In mid-November, residents of eastern El Paso County took to social media to voice their concern about the alleged disbanding of the EPC Sheriffís Office Rural Enforcement and Outreach Unit. EPCSO Lt. Paul Mynatt said the unit is temporarily downsizing ó not disbanding.Mynatt said the REO unit, which is usually a six-officer unit, still has one sergeant and two deputies who will continue the unitís routine operations of patrolling and handling calls for service in the rural areas of the county.According to the EPCSOís website, the REO unit was created in 2015 to support the patrol and investigations division by offering better law enforcement response to the large areas of unincorporated eastern EPC.ìThe motivation for the downsizing was to shift those patrol officers into areas that have been backlogged with calls for service,î he said. ìWe have people going through training now so when they are done, the REO will come back full strength. That will be about January or February 2020.îMynatt said he does not anticipate that anyone in the rural areas of the county will notice a change; he said he thinks the reason for the large outcry was related to social media posts. The main concern voiced in those posts was the suspected loss of school resource officers, he said. However, the school resources officers are a different entity from the rural enforcement officers; the SROs have memorandums of understanding to work in the schools, and the schools pay to have them there, Mynatt said.ìI think what muddied the waters was a school resource officer was injured (in eastern EPC) and we used an REO unit member to fill in for that position for a few months,î he said. ìThe REO is not going away and neither are the SROs.îMynatt said the sheriffís office will continue to respond to calls on rural issues, and they will make officers available when necessary.ìThe community can continue to expect the REO unit to be the best of the best in eastern El Paso County,î he said.
