law enforcement

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By Wendy Corr, Cowboy State Daily

When Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, none of his fellow officers stopped him in the 9 minutes and 29 seconds it took Floyd to stop breathing.

That’s a scenario that the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office is determined to prevent by training officers to prevent misconduct and mistakes by their colleagues.

This week, Sheriff John Grossnickle announced that his office is the first law enforcement agency in Wyoming accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project, a national training and support initiative based at Georgetown University. The program is committed to building a culture of peer intervention to prevent harm to both the people officers interact with and officers themselves.

“Being in law enforcement for over 26 years,” Grossnickle told Cowboy State Daily, “there was a time and place that other officers would step in, but there’s a factor of being uncomfortable if you were to observe something that you didn’t think was right. This allows our agency to hold one another accountable and takes it a step further and ensures our community that they can hold us accountable at the same time.”

The ABLE project is evidence-based and field-tested, according to Deputy Jason Mower, and designed to provide practical “active bystandership” strategies and tactics to law enforcement officers to help them prevent misconduct, reduce mistakes, and promote health and wellness among officers themselves.

“As a law enforcement agency … in this day and age, the reality is whether it’s an accident, whether it’s honest mistake, or whether it’s something more nefarious, if one officer does something, inevitably, they’re going to drag the rest of the officers down with them,” Mower said. “And the agency and everybody looks bad.”

National Program

The Sheriff said he first heard about the program at a leadership class a year ago.

“There were a lot of other administrators there from larger agencies, upwards of 500 (officers), I think,” he said. “Some of those had implemented it and had just seen the change in their community and a change in their agencies. And speaking with them, I decided – much like my platform was when I ran the first time – it’s just something we needed to implement as an extension of the people here at Sweetwater County.”

The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s office is one of more than 215 law enforcement agencies and statewide and regional training academies from across North America implementing the ABLE training program. 

Local Leadership

Sheriff’s Office patrol services and detention center officers Lt. Rich Fischer and Lt. Rich Kaumo are now certified to teach the program and over the coming months, all sheriff’s office deputies will receive eight hours of bystandership education designed not only to prevent harm, but also to change the culture of policing in Sweetwater County.

“It really breaks down misconduct, mistakes, and then, just as the sheriff alluded to, the health and wellness of an officer,” said Kaumo. “The tactics that we were taught break down the aspect of rank, how to intervene and conduct interventions with people that are ranked either higher than you, lower than you or are equal to you.”

“There are indicators that suggest that an employee is going to have a problem,” said Fischer. “We encourage everybody to intervene when they see something. There are policies in place to support intervention, it doesn’t matter who you intervene with, and (insure) that there is no retaliation.”

Community Relations

As much as the ABLE program is an effort to support other law enforcement officers, Fischer pointed out that by encouraging peer intervention, the agency’s reputation is also enhanced within the community.

“If you don’t intervene, a member of the community could be hurt, a member of the agency could be hurt,” he said. “They could lose their job. They could go to prison. The public opinion of the agency, as a career as a whole, is destroyed – and that takes years to rebuild that trust between us and the citizens that we serve.” 

“Even though they may be criminals, or may be having issues in their life, they’re still human beings,” Grossnickle said, “and we need to treat them accordingly, like we would anybody else.”

Everyday Incidents

Lt. Kaumo noted that this training isn’t designed just to prevent high-profile excessive use of force incidents such as the Minneapolis case. He said it’s also about the lesser interactions that could cause issues for officers.

“There are everyday incidents that law enforcement officers across the country face where, proactively in a professional way, you pull an officer aside and say, ‘Hey, man take a breather, or, you know, I got this, take a break for a second,’” Kaumo said.

Fischer said that looking back on his 14 years with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, he can recall incidents where this type of training would have been beneficial.

“I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that would have been a perfect time for me to have done this technique,’” he said. “I knew there were times in the past where intervention could have been warranted for – fortunately for nothing that was misconduct – but you could see steps where … maybe they got in trouble later on, or you notice they were having some issues at home.” 

Mental Health

Grossnickle said because being a law enforcement officer is such a high-stress job, much of the ABLE training supports officers’ mental health.

“If we have officers with clear heads, these types of incidents will go down to zero,” he said. “And this is another piece of that puzzle to keep minds clear – to know that people are going to push our buttons, but others around us will step in and help us when that occurs.

