Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to another episode of Your Briefing, a podcast from the Adams County Sheriff's Office. I'm your host, Sergeant Shea Haney, the Public Information Officer. This podcast this is just a short form, topical podcast aimed at educating you, the community, on what's going on within your community, your state, and within the Sheriff's Office. Today, we're gonna do things a little bit differently. Recently, the Sheriff of Adams County, Gene Claps, sat down with Carson uh, Forsman from the Adams County, uh, side of things on their podcast, all in Adams. So we're going to take you to that podcast when we're done. We'll, uh, cover our tip of the week, which is putting your phone down.
Speaker: Welcome to another episode of the All in Adams podcast. My name is Carson Forsman. I'm a communications supervisor with Adams County, and we have a very special guest today. We're excited to have Sheriff Gene Claps on the podcast here in studio. Sheriff, thanks for being here. We appreciate it. You bet. I don't know about how special I am. Hey. No, we appreciate it. um i just kind of want to, for the folks listening, watching on YouTube, just kind of want to get to know you a little bit. Kind of what led you to law enforcement and how long have you been working at law enforcement?
Speaker: What led me? Good question. um I don't know. I think over the years, ah as a resident here in Adams County, I have been ah victim to various different crimes throughout the years because of businesses that we owned um and I managed. So throughout my whole life, I owned and ran businesses. I think the first business I had and started, I was 16 years old.
Speaker: And what was that? I'm curious. It was a tire repair business for semi-truck tires. Cool. Um, so I didn't know that. Yeah. It was, uh, one of the first, first businesses. I, uh, managed, uh, my, uh, family business.
Speaker: Um, we had multiple locations in Adams County. We rented heavy ah construction equipment. We were victim to a lot of different thefts and different crimes over the years. And, I saw an opportunity that was very intriguing, very interesting and, uh, something I always wanted to get into.
Speaker: So in, uh,
Speaker: 1995, I actually got into the Adams County Sheriff's Office, joined the Sheriff's Office as a volunteer to be a reserve in the posse.
Speaker: So I started in the posse, and that is for free. Rode horseback. Not only horseback, I worked on weekends um riding horses at special events and different things.
Speaker: um Trail, trail rides, search and rescue type serenarios. A lot of work and training for crowd control, various different things. But I also worked, um once I became certified in 1997, then I was able to work in the patrol division. So I was still in the posse, but every weekend I would go out and work in our patrol division on Fridays and Saturday nights. And I would go out and spend 10-hour shifts out um being a patrol officer.
Speaker: I kind of wanted to follow up on that. So you were in the posse. um Did you kind of want to test the waters to see, hey, is this a career that I want to get into? Is that what you were thinking? Or was it more to get your foot in the door and you were serious about, hey, I want to be ah a deputy?
Speaker: Well, I was serious about being a deputy, but I had to transition from a civilian life to law enforcement, which is a little adaptive. um Not only that, but I had a family at that point in time. So I have kids and a wife and We were transitioning not only to a different career path, but a huge difference in income, like half um wow of an income of what I had. So a big difference in way of life and way of living.
Speaker: um So we had to be prepared. You had to set yourself up for that so that you could be successful. And back in the early 90s, what was it like or what was the process trying to get into the sheriff's office as a deputy? Was there an academy that our sheriff's office still had at that time? Or how did you become a deputy? We had a ah shared a class that we'd work with Community College of Aurora. Okay. So it was actually one of the first ones that I got involved in where the posse picked me up. The posse paid for me to go to it, and I attended for—it was about a year and a half. It was— ah
Speaker: Like every every other night and on weekends, we had class, we attended school, and then did our training, our law enforcement training, um until it was complete.
Speaker: Actually completed that in January or December of 96, And then was sworn in by, at that time, Bill Shearer, Sheriff Bill Shearer, in January of 1997. 97, okay.
Speaker: So give or take about 30 years you've been with the sheriff's office, if I can do math, right? Yeah. Wow, that's that's quite the career. and And now you've been sheriff for little over three years, coming up on four years now. What are some of the biggest things that you're proud of, priorities in these last few years, being the sheriff of of Adams County?
