To the Citizens of Humboldt County:

Where do they go?  Yet another year in the history books and, as with the last two years, another successful and productive one.  It was a year marked by more forward momentum toward our corporate goal of making the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office a model agency among Nevada’s more rural counties.  This has been the driving force for the first and second years of my term and continues through this, the end of the third year.  This was another year of progressive training for our staff, and a year of acquiring better and more up-to-date equipment. It was also a year of beginnings and endings.

Toward the first part of 2009, our agency received, at no cost to the taxpayers of Humboldt County, the first drug detection dog that this department has had in some time. “Lily”, a three-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever was gifted to our agency by the Elko Police Department.  I chose veteran law enforcement officer Cory Allen to be our department’s K-9 handler and “Lily’s” new partner.  Deputy Allen was sent to an extensive training course to become certified as a drug detection dog handler and then hit the streets with his new partner.  Deputy Allen and “Lily” spent the remainder of the year very involved with trying to locate and seize illegal drugs from our streets.  This crime fighting pair has also conducted numerous community presentations and has assisted other law enforcement agencies in the area with some of their individual drug investigations.

On the topic of new programs, I had Undersheriff Curtiss Kull organize, institute, and lead what we call our “Critical Incident Negotiations Team”.   This team is composed of the Undersheriff and four of our personnel. Their function is to utilize their advanced training to attempt to diffuse serious confrontations in which our deputies may find themselves involved. Teams of this nature are traditionally utilized as Hostage Negotiators during an armed stand-off.  They are also used to help calm and hopefully re-focus persons who may find themselves in situations where suicide has become an option.  In fact, our office attended and sponsored an in-depth training course this year on Suicide Prevention.  This is, hopefully, a special unit that will not have to be activated with any great frequency, but it is a team that, if needed, will be ready for the task.

In April of this year, our agency learned that we were to be the recipients of a financial award from the President’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office was to be awarded $29,792.  Since this amount was not enough to employ additional personnel for any length of time, I decided to use these funds for equipment needs of our department.   One of these needs has to do with the Critical Incident Team I mentioned above.  We will be purchasing a very necessary piece of equipment that negotiators use to establish communications with those persons who may be barricaded in a location.  This equipment will, hopefully, help to insure a safer conclusion to these types of critical situations.

The second purchase that we will be making with these funds has to do with my continued effort to combat the drug problem in Humboldt County.  Throughout the West, law enforcement has noticed a marked increase in illegal outdoor “marijuana grows”.  In many of these cases, the persons found to be tending these “grows” are heavily armed and have been very confrontational with both citizens and law enforcement who may inadvertently stumble upon their illegal gardens. In fact, in Humboldt County, we experienced just such an incident in October 2008 when three BLM employees were held at gunpoint by suspects who were tending a “grow” in the Greely Crossing area.  In an effort to locate these isolated gardens, I have ordered two specially equipped off-road law enforcement motorcycles.  I will be assigning members of the department to aggressively seek out these potentially dangerous locations and to make arrests and seize contraband.  Equipped with these bikes, deputies will be able to access and patrol areas of our very expansive county that our standard patrol vehicles cannot. 

The next project we have going for this year is one we have wanted to start since the Thomas Fire of July 2007.  During that event, we learned how important it is to get urgent messages out to the public regarding evacuations and other emergency instructions.  After the fire, we started exploring different emergency notification systems to find one that would work for Humboldt County.  We chose a system called CityWatch through which we will be able to deliver a pre-recorded message to a specific area within the county.  This will increase our capabilities to immediately get the word out to the public.  We have been working with representatives at AT&T to get some necessary phone upgrades in before we go on line with the CityWatch system.

Also this year, we were able to purchase the last few vehicles needed to completely update our patrol fleet.  Our line deputies are now equipped with vehicles which will insure their safe and quick arrivals at emergency calls throughout the county.  In regard to updated equipment, our department was gifted new Garmin GPS devices from the railroad police which we issued to our patrol staff.  Union Township Justice Court Judge Gene Wambolt also assisted our office with the purchase of a new state-of-the-art walk-thru metal detector as well as two handheld devices which will be utilized during any high risk proceeding in the court.  

On the Search and Rescue front, the all volunteer unit continued to conduct in-depth trainings and responded to a multitude of call outs during the year.  They also received numerous financial donations which allowed them to purchase a 20-foot emergency command post trailer. This trailer is equipped with HAM radio capability along with search and rescue supplies, including equipment that was purchased through an NRA grant obtained by the unit.

Finally, it was a year where, unfortunately, we said good-bye to too many friends of this office.  Longtime North Resident Deputy Mike Bunch retired with honor and in good standing, as well as Administrative Clerk Renae Norris.  Both were extremely valued employees for many, many years.  We also said a painful good-bye to Winnemucca Reserve Police Officer Steve Gallian, and Humboldt County Comptroller Technician Janel Chavez.  These two exceptional souls passed on far before their times and are greatly missed.

So, as we wrap up this year and look forward to another, I continue to be so proud to lead this agency and pledge our services to all of you in our community.  All the best for 2010.  

Ed Kilgore, Sheriff