“(This training) is going to allow our employees – not just the sworn officers, but our civilian officers – to recognize that when we see the emotional change or somebody’s demeanor change, that we’re able to step in and prevent any of this from happening,” he continued. “Whether it’s suicide, or they go on the next call that might push them over the edge to have a an encounter that’s not positive.”

Continued Training

Kaumo added that the ABLE training isn’t just a “one-and-done” program.

“The basic training is an eight-hour course that will be pushed out to every officer throughout our agency,” he said. “And then every year there’s a two-hour refresher. So it’s something that continuously they get refreshed on, updated on through the entire time that they’re employed here at the Sheriff’s office.”

Grossnickle noted that the department’s goal is to have all officers trained in the program by June of this year.

“When they successfully complete the ABLE training, they’re gonna get a uniform pin to show that, ‘Hey, I’ve been trained in this. I am an active bystander,’” Fischer said. “All of that is a daily reminder that I’m looking out for my co-workers, myself, everybody that I work with in law enforcement.”

Statewide Effort

Grossnickle told Cowboy State Daily that he hopes that Sweetwater County will not be the last Wyoming county to join the program.

“Moving forward, I am going to challenge all the law enforcement administrators in the state of Wyoming to implement this in their agencies also,” he said, “so we can have Wyoming as a front runner with this program.”

Preventing Tragedy

Grossnickle said that in situations like the high-profile George Floyd case, if Chauvin’s fellow officers had taken part in a training program like ABLE, the entire incident would have gone much differently.

“It wouldn’t have happened if one of those officers would have stepped in and said, ‘Okay, hold on, let me take care of this. You know, he’s already in handcuffs. We don’t need to do this,’” Grossnickle said. “In this day and age, in light of current events, we must embrace the notion that, while our job may be to enforce the law, our mission is to serve others. We are people first, cops second.”

To follow along with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s office progress with this program, visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/swcountysheriff.

For more information on the ABLE Project, visit the program’s website at www.law.georgetown.edu/ABLE.

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By Wendy Corr, Cowboy State Daily

In the last few years, it seems the national attention has been more and more focused on law enforcement officers making bad decisions. 

But in Wyoming, appreciation for law enforcement officers is the rule, not the exception. 

So as the country observes National Police Week May 11-17, the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy in Douglas is giving Wyoming residents a chance to observe a ceremony to honor the brave men and women who have lost their lives while protecting and serving their communities.

The ceremony planned at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Memorial for Friday, May 20, is a reminder to law enforcement officers and the public that the role of a peace officer is a serious one, said academy Director Chuck Bayne.

“It brings a sense of reality and soberness that (the job) is not all fun and games,” he said. “It’s very serious. This is not a role in a movie.” 

In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day. The week in which May 15 falls is designated as National Police Week – a recognition established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962 to recognize those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.

In Wyoming, this year’s Fallen Officer ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 20, in front of the Law Enforcement Academy.

“We have a marble monument that’s here in front of the academy that all of the names of the fallen law enforcement officers in the history of Wyoming, their names and the dates of which they passed are engraved on that memorial,” said Bayne. 

Since 1776, there have been 25,767 known line-of-duty deaths in America, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. 

In Wyoming, the list totals 68 officers who have lost their lives, most recently Lt. Mark “Mont” Mecham with the Green River Police Department, who died on April 3, 2017, from a gunshot wound. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Mecham was one of 36 officers in the course of Wyoming’s history who was killed by gunfire.

Bayne, who has been involved in Wyoming law enforcement for the last 41 years, told Cowboy State Daily that the annual ceremony honoring fallen officers is very personal to him.

He listed eight officers he knew who had been killed in the line of duty, including Converse County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Stanford, who drowned in 2011, and Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Chris Logsdon, who died in an automobile crash in 1998.

“So, I have quite a number of personal experiences of knowing these guys as partners and colleagues in law enforcement – and the longer you’re in this business, I guess, the more chances you have of that,” he said.

Bayne said that in his role as the director of the Law Enforcement Academy, teaching new recruits the skills they need to be effective officers, he tries to educate trainees about the hazards involved in their chosen career – and the annual remembrance ceremony is a sobering reminder.

“It’s that these things do happen and can happen to them,” Bayne said. “And we try to teach them about what they need to do to help prevent being on the (memorial) wall.”

