An overview of Citizens Academy 2024

A personal account

By Jon Huang

This past September and October, I attended the El Paso County Sheriff Office’s biannual Citizens Academy, a five-week, 10-session evening course that introduces the public to functions and people who serve in our law enforcement community.

The program’s festivities began with an introduction from Sheriff Joe Roybal, who gave a lively introduction outlining his concurrent role as fire warden, politician and businessman. Every year, EPSO oversees a budget of slightly more than $100 million, which includes a county jail’s budget of $61 million — a large portion of which goes toward food vendors and dental and health care services for inmates. The jail is the largest in the state, and has garnered a one-star rating on Yelp, Roybal said.

He explained that the three main causes for deaths in the jail are suicide, natural causes and drug overdose. The latter issue sparked an impassioned speech about how seriously he takes protecting all citizens, including those in the jail.

In January 2023, an inmate died in her cell from a fentanyl overdose. An investigation led to the conviction of another inmate who had smuggled drugs into the jail, a conviction of which Roybal was particularly proud.

“I don’t have a boss, but I answer to you,” he said.

Roybal also joked about how he met his wife in jail — both of them wearing badges at the time, he said. Before he left, someone updated him on the jail’s most recent Yelp rating. “Two and a half stars!” he beamed.

Sgt. Kurt Smith, the man responsible for organizing the academy, is the department’s newest public information officer. He’s been with the department 18 years, spending time in the jail, court and transport, patrol, explosives and as a detective. Smith has investigated everything from property and financial crimes to major crimes and officer-involved shootings.

The presentations covered topics such as officer training, the civil unit, court services, internal affairs and patrol. We spent a day touring and speaking with deputies at the courthouse, the jail, seeing the equipment used by SWAT teams, and we met members of the K9 unit, including a dog. We were introduced to the Behavioral Health Connect team, which pairs a deputy with a mental health clinician, one of several ways the EPSO tries to minimize unnecessary incarceration or violent outcomes with civilians. There were also presentations from the victims’ assistance programs, 911 Dispatch, Wildland Fire, among others. We had an opportunity to participate in some of the reality based training scenarios that deputies go through. There was even a taser demonstration, for which one deputy graciously sacrificed her body.

Throughout the sessions, I was struck by the candidness and openness with which many officers spoke. To them, the occasion seemingly doubled as an opportunity to be open about the realities they face on a daily basis, sharing the stories that aren’t captured on the local news and less suitable for most family dinner conversations. I learned about the artistic creativity of jail inmates, expressed in the staff-hosted mural competitions.

A civil officer shared how she might spend her days serving divorce papers, clearing houses with fentanyl, meth, feces and homemade weapons to sometimes almost losing her mind making unexpected discoveries.

“Adult toys, I will tell you — those full-size dolls are absolutely terrifying when you’re clearing and you have your gun out and you open the closet,” she said.

I participated in a ride-along with one of the patrol deputies, observing the breadth of tasks the officers take on every day. He compared his role to being the triage nurse in an emergency room, constantly determining where to direct citizens to resources. They respond to a myriad of issues: responding to neighbor complaints about a suspiciously parked car or unruly behavior, a domestic dispute between mother and daughter, medication safety concerns on a hospice patient, a routine traffic stop.       

During one session, I asked an officer what he considered his most alarming citizen encounter.

“The traffic stop at night,” he said.

The reality is that no traffic stop can be treated as routine because an officer never knows beforehand what’s going on inside the car or what could emerge in the heat of the moment. Interestingly, one officer explained how whenever he’s pulled over for speeding, which has happened more than once, the first thing he does is stick his hands out of the window to show he’s not a threat.

During another session, I asked an officer about how lawsuits are often filed even when there is no officer wrongdoing and why that might still lead to payouts.

“Most plaintiff’s attorneys, they wait two years,” he said. During another session, I asked an officer about why payouts sometimes occur in the absence of officer wrongdoing. He explained that in combination with the volume of lawsuits, sometimes the legal costs of these proceedings that some of these cases involve can lead the department to settle to avoid a lengthy and expensive trial.  

All in all, the biggest takeaway for me was learning about and appreciating the span of services that the Sheriff’s Office covers and the complicated nature of many of the issues they face. It was a reminder of the multidimensional aspects of crime in which law enforcement plays a crucial yet specific role. For more information on volunteering, visit: https://www.epcsheriffsoffice.com/sections-administrative-bureau/administrative-services-division/volunteer-program