Editor's note: Humboldt County Sheriff Ed Kilgore submitted the following letter to the Humboldt Sun highlighting some of the activities of the past year from the sheriff's office.
'Diligent, Honorable, and Steadfast for our Community'
To the Citizens of Humboldt County:
2011 is officially in the history books and it was a very busy year for your Humboldt County Sheriff's Office. Continuing with my practice of the last four years, I take this opportunity at the beginning of each new year to re-cap and highlight some of the most significant and memorable events involving our office from the last 12 months.
As I started in my first term, we have continued to ensure that my personnel receive significant, job-related training. Training keeps law enforcement personnel up to date with various current trends in their chosen profession which serves to both better their daily performance and significantly reduce liability. Throughout 2011, my staff attended courses of instruction in: Drug Interdiction; Drug Trafficking; Life Saving Tactical Emergency Medicine; Ethical Use of Force; Suicide Prevention Techniques; Cell Phone Investigations; Field Training Officer School; and Emergency Medical Dispatching just to highlight some. Our volunteer Search and Rescue Unit also conducted several trainings during the year, and additionally added two certified and trained tracking dogs to their team.
Throughout the year there have been numerous personnel changes within the department. Although we lost some employees during the year, we were very fortunate to hire some very experienced peace officers from other jurisdictions who are a great asset to the agency. We also saw the promotion of some existing personnel to supervisory roles, and of supervisors to the next level of responsibility. Sgt. Dave Milton was promoted to the rank of Commander, and deputies Jackie Lynn and Randy Close were promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Sgt. Close replaces outgoing Sgt. Mike Smock, who retired from the office in January '12 after honorably serving since 1994.
2011 continued to be a year where some of my deputies took part in the on-going effort to instruct children of the dangers of drug use through being instructors in the DARE program. HCSO deputies instructed the DARE curriculum at Grass Valley, Kings River, Paradise Valley, McDermitt and Denio schools.
For adult education, the sheriff's office put on its second Citizens Academy. For six weeks, 16 members of the community attended courses relating to general law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Attendees got a small look into some of the procedures and functions of police work. Those in attendance had the opportunity to hear from various instructors in the criminal justice field, such as the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office, The Sixth Judicial District represented by Judge Mike Montero, The Nevada Highway Patrol, The Nevada Division of Investigations and Winnemucca Domestic Violence Services. Attendees actually asked for the program to be lengthened in duration for future academies because of the great interest in the presentations.
The past year also saw some major investigations being conducted by my detectives and staff. Many of these cases resulted in successful prosecutions as a result of an excellent relationship with the District Attorney's Office. Unfortunately, the year concluded with still no viable tips as to where Patrick Carnes may be found. Mr. Carnes' vehicle was found abandoned off of Interstate 80 at the Pumpernickel Valley off-ramp in April.
November of 2011 also marked a significant milestone for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office when this office and seven other counties in the state celebrated their 150-year anniversary. The sheriff's office came into being when Humboldt County was created in November of 1861. Alanson W. Nightingill was appointed the first Humboldt County Sheriff. To celebrate this historic milestone, a "150 Year" anniversary badge was designed for the office as well as a poster marking this event. The poster artwork was created by Winnemucca resident Cody Jensen who also donated his talent to paint a mural in the new training room inside of the sheriff's office. The "150 Year" posters are available for purchase at both the sheriff's office and at the Humboldt County Museum. A portion of the proceeds on the sale of each poster will go to the Winnemucca Domestic Violence Services organization.
As we look forward to 2012, I wish all of you in our community a healthy and safe new year. If anyone has any questions, concerns, or issues to discuss, please do not hesitate to either come by to see me, or give me a call at (775) 623-6419.
Ed Kilgore
Sheriff
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