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By Jimmy Orr, Cowboy State Daily

Physical fitness is important to the law enforcement community but significant disagreement surrounds the way it’s measured.

A controversial new program in Texas measures the physical fitness of state troopers by their waist sizes.

The Texas Department of Public Safety recently rolled out a program where men with a waist size exceeding 40 inches and women whose waists are larger than 35 inches are put on a weight loss plan and failure to achieve desired results could mean loss of bonuses, overtime, or even removal from duty.

Don’t expect a similar plan to be unveiled in Wyoming. Law enforcement leaders told Cowboy State Daily that the size of one’s body is not the right standard to measure physical fitness.

Where they do agree with Texas is the importance of a good physical condition. But officials say there are better ways to achieve it.

Size Isn’t A Good Approach

Sheriff John Grossnickle of Sweetwater County, once an NCAA track athlete, discounts the approach overall.

“Look at a football team,” he said.  “Your offensive linemen are in great shape but they look completely different than a cornerback or a wide receiver.”

“So mere size isn’t a good approach,” he said.  “There are other ways to deem if a person is in physical shape.”

Byron Oedekoven, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, agreed, stating that waist size is a poor measure of whether or not officers can do their jobs.

“I can show you a couple big boys that run circles around a whole bunch of high school athletes. They are definitely not out of shape with their 40-inch waists,” Oedekoven said.

Both Grossnickle and Oedekoven said officers know it’s in their best interests to stay in shape because of the challenges of the job — whether it be getting into a physical altercation, suffering a broken bone, or even getting shot at.

People recover more quickly if they are physically fit. 

“Your body is going to go into shock when one of these things happen so you will benefit the better shape you’re in,” Grossnickle said. 

Comprehensive Wellness

That’s where mental fitness comes in, said Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick.

The whole picture is what’s important he said.  That’s why his office promotes a combination of both physical and mental fitness.

“We’re requesting more and more from our officers,” Glick said. “With everything that’s going on in the world right now, we’ve got to make sure that we are mentally fit as well.”

Some call it comprehensive wellness. Physical, mental, and even financial wellness is important, Grossnickle said. But he took it a step further.

“We’re going to add a dietician too,” he said. “Because we know how important it its to keep the body sound for the job because it’s so difficult.”

Harder Job

And the job has gotten harder, many believe.

Oedekoven said people may be more disposed to fight arrest than in the past and to that end, being in a better shape — overall — is better for the officer and better for the public they are sworn to protect.

“People are more willing to stab you, shoot you, run over you, and that was unheard of years ago for the most part,” he said. “I think officers are very conscious of their physical fitness having a significant impact on their ability to survive and do the job.”

Problem in Wyoming?

Former Cheyenne Police Chief Brian Kozak said law enforcement officers are in better shape now than they were 30 years ago because staying in shape has become so much a part of the culture.

At the Cheyenne Police Department, he said, that culture is so important that officers are paid to workout.

“We allowed on-duty training, workout training for one hour each shift,” Kozak said. “It’s a great incentive.”

He said there is annual testing and a recognition program for those who had improved the most year-over-year. It’s a carrot rather than a stick approach, he said.

“This is all positive reenforcement,” he said. “And that makes the difference.”

As for the stigma of cops in donut shops? That’s gone by the wayside, he said.

“I don’t think you’ll see that much of it anymore,” Kozak said. “We don’t like the stereotype. We’ll laugh at it. We’ll make fun of it. But you don’t see it much anymore.”

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

More than 25% of the deputy’s positions in one of Wyoming’s largest sheriff’s departments are vacant and a former Cheyenne police chief is blaming the shortage on a problem with leadership.

The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office force is down by 47 deputies, more than 25% of its deputy positions. Eight positions filled by civilians are also vacant, former Cheyenne Police Chief Brian Kozak, now a candidate for sheriff, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

“Many of the deputies have reached out to me saying they’re leaving because of leadership issues within the agency,” Kozak said. “Several of them who have left have asked if we would consider hiring them back if there are leadership changes.”

Kozak added that current department staff have also asked whether he would consider re-hiring them if they were to quit now and return if he is elected sheriff in November’s election.

Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick, sheriff’s Capt. Don Hollingshead and community relations manager Brandon Warner did not immediately return Cowboy State Daily’s request for comment on Monday.