Speaker: Well, one of the things, we had a lot of obstacles and challenges when I came into office. And now backing up just a little bit, I've worked in every division in the sheriff's office throughout my career.
Speaker: So I had the knowledge and experience of how to make the sheriff's office function Better than what we were doing. And that was one thing, even the day that I was hired.
Speaker: um During my oral boards, I had a sergeant that was sitting across from me and he said, where do you see yourself in 10 years? And I said, doing what you're doing right now. And he balked and he laughed and he thought that was funny and he leaned over and he told the, at that time, a lieutenant, he says, I bet he wants to become sheriff also.
Speaker: And I said, yes, I do. um So that is how I i started my my first day before i even got started with the sheriff's office is, with that plan in mind, that goal in mind, and you really have to set your sights on it. So you have to pay attention over the years. You have to pay attention to what's happening around you, what's happening organizationally um to be successful and to be able to make and help the sheriff's office run in a positive manner.
Speaker: um Really what we're here for is to provide a service to our community, and that is the key component of what we do every single day. So when I took office, one of the big things that we had to overcome is we had to build a better relationship with the community that we didn't have.
Speaker: um So we're out. We're out at public events. We're out at community events. We're out working with people on a one-to-one basis where we can actually develop those relationships and build that trust with our community where they have more trust and more faith with us um and they interact with us a little more freely.
Speaker: And it's not just... What I have done is what our agency has done. It's what our staff has done. Our staff has been very adaptive to this. Really, it's what we do, and it's you have to have the ability to be successful. And we gave them that ability and the desire to do that, and our staff has really overcome to that, where they are out there every day building those relationships, not not just me.
Speaker: And yeah, you guys are on it a lot, which is great. Great to see. And like you said, that connection's huge, right? or You're meeting people where they're at. Absolutely. Is is important. um I think i you guys recently um came out with some statistics that crime is down in in Adams County, which is a great thing to to celebrate for our community.
Speaker: um What can you kind of lean on or what can, what do you, how does that come about? The work that you all are doing to see that crime statistic lower in Adams County.
Speaker: Well, it's just one of the stats. It was a five-year stat that came out, and and it not just us, but other entities around the state. And it's a regional thing where you start putting out your stats of five years and and how crime is doing.
Speaker: um Overall, around the state of Colorado, it is dropping overall. We have had some good major reduction in some of the things and the initiatives that we have been involved in, and it's been very purposeful that of what we've really approached, the approach that we've taken.
Speaker: um One of the things that we did when I first came into office is we put in some management roles into some of the specialized units, um the auto task force groups, the some of the federal partners that we have through ATF, DEA, and some of the folks that really are out there helping us be successful. It's not just about what we've done.
Speaker: um So we have the biggest reduction that we have was in auto theft. Before I took office, we were number one in the state of Colorado for auto thefts. Nobody wants to have that. That is not something you go home and brag about.
Speaker: um But that was a goal for me is that we were going to reduce it. And we've really focused on trying to get that number down. And I think we have done an excellent job in getting it down. We're not done yet.
Speaker: We still have a long ways to go. But we have really focused on reducing some of this crime. One thing that really is the driving factor is our staffing levels.
Speaker: um When I took office, we were down 144
Speaker: That's huge. yeah When you're talking about an organization that's got six hundred and roughly 635, 640 employees, that's a huge number when you're down 144 people.
Speaker: Over the years, our HR department, our recruiting efforts, and the work that we have done in the community and in recruiting not only local talent from here, from, again, that know our state, that know Adams County, that know Colorado. We've also been able to attract some laterals.
Speaker: We've been able to bring some employees back that left ah under other administrations that weren't happy. So we were able to attract some highly qualified individuals back to the agency.
Speaker: um But what we have done is that our certified staff, our police officers, we are weird even right now. We have no openings in our law and in our law enforcement staff.
Speaker: Yeah, that wasn't a thing ago. It's never been since I've been here. Okay. Okay. We have never been fully staffed with our law enforcement, with our certified staff ever, um since i I have never known of us being fully staffed.
