CHEYENNE — Nearly 120 commercial truck drivers have been caught and turned over to federal authorities in the five months the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office has been running its Truck Around and Find Out enforcement, including 46 during its latest operation last week.
Truck Around is not just about commercial drivers or catching illegal immigrants, said Sheriff Brian Kozak about the focused traffic missions, which usually last three days.
“We like to say anyone who’s driving unsafe around trucks or truck drivers who are unsafe,” he said. “We’re looking out for the legal truck drivers who are doing it right.
“We don’t want to just target truck drivers, we want to target unsafe drivers.”
To that end, last week’s operation — titled Truck Around and Find Out: Spring Storm — saw deputies operating in cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop all unsafe drivers, not just commercial truckers, Kozak said.
His office is still tabulating the final data on Truck Around, the sheriff said, adding that the agency made “at least 200 stops.”
Along with the 46 illegal drivers caught in this latest operation, 32 were turned over to ICE in late February and 40 in the first organized effort in November, titled Operation Safe Haul.
13-Times Revoked
One of the most notable stops last week is an extreme example of why law enforcement has to be vigilant in motoring Wyoming’s interstates and highways, Kozak said.
“One significant (stop) was a driver who had been revoked out of Colorado 13 different times,” he said. “He was still driving, and an illegal immigrant — and his company was also revoked.”
Deputies also responded to a local business that reported an unwanted semitrailer parked in its lot.
It was taking up five spaces parked the long way across them, and directly in front of a sign that eventually led to the driver being turned over to ICE, Kozak said.
“Absolutely no truck, trailer or semi parking anytime. Vehicle will be towed at violator’s expense,” the sign reads.
Turns out the driver was tired and trying to get some rest.
“He was sleeping, and also not authorized (to drive a commercial truck) and illegal,” Kozak said. “He ended up going to our jail.”
Laramie County Has A Reputation
Last week was the third major Truck Around and Find Out push, although the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office does many other traffic enforcement exercises weekly and monthly, the sheriff said.
The agency has received national attention for its efforts, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, Kozak said.
“Very little negative at all,” he said. “Everyone passing by, especially in the ports of entry, the other truck drivers there give us nothing but compliments.”
That’s led to Laramie County earning a reputation with truckers as a place they don’t want to drive through if they’re not safe and legal, Kozak said.
“We do have that reputation,” he said. “We’ve heard feedback from some of the truck drivers we did arrest saying they knew they were taking a risk coming through Laramie County.”
Others avoid Interstates 25 and 80, and Highway 85, which run through Kozak’s jurisdiction, he said.
“We’ve heard feedback from Colorado law enforcement that Highway 287 — there between Laramie and Colorado — is being used to avoid I-25 and Highway 85,” he said.
The reputation also extends to trucking companies that have told the sheriff that taking unsafe and illegal truckers out of commission helps their bottom lines.
“We hear feedback from the trucking companies who are doing it the right way, because it increases their business because the illegal companies can’t operate,” Kozak said.
That’s especially true for towing companies that service commercial vehicles.
When a trucker is taken off the road, the company the driver works for is called to retrieve its truck, he said.
If the company can’t or won’t come get the truck, or if the driver is the owner, then it’s towed.
“We’ll call the company to come get the truck, and if they can’t it goes to the tow company’s impound lot,” the sheriff said.
Once there, whoever owns the truck has to pay the impound fees before getting it back.
“That’s a business that’s very happy with what we’re doing — the towing companies,” Kozak said.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
