(0:00) Joining me live in studio with a monthly report from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office is (0:04) Sheriff Shane Johnson. Good morning, Sheriff. How are you today? (0:07) Good morning.

How are you? (0:08) Hey, doing all right, as always. Appreciate you taking some time once a month to (0:12) report on what’s happening with the department. And, you know, today, we recently saw what (0:18) happened in Freedom on the Idaho side of the border and the tragic incident with Cassie (0:23) Klinger.

And I don’t think we can not mention that today and remember her and also talk about (0:31) kind of the role of the Sheriff’s Office in that response. (0:35) Yeah, I mean, just tragic. And to be there and interact, it’s just heartbreaking all the way (0:44) around.

But for that family and those kids, just a terrible situation. It, again, brings back the (0:55) the reality of domestic violence and the issues that it can cause up to and including the loss (1:04) of life. And in this case, you know, in the most tragic way, from a law enforcement standpoint, (1:12) it was a little unique because it happened.

These are Star Valley people and known to Star Valley. (1:18) The incident happened over the border, so which is out of Wyoming. And so our role in that was (1:26) pretty much an assistive role to Bonneville County, which we have a good relationship with.

And, (1:30) of course, there are response time is much, much quicker. So we were first out there. And (1:36) but where was we were we had communication with them the whole time of what they were (1:42) asking us to do and what they wanted us to do before they got there.

And they brought the (1:47) cavalry when they came and all their resources. But yeah, I mean, I know it’s all been said. (1:55) It’s just it’s it’s tragic.

And again, a reminder of domestic violence and the consequences and the (2:04) you know, it’s preventable if one of those if you’re in a situation or, you know, the situation, (2:09) you know, do something about it, ask for help, as tough as that may be. And, (2:18) and let’s work to prevent any further domestic violence. (2:22) Yeah, and it’s it’s difficult in this specific situation, because it appears that there was a (2:27) separation that had taken place, right.

And, and, you know, we don’t need to go into all the details (2:33) surrounding that. But even, even after someone in that situation has maybe left the relationship, (2:42) this this incident goes to show that that doesn’t end the right the violence, right? (2:48) Well, there’s, there’s a reality. And I remind people when they talk to me about it, (2:53) that, you know, there’s a protection order in place.

And that’s the right thing to do. And (2:58) it’s a good thing. It does not put up a barrier around you.

And so you still have to take (3:04) precautions and you still have to be careful. Sometimes protection orders tend to escalate. (3:14) Again, those are individual decisions, but it’s the right thing to do to get and it’s a first (3:20) or a step and sometimes the first step to get law enforcement involved as well.

But yeah, (3:28) it’s, it’s, it’s a bad deal. It’s tough on the community. And of course, the family just (3:33) devastating on the family and those three little kids.

Tough deal. (3:38) Yeah, yeah, no doubt. And you look at the resources that are available.

Of course, (3:42) Turning Point does a fantastic job in Lincoln County. (3:44) Turning Point’s a great organization. They’ve helped a lot of people over time that they (3:49) continue to do that.

They have resources in both ends of the county and Kemmerer and Afton. (3:56) They can help out just even questions about options, but they, they provide, they can (4:01) provide shelter. They can help with domestic violence protection orders.

They’ll walk you (4:06) through that process. They’re good at it. They know the nuances of getting that.

So (4:10) something that may be a little intimidating. If you, if you’re thinking about going that route, (4:15) they can walk you through it and make sure it’s done correctly. Stocking, stocking orders.

(4:23) Also, sexual assault protection orders, all those types of things that they’re (4:28) very well equipped to help somebody through that process and a good resource. And again, (4:34) also do a great job of providing a temporary shelter if in an emergency situation. So (4:40) good resource that we have.

We’re lucky to have that. (4:42) We can kind of Sheriff Shane Johnson in the studio this morning. And you know, another, (4:46) another aspect of, of these types of moments.

It’s of course, we, we think about the family (4:51) and everyone affected around the community. And, and I always think about, man, the emergency (4:56) response in, in not just this situation, this specific incident, but incidents similar to it, (5:02) whether it be a crash or, or whatever it may be. That’s, that’s gotta be hard on, (5:08) on law enforcement and EMS and everybody that responds.

(5:12) Yeah. The, the, one of the, one of the most frustrating, frustrating things, (5:18) one of them, not the most frustrating things you drive is try and drive code three, meaning lights (5:24) and sirens through star Valley. And I’ve worked in other States and it’s not different there.

