours of training during this year in ATV safety, map reading, and the working of GPS. The Search and Rescue Team has been activated this year for searches for missing persons as well as to assist in searching for evidence in criminal cases.

Continuing on my theme to make the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office a model agency among the rural agencies in our state, I also brought in numerous free courses of training for all of my personnel, to help them increase their knowledge in job related areas. Courses were offered in Drug Enforcement, Interviewing, DUI, Domestic Violence, and Law Enforcement Ethics training.

Finally, to wrap up a very busy year, we saw the accomplishment of our first Community Survey and the implementation of the Drug Endangered Child Program. The Community Survey was conducted in November and resulted in some 200 plus random persons in our community being contacted over the phone to learn of their observations of the Sheriff’s Office, as well as any particular problems that they may have in their respective neighborhoods. Information gleaned from this survey will help me in working with our community to address any of the issues that came up. Additionally, these surveys will be conducted on a yearly basis so we can chart our progress or note where we have to better ourselves as a service provider. The Drug Endangered Child Program will be a pilot program and one of the first of its kind in rural Nevada. This is a pro-active program aimed at hopefully, breaking the cycle of drug usage within families and rescuing a future generation from the scourge of drug abuse.

As we put a close to this year, I would like to again thank all of you for your support of me, and especially for your support of the outstanding men, women, sworn, civilian, and volunteers, that make up YOUR Sheriff’s Office. It is our pleasure to serve you, and we look forward to a positive, productive, and cooperative relationship in the years to come.

Ed Kilgore, Sheriff