Speaker: um We are down on our professional staff right now. That's still down. We have closed those numbers, and we keep going up and down on those. Same thing with our certified. We go up and down a little bit. People retire, and then we hire others or swear in new folks. And then we also have our academy that's producing a ah good number of people every year for our certified staff.
Speaker: But right now we're down 20 for our professional staff. And that varies anywhere from record text to court services to various different tasks. And unfortunately, and that's the backbone to our agency also. And without them, um it's hard for us to do our job. So we are out recruiting. We're we're swearing in folks every day.
Speaker: or recruiting every day. um This morning, we had a swearing-in this morning. I think we ah swore in eight new professional staffs this morning. Very nice. It's a huge bump for us, and it gets those numbers down.
Speaker: But in the end, the the moral of the story is is that it provides more boots on the ground. So we have more staff out on the street. We have more staff in our jail. we have more staff to go around to not only provide our services that we do for our community, but to also fulfill some of those roles and some of those specialty units that we have worked ourselves into that really help us crack down and focus on crime reduction.
Speaker: focusing on this certified, which is deputies, cops, right? How were you able to get that to fully staffed, I guess, is the question. And are other agencies in the Denver metro area seeing the same thing? Or is it just an Adams County thing where, hey, we're recruiting, we're getting we're getting officers that want to come work for Adams County. I'm curious because it's it's always been a challenge, like you said.
Speaker: It's always been a challenge. And I host the um the sheriff's group. we I meet with all the police chiefs from all the municipalities in Adams County every month.
Speaker: And I get to hear where they're at, and we give a briefing of where people are at and how they're doing for their staffing. um Some are full, then, you know, the following month they're not, and it really fluctuates.
Speaker: I think overall the majority of the folks within the Adams County area have openings. um I think it's very difficult. i think we've ah really seen some trends.
Speaker: over the years that caused a lot of law enforcement, a lot of individuals to get out of law enforcement, which has been a little challenging. One benefit that we have is that we have Flat Rock Regional Training Center, which is an Adams County training center, which gives us an opportunity to put in 30 people per class. And we do two classes a year that we actually pay folks to come to be at our school, to be at our academy, to be successful and are guaranteed a position when they get out.
Speaker: um So that is very attractive. We also have a very attractive system here in Adams County and very fortunate to provide some of the services that we do in Adams County to support our staff and our employees.
Speaker: That's awesome. Well, congrats to you and and everybody that's working hard over there to to have that that full staff. That's that's awesome. um What are some of the challenges you're facing right now as an agency and and what are you doing to maybe um help with those challenges, would you say?
Speaker: Well, one of the challenges we've we've got, there's always some type of a challenge. um I think it really goes back to the beginning, but we have a lot of folks that are concerned with ICE. They're concerned with our our federal government, our our federal partners, and we have to work and navigate that appropriately.
Speaker: Again, building those relationships with our communities and community members and community groups is key because we don't fulfill that role of ICE. We are here to provide um safety and and enforce the law. that we have here in the state of Colorado and Adams County. So ah completely different than ICE enforcement or or Homeland Security and their role.
Speaker: um But we, again, are building those relationships and building that trust where we can still get out and still have individuals that will talk to us. They're not afraid to talk to us and they will help us solve crimes. They will help us identify individuals that commit crimes. They they engage with us. And that's one of the key things that we continue to work on.
Speaker: But I think that is a ah driving factor that we continue to have and hear about is that they're afraid of law enforcement because of that ICE component and what's happening across the nation and in other parts of our state. So,
Speaker: What's one thing that you're especially really proud of right now at the agency where it's like, hey, this is awesome. This is a big deal. That's hard questions to do. know. I got to put you on the spot. I don't know if I really don't have just one. I think we have a lot of different things that we've been very successful with.
Speaker: um Not only we have our, we talked real briefly about our our Flat Rock training facility. That opened in 2008. 13 or 14, something like that, where it opened full-time.