Glick is retiring at the end of his term. In addition to Kozak, Hollingshead is also running for the office.

Kozak said that the issues within the department seem to have gotten worse since he was ousted as chief when Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins took office last year.

“I know Sheriff Glick is retiring and I have a suspicion that he’s maybe backed out a little bit to let his captains run the show,” Kozak said. “I think that’s when the issues started to appear.”

According to a Laramie County human resources survey conducted in 2021 and shared by Kozak, 55% of the sheriff department’s staff did not believe management takes employee feedback seriously, 62% believed the environment in the department did not encourage high morale and the same percentage also believed leadership did not communicate with employees. The survey showed 64% of employees believed the department’s leadership did not apply policies consistently.

“I’ve heard from employees that there are unfair disciplinary processes where different things happen to different employees according to who you are,” Kozak said. “Their ideas aren’t appreciated for improvements. Someone will stick around for pay, knowing it’s going to get better. So it’s more than just compensation.”

The majority of surveyed employees also said they were not compensated fairly, but Kozak said that Glick was working with Laramie County Commissioners to rectify the salary issue.

The department is actually down one one deputy in addition to the 47 vacant positions. The deputy has been off duty since being shot in a standoff on April 2.

Kozak noted that the cost to recruit and train a new deputy can cost up to $100,000.

The former police chief said it was important for people to know about the deputy shortage in the sheriff’s department because response times can be significantly delayed as a result.

“Half the deputies [gone] are from patrol and the other half are from the detention facility,” Kozak said. “So on the patrol side, they may only have three or four deputies working at night and they’re covering 2,500 square miles of county. It could take a while for a deputy to get to you if you need help.”

On the detention side, the short staffing means inmates are indirectly supervised and usually locked down for longer times because there are not enough deputies to watch them.

If elected, Kozak said he would change the leadership culture in the department immediately, because he said that the best way to recruit for the agency is through the employees within it.

“It’s important to make sure employees know you’re working for them on their behalf to make the environment better,” he said.

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By Wendy Corr, Cowboy State Daily

The shooting of a Laramie County Sheriff’s deputy is bringing attention to the dangers that peace officers face every day.

The deputy, whose identity has not been released, was reported to be in stable condition after being taken to the intensive care unit at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center for treatment after he was wounded in a shootout with another man Saturday. The other man died in the incident.

While rare, such incidents have an impact on law enforcement officers throughout the state, said Byron Oedekoven, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police.

“Fortunately, we don’t have those kinds of events happen very often,” he said.

While the officer in Saturday’s incident survived, that’s not always the case. 

Since Wyoming became a state in 1890, 60 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which keeps records for law enforcement deaths throughout the country. The majority of those killed – 36 out of the 60 – died by gunfire.

Oedekoven told Cowboy State Daily that when a law enforcement officer dies or is injured while performing his or her duties, it hits the entire peacekeeping force.

“It’s a family; it’s a neighborhood, it’s a community,” he said. “It’s all of those words in very positive terms. We come together because it’s a shared experience. It’s a shared emotion. It’s that shared grief.”

Oedekoven said his association works with all other law enforcement agencies throughout the state when tragedies occur.

“Several years ago, we worked with a number of agencies to develop a plan for a checklist on officer-involved situations,” he said. “We know about federal death benefits, state death benefits, to whom to notify where those may be so that we can assess the value and assist the agency as well.”

Oedekoven has had personal experience with officer-involved shootings and the death of an officer under his command. 

On Dec. 20, 1983, Officer Jon Hardy was on duty in Gillette when he was ambushed after responding to the scene of a residential burglary. Oedekoven, who was Hardy’s patrol lieutenant, said that tragedy has never left him.

“There’s a whole flurry of emotions, mostly incredible sadness,” he said. “There’s the incredible desire to do right by the family and the memory of Jon, in my case; and to deal with some of the aspects of the investigation to ensure that that’s handled properly.”

Oedekoven noted that in his current position, when high-profile incidents occur, his agency works with other peace officer training organizations to incorporate lessons from tragic situations and turn them into learning opportunities.

“That is part of the discussion that we have with our Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy, Peace Officer Standards and Training, and the leadership of the sheriffs and chiefs to see if there are things that we should be working on, looking at and undertaking to help understand and deal with for the future,” he said.

