Open house successful, new community program launching

If the success of a barbecue can be assessed based on hot dog consumption, the East Precinct open house event hosted by the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office was a showstopper.

Held on Thursday, May 14, at the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office East Precinct (515 Main St.) in Sultan, the open house event gave guests the opportunity to meet Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary and Sultan Police Chief Monte Beaton, while mingling with numerous other deputies and members of the Sultan and Gold Bar communities.

"Anything we can do to be closely connected with the community I think we ought to do,GÇ¥ Trenary said. "This is just an opportunity for us to invite people in and show them where we work.GÇ¥

Deputies barbecued and served 180 hot dogs, which guests also enjoyed along with six different types of salad and several dozen cookies.

Star demonstration -á -á -á -á -á

Deputy Mathew Boice and K9 Kilo stole the show, making an impression on everyone who had the opportunity to interact with the outgoing dog. Kilo works as both a narcotics detection dog and a patrol dog, where his primary responsibilities are suspect apprehension and master protection. Boice trained with Kilo for 400 hours to become equipped to serve as a patrol team and trained for an additional 200 hours on narcotics detection.

A canine's extraordinary sense of smell makes them particularly appealing for police work ' a dog's sense of smell is up to 100,000 times more acute than a human's.

Deputy Bryson McGee helped facilitate the K9 demonstration by donning a protective bite sleeve. The instant Kilo spotted the sleeve, the friendly 4-year-old German Shepherd was all business.

"He obviously knows it's a giant game ' he knows exactly what the sleeve is,GÇ¥ Boice said. "When we use him out in the real world, there's no sleeve, but it's still a giant game to the dog.GÇ¥

Boice and McGee demonstrated master protection by staging a confrontation during which McGee shoved Boice. Once the confrontation became physical, Kilo didn't hesitate. He bounded forward and grabbed hold of McGee's arm, which was safely ensconced in the bite sleeve. Next, they created a scenario during which McGee attempted to flee the scene on foot, but he was no match for Kilo, who easily chased him down.

Kilo gleefully carried the bite sleeve around for a brief moment after the second demonstration, much to the delight of the audience.

You are not alone

The open house event also gave the sheriff's office the opportunity to spread the word about one of the ways it is planning on enhancing services. Always looking for more ways to become engaged at a community level, the sheriff's office will implement a new volunteer-based program this summer called You Are Not Alone, or YANA. The program, which is being coordinated by Sgt. Ian Huri, will extend county-wide.

The idea behind YANA is to create a system through which sheriff's office volunteers will begin to interact with the more isolated members of the senior community. Contact will begin with scheduled phone calls and monthly home visits, depending on the availability of volunteer staff and resources.

"If staffing allows, we'll certainly try and do more, but right now, we're not sure if the demand will outpace our volunteer core,GÇ¥ Huri said.

The goal is to work preemptively, in hopes of circumventing some of the emergency calls that are generated by senior citizens experiencing barriers related to self-care.

Additionally, the hope is that, through the social component of the program, seniors can become more aware and vigilant against financial scams. This year has been rife with IRS tax scams, PUD electricity bill scams and many others.

"If we can keep in contact with them and keep them in touch with society, they're less likely to get victimized,GÇ¥ Huri said.

"It should be an interesting summer for us,GÇ¥ he continued. "We're going to try some new stuff, as far as law enforcement goes.GÇ¥

For more information on the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, visit snohomishcountywa.gov/210/Sheriff. -á -á