Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, January 13 for his monthly report. Sherriff Johnson touched on two recent fatal snowmobile incidents and also described what he called a growing illicit drug problem in the county.

(0:00) Joining me live in studio for the monthly report from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s (0:04) office is Sheriff Shane Johnson. (0:06) As always, Sheriff, appreciate your time. (0:08) How are you today? (0:08) Morning, dude.

(0:09) Good. (0:09) How are you doing? (0:10) All right. (0:10) Uh, let’s, uh, let’s talk about a couple of, uh, of incidents that, that have (0:15) been reported with some snowmobile accidents and, uh, really just kind of (0:19) highlighting, especially the response of, of search and rescue and, and emergency (0:23) EMS services and those types of things.

(0:24) But, uh, two, two snowmobile incidences in the arch Creek area. (0:29) Yeah. (0:29) Um, and unfortunately the worst kind of incidents that resulted in a loss of (0:35) life in, in both cases, uh, a local, local guy and a, and a guy from Utah, (0:41) the most recent one that was, that was a result of an avalanche.

(0:44) So yeah, it’s just, uh, heartbreaking and it’s, it happens. (0:49) We certainly have, have, uh, had that over the years, but it’s, uh, it’s a tough thing. (0:55) And, um, like you mentioned, search and rescue, a shout out to them.

(1:00) They’re, they’re always the ones that, that respond up there and, and handle it. (1:04) And, uh, they’re all, you know, like we’ve talked about before, volunteer (1:09) group and just do a great job. (1:12) So, um, appreciate them and the hard work that they do, but yeah, tough, tough (1:18) deal, um, in, in both cases and, uh, heartbreaking and I know I, I was (1:24) listening this morning and you, uh, gave the avalanche, uh, update and just (1:30) remind people to make sure that they’re following that and, and, uh, even at (1:34) that, it doesn’t take the place of just being careful and being safety.

(1:38) This last one, there was a, he had an avalanche pack, it activated, but, um, (1:45) didn’t, didn’t, uh, save him unfortunately, but any equipment or precautions that you (1:51) can take when you’re out, uh, right. (1:53) And just encourage you to do that. (1:55) And in both cases, um, there was, uh, the, the call to dispatch came in through, (2:01) uh, uh, satellite services of some kind, either a satellite phone or an Apple (2:06) device and, and, uh, just kinda again, highlights how important those, those (2:10) have become to have with you.

(2:11) Yep. (2:11) One, one was through the Apple, uh, satellite services that, that came in. (2:16) And the last one was through Garmin, uh, in reach where you can, um, have (2:21) contact, uh, with somebody when you’re out of range, uh, through satellite.

(2:26) And so it gives us a heads up of something and, and, and, uh, results (2:32) in a quicker response for sure. (2:34) So, um, unfortunately, like I said, in these cases, it’s, it’s, the result (2:39) was a loss of life, which again is heartbreaking, but any of that. (2:44) Equipment, those services in reach Apple, any of those that, that help (2:49) people respond quicker is a good thing.

(2:52) So in, in, in both cases also, you know, one of the advantages is the ability (2:58) to communicate with someone on scene and, um, activate if appropriate, a (3:05) medical helicopter, which of course can get there very quick and, um, perform (3:10) life saving measures and, and get them, uh, the victim to a place if appropriate, (3:15) that they’re going to receive, uh, medical care quickly. (3:18) So that’s another big advantage of having those services while you’re up there. (3:23) Thank you.

(3:23) County Sheriff Shane Johnson in studio this morning. (3:25) Uh, anything else you feel is worth mentioning here? (3:27) Oh, just, uh, again, our, our condolences to those families. (3:32) It’s, it’s heartbreaking and, and, uh, wish them the best and, um, just a tough deal.

(3:40) Yeah, absolutely. (3:41) Absolutely. (3:42) It is, uh, Sheriff Shane Johnson in studio this morning, monthly report (3:44) from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office, uh, Sheriff, another thing (3:47) I wanted to, to bring up today.

(3:49) And, and just to maybe get your overall thoughts and what’s happening, what’s (3:54) going on, uh, but, uh, illegal drug use, I guess, and narcotics in inside of (3:59) Lincoln County and kind of what you’re seeing and, and how you work with not (4:04) just the Sheriff’s department, but other law enforcement agencies in the county. (4:08) Uh, and kind of your role in what you’re seeing, maybe just an overall, uh, (4:12) 10,000 foot view on, on drug issues in the county. (4:16) Yeah.

(4:17) So I guess I’ll start with, um, the, the most common drug, which is alcohol, (4:26) which is accounts for a huge percentage of our call volume and, and jail population. (4:31) Um, but, um, I, I know you’re referring more to the, uh, illicit, illicit drugs. (4:38) Marijuana is, is an ongoing issue.