Oedekoven pointed out that because the majority of Wyoming communities are smaller and more rural, there is more of a sense of support for law enforcement officers than in other parts of the country.

“In Wyoming, we’re very fortunate in that our law enforcement officers are close to the community, and our community is close to our law enforcement officers,” said Oedekoven. “We have incredible support from the community, to the officer’s family, to agents that the officer works for and for the agency.”

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By Wendy Corr, Cowboy State Daily 

Emergency responders in Wyoming are increasingly reaching out for help after traumatic or stressful experiences, breaking the stigma that used to be attached to such assistance.

After the tragic death earlier this month of two teenage siblings near Powell, Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Randy Davis took to Facebook to express his feelings about working a crash scene involving two young people he knew personally. 

“In this job, we see a lot of things that most people don’t have to see, and we deal with a lot of things that most people don’t have to deal with,” Davis told his Facebook followers. “Normally, we say, ‘Well, it’s part of the job.’ We try not to let it bother us.” 

“The difference in this one was, I knew these two kids, I know their family, I’ve gone to church with them and their family,” he continued. “And it hits you a little differently sometimes when you’re close to the situation.”  

Davis went on to urge his fellow officers and first responders to seek help when they feel overwhelmed – a topic he expanded on in a conversation with Cowboy State Daily. 

“I think the old school way of thinking of, you know, you’ve got to tough it out, you can’t let your feelings show, you’ve got to be able to be that tough guy, or my coworkers are going to make fun of me if I feel like I need to reach out for help – I think that’s still in some departments, probably,” Davis said. “But we’re pretty fortunate here in the Highway Patrol now that they make (assistance) available to us.”

One way the Highway Patrol supports its staff is through an Employee Assistance Program, which allows troopers to access mental health care anonymously. 

Treatment Necessary to Recover

Lorraine Steppe, a licensed clinical social worker with The Pines Counseling in Cody, is part of that network. 

“I think most of the law enforcement agencies in the state have some type of program, where they anonymously can plug you into counselors, and you don’t have to pay for it, and you get so many sessions, and your bosses never know who’s sought treatment,” Steppe said. 

“We’re increasing the amount of people who are seeking out and finding some healing,” she added. “And sometimes the help can be talking to other law enforcement people, talking to friends and family, there’s a lot of ways you can have support.” 

Steppe pointed out that increasingly, first responders are encouraging each other to seek help when needed. 

“What I am seeing is they are talking to each other about it, they are encouraging each other to seek help, they are supporting each other in their health,” she said. “They’re even taking each other to appointments. There is a lot of talk and support around normalizing seeking mental health treatment. And it is something that we haven’t seen in years.” 

“I honestly can’t count on, probably, two hands the other troopers or officers that have either messaged me or reached out and said, ‘Hey, man, you doing OK?’” Davis said of the recent tragedy. “So I think some of that mentality is, thankfully, starting to go away.” 

“What you’re seeing, I think, is a change in how people are viewing, and seeking mental health,” Steppe said. 

Need For Trauma Specialists

Brian Kozak, the former police chief for the City of Cheyenne, said that in his early years in law enforcement, he saw firsthand the damage stress and trauma could inflict on first responders. 

“I used to work for the Mesa, Arizona, police department,” he said. “And it was a fairly large department, but I lost a few people that I worked with to suicide. A couple of my sergeants, and one in my command when I was a lieutenant.” 

Kozak said in part because of those experiences, he implemented support programs in the Cheyenne Police Department when he led that division. 

“When I came to Cheyenne to be chief, one of the first things we implemented was a very robust peer support team, which was led by a police psychologist,” he said. “The police psychologist would do training with all the officers on stress management at least twice a year.” 

Law Enforcement Suicides

However, Kozak said that attitude isn’t necessarily present in every first responder agency in Wyoming, which is why he is hosting two fundraisers this spring to raise money for wellness programs focused on preventing suicides. 

“In 2020, we lost two police officers to suicide – one in Casper and one in the Douglas Police Department,” he said. “And I think now it’s starting to hit home with first responders and law enforcement in the state that this is something we need to really talk about. Don’t be afraid anymore. Let’s talk about suicide, and how do we fight suicide. 

“You know, it’s tough with law enforcement,” Kozak added. “You know, you tend to suck it up and deal with the things that you see, but that builds up over the years. And that’s why we really have to promote that, you need to get it off your chest and start talking about it.” 

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