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FARMINGTON — A Utah sheriff acknowledges a number of recent, highly publicized officer-involved shootings spanning from Ferguson, Missouri, to Salt Lake City to West Valley City to Saratoga Springs have fueled outrage and distrust of police at large, but he said Monday he hoped people will remember the many times officers and deputies go "above and beyond” to leave their communities better than they found them.
“We’re here to help,” Davis County Sheriff Todd Richardson said. “We’re not here to pull anybody down.”
A number of recent examples of deputies doing “more than required” were posted Monday on the Davis County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, including changing tires during extreme weather, buying food for people and cleaning up a house after a domestic disturbance call.
In another cited example, a deputy helped find a barn for horses displaced during a traffic accident involving an out-of-state traveler. The deputy’s wife then fixed dinner for everyone involved.
“It’s not all about citations, it’s not all about dealing with the bad aspect of life — it’s also dealing with the general day-to-day things,” Richardson said. “It’s from the smallest things of bringing in somebody’s groceries to the biggest things where we’re having to sit with somebody that’s barricaded with a gun — we’re going to do it to keep people safe.”
Sgt. Dan Yeaman said deputies on patrol in Davis County are constantly watching for drivers in distress, and also occasionally spend their own money to do a good turn.
It's not all about citations, it's not all about dealing with the bad aspect of life — it's also dealing with the general day-to-day things/It's from the smallest things of bringing in somebody's groceries to the biggest things where we're having to sit with somebody that's barricaded with a gun.
–Sheriff Todd Richardson
“We have one deputy during Halloween who goes out and buys several bags of candy, and when he’s on patrol during Halloween, he gives out the candy to the kids purchased with his own money,” Yeaman said. “It’s a great way to be out there showing the community that we’re out there for them and we’re the kids’ friends.”
Deputies have also assisted during natural disasters and extreme weather events, such as the windstorm on Dec. 1, 2011, when hurricane-force winds left behind widespread damage.
“We had deputies going out trying to pull limbs off of people’s cars,” Richardson recalled. “We had one person that was stuck in a car that the wind was blowing so fast — she was an elderly lady — and couldn’t get from her car back into her house.”
The department’s Facebook post characterized Davis County deputies as “true professionals” whose power comes with “great responsibility.”
“For the most part, I think that we have a community that is very supportive of us, that we have an open dialogue all the time,” Richardson said. “Our role here is to make sure that everybody is safe and can go home to their families at the end of the day.”