(4:40) And, and the fact that, um, it’s readily available in some surrounding (4:45) states, cause it’s been legalized, just, you know, exacerbates that problem. (4:48) So, um, we, we do continue to see a lot of that and, you know, it gets (4:55) downplayed to a certain extent, but we do deal with that, but you know, one of (5:00) the, the, the biggest things that we’ve seen in a trend lately is cocaine, (5:05) which, you know, wasn’t that long ago. (5:07) We had very rarely see cocaine in the Valley and we, um, I’d say in the last (5:15) year and a half, um, um, in search warrants, we’ve recovered 10, 11 pounds (5:22) of cocaine in Lincoln County.

(5:24) So that’s troubling. (5:26) Uh, the good news is we got that off the street. (5:29) The bad news is that it was here.

(5:32) Um, and that also means that there was a market for it. (5:37) And that doesn’t mean it was just all being distributed in Lincoln County. (5:42) It’s, it’s, that certainly is not the case, but, uh, you know, again, the (5:46) concern is there’s a market for that cocaine and I believe, uh, I’m not (5:52) going to get political per se, but I do believe the, the border that was not (5:58) secure for so long and it seemed like the, uh, a rise in those, in cocaine, (6:03) certainly, um, coming out of Mexico.

(6:05) And, and I think that’s playing a role now we’ll see what happens over time (6:11) is that’s, is that’s addressed. (6:13) Cause certainly some of those issues are trending in the other direction now. (6:17) So, um, but again, the fact that it’s, that we’ve seen a rise in that is (6:23) concerning, I will tell you at the, at the sheriff’s office, we, we have a (6:27) full-time state DCI agent that is housed out of our office that they’re one of (6:36) their primary responsibilities.

(6:38) And I believe where they spend the most time is in drug activity. (6:42) And then we also have, excuse me. (6:44) We also have a full-time deputy that’s a task force officer.

(6:48) So we assign that, um, deputy to work with DCI and he’s, um, used in that (6:58) capacity, not only for, um, illicit drugs, but the other things that DCI is (7:04) involved in. (7:04) And so we have two great detectives that, that work on that full time. (7:10) Um, they’ve, they’re responsible for removing a lot of drugs off the street, (7:14) but again, it’s still concerning that trend and that, uh, the fact that it’s.

(7:21) That we’re able to recover that much in Lincoln County is certainly concerning. (7:26) It’s one of those things that I’m assuming is, is hard to be preventative for aside (7:33) from just education, right? (7:34) I mean, from a law enforcement perspective, you almost, is it more of a (7:38) reactionary process? (7:39) Yeah. (7:40) A lot of those cases work with, um, with good information from police officers on (7:46) the road, deputies on the road that, that see something, uh, and report it to those (7:51) guys and say, Hey, maybe we ought to be looking into this or just recoveries out (7:55) of vehicles on the road that turns into a bigger case.

(7:58) Um, also from citizen tips that we think something’s going on in this location. (8:03) And so they start a case from there. (8:05) And they, these, these cases don’t take a couple of days.

(8:08) They can take sometimes, uh, over a year to, to resolve. (8:14) And then even then at the end of that, when some arrests are made that it’s, (8:18) it’s not over, it typically ties back to somewhere else of where they’re coming (8:22) from. (8:23) So they’re good cases.

(8:24) They work hard. (8:26) Um, but the concern certainly is there. (8:28) Yeah.

(8:29) And we are somewhat reactive, but we try and be proactive as much as possible. (8:34) Are, are you seeing a, an increase in, in use by minors? (8:38) Is that becoming a bigger concern? (8:40) Um, I can’t say that that’s something that’s, uh, we’ve seen an increase in the (8:47) marijuana certainly is, is, um, the more likely, um, drug used by the minors. (8:54) And we have seen certainly some of that, but I can’t say that it’s a big increase (8:58) over what we’ve seen historically.

(9:00) Thank you. (9:00) Kind of Sheriff Shane Johnson and studio, uh, and Sheriff, this may be something (9:04) we’ll bring up again, uh, kind of ongoing in the future and just kind of see how (9:07) this, this thing goes. (9:08) Yeah.

(9:09) We want, we want to, I just want to say, if you do see something, if you have a (9:13) concern, if something doesn’t quite look right, make sure you let us know and, and, (9:17) uh, let us look into that. (9:19) And we got, again, we’ve got some great people that work primarily, uh, getting (9:26) that stuff off the street. (9:28) So let us know and give us an opportunity to try and make the Valley free of that (9:32) stuff.

(9:33) Bad deal. (9:34) Thank you. (9:34) Kind of Sheriff Shane Johnson this morning.

(9:36) It’s all part of the weekday. (9:37) Wake up on SVI radio.