Working together to keep residents safe — by Anne McMillin
You have probably seen personnel from the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office driving around town or while attending an event at the fairgrounds.
The Sheriff’s Office has quite a bit going on, so let’s take a look at some of those moving parts, courtesy of Sheriff Richard Hickox. Two of the most publically visible aspects of the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office are dispatch and patrol. For anyone calling 9-1-1 for assistance in an emergency, their first contact is going to be with the dispatch section. “We are the call center for all 9-1-1 calls in the county,” Hickox said. “Once we receive the call, we can then dispatch to tribal police, the fire department, Fallon Police, the ambulance, search-and-rescue, Bureau of Land Management (for Sand Mountain) or Nevada Highway Patrol as needed.” Six dispatchers handle all emergency calls around the clock and have a range of experience from new hires to more than 20 years on the job. Each dispatcher works an eight-hour shift either alone or with another dispatcher and all are masters at multi-tasking. “Just the other day, dispatchers walked someone through the CPR process on the phone while gathering information about the emergency and relaying it to our deputies,” said Hickox, adding that his dispatchers know the location of highway mile markers in the county and can help direct deputies to a particular location. He said the county’s dispatchers are in the process of getting their certification in PowerPhone, a system that trains dispatchers to ask the right questions in a particular situation that will help deputies when they arrive on-scene. Drivers in Churchill County have seen deputies from the patrol section of the Sheriff’s Office. This section, comprised of three sergeants and 11 deputies, is responsible for covering the 5,000 square miles of territory in the county. “Most of our population is here in Fallon, but we have smaller communities like Middlegate and Cold Springs that we service,” Hickox said. “There are also ranches up by I-80 and in the eastern portions of the county that we help when needed.” Hickox said something people may not realize is that all CCSO deputies are also deputy coroners for the county and have the ability to pronounce someone dead, handle remains and conduct death investigations. “This means that if someone dies in their sleep at your house, a deputy will be there to investigate and ask questions.” Outdoor adventurers may be familiar with Churchill County Search and Rescue, which falls under the auspices of the Sheriff’s Office, although it is a fairly autonomous function and has its own budget, Hickox said. SAR team members carry the CCSO badge and coordinate with deputies when they go out to search for someone reported missing. Oftentimes it is a joint effort between the Sheriff, Search and Rescue and other first responder agencies when searching for a lost person in the rugged terrain and extreme weather conditions of Churchill County. Hickox is proud to serve as Churchill County Sheriff and has deep praise for the community and the first responder agencies his office works with year-round. “This is an awesome community. We have terrific support from people who always want to help,” he said. Sign up to receive updates and the Friday File email notices. Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon.
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