It's National Police Week.
Our team on Wake Up Idaho has
been talking with leaders from
different law enforcement agencies
around our area all week long.
And today, we're joined by Sergeant
Ken Menzel from the Twin Falls County
Sheriff's Office to learn about the
office's role in their community.
Sergeant, thank you for making time today.
Appreciate it. Thanks.
Thanks for having us.
Well, Sergeant,
what does community involvement mean for
the Twin Falls County Sheriff's Office?
You know, it means
everything because that's who we.
Serve and protect and we believe in
being interactive on our community and
you know we have a community relations
Sergeant to the public information officer
that participates and are involved in
various civic and business groups.
And by interacting with the
community we're more in touch with
the various needs that we see.
It's important to be transparent
what we're doing as well while
working to give back and and meet
the needs of the community.
Now tell us about maybe some of the
different events that the the Sheriff's
Office is involved with throughout the
county and different communities. Sure.
You know we have an amazing school
resource officer program in our in our
county schools and and they're involved
in a regular basis with programs such
as good Cookie of the quarter where
they work with the local business and
getting cookies to students who go above
and beyond And being good stewards
they mentor senior projects and and
they teach about different subjects
including drug and alcohol awareness.
We have an amazing search and
rescue team that volunteers their
time and helping those in extreme
situations that include a a will
train team in the disciplines of dive.
Repel swift water rescue and
they're frequently called upon
not only within our community,
but in neighboring counties and states.
We work with the community,
organizations and schools teaching
how to react and improve safety
when it comes to a mass casualty
event or an active shooter event.
Every year our deputies work with
less fortunate families by doing such
things as a back to school shop with
a cop or our yearly Easter egg hunt
for children with developmental needs.
And I could just go on and on about just.
How great the deputies are at the
Sheriff's Office and just how willing
we are to work with our community from,
you know,
being called out on a on a dog call to
helping grandma change the tire on a
vehicle that she can't really take care of.
That's awesome. When we see that
kind of thing happening, you know,
we hear a lot about community policing
and those pictures we were showing.
We're seeing your deputies and officers out,
you know, mingling with the public.
You know, how important is it for
deputies to get out of their patrol
cars and and just talk to people maybe,
you know, reduce that.
Or or pick up the amount of trust between
the law enforcement and the community,
you know, and that's
an interesting question because back
before we had deputies and patrol cars,
you know, that was what they did.
They they would walk a beat.
And oftentimes, you know,
you hear people say, you know,
coffee with a cop or there's a
joke that cops eat Donuts and and
really what that was all about was.
Businesses will call you know what
they provide free coffee or Donuts
to get law enforcement to come in
and and interact with the community
in those different environments.
And that's where a lot of the
information as to what was going
on in the community happening and
that's where that role of community
place policing first took place.
And and whether we're you know
actively giving a presentation at
the Kiwanis Club or the Kiwanis or.
Just different business and
civic groups out there,
we're able to get a feel or get
a pulse on the community and
and and address those needs.
You know often times when people,
we're the ones that people call
when they're in crisis and we're
the the last when when they have
nowhere else to turn,
they turn to us to help in situations
of suicide, domestic violence,
drug issues,
problems with their teenagers at
school and and because of all those
different things that we see we're
exposed to a lot of repeated trauma.
And as a result, we're finding it,
you know,
increasingly difficult to find
resources to help our first responders
cope with that trauma that they're
faced with on a regular basis.
And so it must be nice,
with that being said,
to be able to be out in a positive
environment to meet with the
people you protect and serve.
Absolutely. Things like National Night Out
where we meet in the park and you know,
we interact with the community and bring
out some of our things like, you know,
canine demonstrations and and our SWAT
guys show up with some of the things
that they utilize in the performances.
Their duties, our hostage negotiators
and they bring out the thorough phone
and the community can kind of see what
we have and what we're dealing with.
And some of the things that we use
to make our places make the Magic
Valley a safer place. Building
relationships in the community.
Sergeant Ken Menzel with the Twin
Falls County Sheriff's Office.
We appreciate you, Sir.
And thank you for serving
your community along with all
of your colleagues there.
Thanks. We appreciate the time to get out
there and talk about what we're doing and
enjoy National Police Week
as well. Thank you, Sir.