Speaker: um This year, we are actually spending some money out there. We have some funding that we've earned we've made from hosting some different events out there that we're closing, not only closing the roof on our range to make it more environmentally safe we and keeping the noise. We're making it a 24-hour facility where it's functional and closed to the environment.
Speaker: Some of the building that we have going out there, we've never been able to do until now. So that bolsters what we can provide for regional training, not only locally in the metropolitan area, but in the state.
Speaker: Because we host training events and we host academies that people from all over the state of Colorado And agencies from around the state send their cadets to us to teach them to be law enforcement officers.
Speaker: um So it's key that we're providing top-notch quality training, not only for our community here, but for the community across the state of Colorado. Um, there's many things that we've accomplished and I'd, I'd like to talk about how much time do we have? How much time do we got? Yeah.
Speaker: I'm curious more like on a personal note, like what do you enjoy most about serving as the Adams County Sheriff? On a personable note, I think one of the big things is, like I said earlier, I was born and raised in Adams County. My business is in Adams County.
Speaker: um So my my connection to Adams County is is very important. um I think being able to provide the service with high morals and ethics and and actually doing what we're set out to do every single day is important.
Speaker: very important role for me. And we strive to be successful in the eyes of our community. um And we work hard at that because we have those morals and those ethics and those um sound background to be able to be that forward thinking agency.
Speaker: And that was one thing when I, again, came into office that we really strive to do is to be a number one agency in the state of Colorado. And we're continue to be that role model for others around the state to be able to lead by example.
Speaker: That's pretty cool. Last thing I want to ask you, your pitch, if anybody's thinking about getting into law enforcement, you said you had some ah vacancies in the non-certified civilian professional staff, um or even just you will have deputy ah openings in the future.
Speaker: um Why should somebody decide to get into law enforcement? Well, that's ah why should they get into law enforcement is a good question. You you have to have that drive um to be able to get into law enforcement. It's not for everybody. We are very hopeful.
Speaker: We hire a lot of individuals that that will come. Sometimes we'll hire somebody and they'll be with us for a day and they'll say, this isn't for me. um I highly recommend for them to reach out, meet up and contact one of our recruiters, spend some time with our recruiters, actually go out on ah a ride along or sit along and come and look at the role that you're putting in for so that that success rate is there. Because we want to make sure that the individuals are are doing what they want to do, because if they're not happy, we're not going to be happy in the end. So we have to have a good connection and we have to have a good team.
Speaker: And i as a matter of fact, I gave a speech this morning at swearing in when I was swearing people in. Our process takes forever. It's slow. um I think you know that. that You know, you have to go through all the hoops. yeah You're going through a background investigation. You're going through everything. And it takes a lot of time and and and a lot of effort.
Speaker: And it's frustrating. And I apologize to people for that. But at the same time, we're picking the best of the best. So that's what we look for every day is we want the highest quality individuals for not only our agency, but for our community.
Speaker: We want to be able to tell our community and provide to our community the top candidates that we can select around the state of Colorado, that we have good resources that are out there and to provide the best services possible.
Speaker: Awesome. Well, Sheriff Gene Claps, appreciate your time. Thanks for coming into studio and yeah, appreciate it Carson, thank you. And thank you for the time today. right, for this week's tip of the week, it's putting your phone down. So there could be something said that we should all put our phone down so put our phones down a little bit more often, but we're talking about when you're driving. Distracted driving is a huge problem within Adams County and with Colorado overall. So we were or telling what we want you to do is put your phones down, stop texting and driving when you're at your stoplights, making sure you're not checking your phone. Sometimes road rages will start after that. So please, Adams County, put your phone down
Speaker: That's it. That's our tip of the week. So we hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you're listening on YouTube, go ahead and scan the QR code. Let us know what you guys want us to ah cover, or you can email us at communityconnectionsatadamsheriffco.gov. We're going to be releasing shows every other week.
Speaker: So you can find the show on our YouTube page and and the Spotify podcast apps. Make sure you like and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And the Sheriff's Office is on all major social media platforms, so give us a follow you can keep up on what's going on with us.
Speaker: And join us next time. Be safe.
