The  Community page is designed to provide the public with knowledge of the Sheriff’s Office involvement in the community as well as to provide information on upcoming events and classes, information on crime prevention and safety, and to provide other general information to citizens and visitors of Teton County. 

Sometime during the last 30 days, suspect(s) unknown stole an 8 foot wooden giraffe from the yard of a River Front Subdivision residence, south of Jackson.  If you’ve seen the carved giraffe yard ornament, or know who purloined same, please call the sheriff’s office at 733-2331.

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been media attention given to the issue of bicyclists who are arrested for driving under the influence (DUI).  One of the reasons I like having a website is so matters such as these can be communicated effectively.   

A couple of weeks ago, at around 1:00 in the morning, Deputy Aaron Dunlap had occasion to pull over a bicyclist who was operating the bicycle without a front light.  Pursuant to that stop, Deputy Dunlap arrested the bicyclist for DUI.  This arrest provided me with a great opportunity to look at the DUI law as it pertains to bicycles, and then to formulate a philosophical approach to the issue. 

The law absolutely allows for a person to be arrested for DUI if they are operating the bicycle under the influence.  Therefore, I wholeheartedly and fully supported the arrest.  I also thought I should take a look at the matter from a global public safety perspective as well. By that I mean, would I rather a person who is under the influence ride a bike or drive a car, and is there a public safety distinction to be made?  

To me, it is obvious that if an inebriated person had to choose between a car and a bicycle, I would rather they pick the bicycle because they pose less of a risk to the public. This is not to say they do not pose a public safety risk while on a bike, they just pose a lesser one. Of course I would prefer they take a taxi, a designated driver or call a friend to pick them up.

In thinking this issue through, I thought if we arrested people for DUI on bicycles on every occasion, the unintended consequence of that might be that we create a disincentive for them to take the bike over the car, thereby possibly exacerbating the public safety problem. 

Secondly, I found it troubling the DUI law covers “any vehicle” which includes a bicycle, but the implied consent law covers (only) motor vehicles which excludes bicycles. It made little sense to me that on the one hand a person could get arrested for DUI riding a bicycle but the method to secure the blood alcohol concentration was changed.

By no means should this present the message I am adamantly opposed to arresting a bicyclist for DUI.   Sometimes, arresting for DUI could very well be the appropriate charge.  To me it would depend on the circumstances.  People who are creating a severe hazard by riding all over the road would certainly be one example. A bicyclist crashing into a parked car would be another one.  The totality of the circumstances in terms of public safety should be our guiding principle. 

The Teton County Sheriff's Office is celebrating National Public Safety Telecommunications Week!  This week, celebrated nationally, honors the thousands of men and women who answer emergency calls, dispatch first responders and equipment and render life-saving assistance to those in need. 

Please join us as we celebrate this event locally with open house tours of our Communications Center.  Tours will be offered Monday and Wednesday April 12^th and 14^th from 8 - 10am, noon - 1pm, and an additional tour will be offered on Wednesday evening from 5 - 7pm.  The Communications Center is located in the same building as the jail at 175 S Willow St. Parking is available on the street or in the lot between the jail and the courthouse. Please come and meet the people who operate behind the scenes to keep you safe.  For more information please call 733-2331.

The Teton County Sherriff's Office was recently invited by the National Sheriff's Association (NSA) to attend a planning session on Comprehensive Emergency Planning for detention centers. The session was held in Baltimore, Maryland. The TCSO considered it an honor to be invited to participate in the planning session as there were only twenty agencies from around the nation invited to attend the session and the NSA funded the entire costs and travel expenses for two TCSO officers.  Detention Sergeants Troy Sutton and Clint Frome traveled to Baltimore to attend the training session.  The purpose of the session was for each agency in attendance to share their policies and procedures and experience in emergency planning to further assist the NSA in the development of a comprehensive emergency planning course and curriculum. The NSA then plans to train other jails around the country in emergency planning based on information learned from the participating agencies.

The TCSO currently has an Emergency Evacuation Plan in place and is planning to take information learned from other participants at the planning session and incorporate such into the existing plan. Quarterly fire drills are preformed by all employees and evaluated for safety and security measures by one of the two OSHA trained detention officers. An unannounced mock fire is planned and administered by the Support Captain once per year inside of the Detention Center. During this drill the entire Detention Center and Communications Center evacuate the building to another facility.  The Communications Center operates out of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for a brief period of time until the "all clear" is giving by the fire department and they are able to return to the building. During the drill all area Law Enforcement officers respond to the detention center to help facilitate a safe transition of inmates to and from the facility. All personnel are evaluated during the evacuation and an After Accident Review (AAR) is held immediately following the surprise drill for all employees involved, Command Staff, and the Fire Department.

Support Captain Tripp Wilson implemented the current policies and procedures relating to the Emergency Plan/Evacuation Procedure and believes that these actions are necessary to ensure public, employee, and inmate safety in the event of an actual fire, gas leak, natural disaster, etc. Since the evacuation plan has been in place, the Detention Center has evacuated once for a "non drill" emergency after a vehicle collided with the building near a gas line. During this emergency, the staff performed a well run evacuation of the inmate population and the communications center successfully "rolled over" all services to the Emergency Communications Center in the EOC. The success of this was a direct result of the procedures in place for such an emergency and the focus the staff has shown during the training and mock evacuation drills.

The Teton County Sheriff’s Office is seeking help in identifying a possible witness to a theft at a hotel in Teton Village.  If anyone knows the identity of the person in the attached video, please call Deputy John LaBrec at 307-733-4052.