(5:28) So I’m not picking on star Valley, but I’m trying to do it safely because ultimately if you don’t (5:34) get there, you’re not any help. And so first of all, you gotta, you gotta respond safely, but (5:40) there’s, you know, traffic’s heavy. Sometimes it’s just the two lane and getting by traffic, (5:45) trying to get to the only time we should be rolling cold is code with lights and siren is, (5:52) is when we are able to affect the, a possible dangerous situation or immediate loss of (5:59) property or life or, or serious body injuries.

So that’s, that’s the criteria. But yeah, it’s, (6:09) it’s, it’s, and then, and then you get the numbers that were coming on this incident and it changes (6:14) everything because we had probably no less than 30 to 40 emergency vehicles responding there (6:19) to a small two lane roads. So it got pretty crowded in a hurry and, and it certainly drew (6:26) the attention of about, you know, every resident in the North of Afton for obvious reasons.

(6:34) Yeah, absolutely. Another thing that this, this highlighted was people want to know what’s going (6:39) on and, and people want to, to, to be understandable of what’s happening. And it, it is (6:45) kind of a fine line to balance because you want to protect the public safety and get information (6:50) out.

But at the same time things are still evolving, things are still happening. And, (6:56) and we see things that are assumed and rumors created and spread that really, really don’t help (7:02) at all, right? Do not help at all. And, and makes matters worse when you have someone with partial (7:10) or very little information to take it on themselves to start sharing that as, as gospel (7:16) and as something that they know it’s counterproductive for law enforcement.

It’s (7:21) counterproductive for the ongoing investigation and potentially puts first responders and other (7:28) potential victims in, in a worse situation when, when the information is just assumed or made up (7:36) and then shared. It’s, it’s not, I, it’s not a good deal. I, I was going to joke when I came in (7:42) that I was here for an application for the Facebook police, that, that, that joke advertisement, (7:48) that funny advertisement you had on earlier.

But it’s, it’s so true. So many great things from (7:54) social media and Facebook. It’s done amazing things.

It’s, it’s a good tool for government, (8:01) good tool for law enforcement, but you know, it’s, it certainly can cause some problems, (8:09) especially when it’s used inappropriately or when it’s used to share information that’s inaccurate (8:15) of an ongoing dangerous and, and, and that is still active situation. So yeah, it’s, that’s (8:24) frustrating. We, we, I know we put out a little statement together about that, but it’s, it’s a (8:32) good reminder.

I hope that people recognize it and, and make better decisions about that. You know, (8:38) I’m not one to get in, tell people on their personal decisions and, you know, people on (8:44) Facebook and, or whatever they’re comfortable sharing in this case, just don’t be sharing (8:49) stuff that you don’t know about. It’s, it’s not helpful.

In the, in the incident where there is (8:55) a public safety concern. Let’s say that there was something going on where, where people needed to (9:03) shelter in place. If, if there was that situation, what, how was that handled from an information (9:07) standpoint? So a couple different ways, if you know, so one of the things that may come up is (9:13) possibly a lockdown at school.

Originally we knew there was kids. We don’t know if some of the kids (9:17) were in school. We were just learning, you know, that, that would be an option, but we would (9:22) contact the schools directly.

We have a school resource officer, that discussion happened. He (9:26) was on top of that. I know where there were some protocols put into place, but those were decisions (9:34) made by the school, not, not directed for us just to err on the side of safety, which is, (9:38) is not a bad thing, but we have code red, which we’ve talked about on here in the past.

(9:44) That’s our ability to send out mass messages to a geographical area. So you can map out, (9:50) you know, two mile radius or five mile radius or everybody in North Lincoln or everybody in (9:56) South Lincoln and send a message about what’s going on and what, what they can do to keep (10:04) themselves safe. So we do, we do have that option in the case down there where we were at, (10:09) we went door to door to make some notifications about, you know, potential dangerous situation (10:14) and what, what they were going to see happen in there.

And a huge response from first responders. (10:20) So that can happen, happen several different ways, but we will, we will, we knew right away (10:27) at that point that the situation was contained. And I, I, I don’t begrudge anybody who wants to (10:35) know more, but the reality is our, our priority at that time is, is trying to diffuse that situation (10:42) and keep people safe.

And so we’ll put that information out. And, and like I said, typically (10:47) it’s one of the quickest ways is by code red, which you can get on Lincoln County’s website (10:53) and sign up for that. I know we’ve, we’ve talked about that a few times.

Sure. Sheriff (10:57) Shane Johnson, the studio this morning. Sheriff, anything else you’d like to mention? (11:01) No, I just appreciate the time and be able to come in and talk and visit with you and, (11:05) and you giving us this opportunity.

So thanks Duke. It’s all part of the weekday (11:09) wake up this morning in the monthly report from Sheriff Shane Johnson. It’s the SVI radio network.