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 Vol. 2 No. 9

Welcome to the latest edition of  The Briefing Room, the journal of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. Learn more about what we’re doing to serve the community -- we’re proud to be able to share these stories with you.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us by sending an e-mail to: briefingroom@co.clackamas.or.us. And click here to subscribe to the e-mail edition.

'Clackamas County's Most Wanted' updates

We've updated our "Clackamas County's Most Wanted" web page and posted a new "Most Wanted" video on our YouTube channel. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and in the latest video, Sheriff Craig Roberts focuses on domestic-violence suspects in Clackamas County. Check it out -- you might just help us bring an alleged criminal to justice.

Among the latest web postings:

Eric James O'Kelly  (pictured)  is wanted on charges of Assault, Menacing and Criminal Mischief. O'Kelly is accused of threatening and attacking a relative during an argument at a Milwaukie home. He allegedly pushed the victim into a bookshelf, hit her on the side of the face, and yanked a Bluetooth headpiece from her ear and broke it. He also allegedly threatened to burn her house down.

O'Kelly is 36 years old. He is white, stands 6 feet tall and weighs 175 pounds. He has brown eyes and brown hair.

If you have information  about O'Kelly -- or any of  our  Most Wanted fugitives -- please contact us using our online Tip Sheet or by calling our Tip Line at (503) 723-4949. if you see any of these individuals, do not approach them yourself -- call 911.

Also updated regularly: our "Can You ID Me?" page, which allows you to help us identify persons of interest or potential witnesses.  

NEW VIDEOS: KOIN Local 6 embeds with drug task force and domestic-violence sweep; 'Inside the Jail' updates

KOIN Local 6 recently traveled with our deputies to report a couple of terrific feature stories:

• First, KOIN's Amy Frazier spent a day with the Clackamas County Inter-agency Task Force (CCITF) as they made multiple local drug arrests involving meth and heroin. Click here to watch the story.

• KOIN also rode along with law-enforcement personnel on our annual domestic-violence warrant sweep -- the 9th annual National Family Violence Apprehension Detail. The sweep is a day-long event, in which agencies across the United States attempt to serve outstanding family-violence warrants. Since the sweep's inception in 2001, law-enforcement personnel have made over 41,000 attempts at serving warrants nationwide and a stunning 8,615 domestic-violence arrests. Click here to watch KOIN's story.

• There's also a new video on our YouTube channel: a 2011 update of "Inside the Clackamas County Jail" -- which offers an in-depth look at the history, staff and operations at our jail.


FEATURE PROFLE:
Extradition is his business



Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Deputy Gary Bergerson (pictured above) is innovating new ways to transport inmates more effectively -- and saving money in the process.

And he wants to take his cost-saving plans nationwide.

"Gary's dedication and determination is amazing," says Undersheriff Dave Kirby. "He's saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for Clackamas County citizens."

A knack for 'penny-pinching'

Inmate transport is a massive task -- one that involves moving Clackamas County inmates to other jails and prisons and extraditing them from other states.

In 2009 alone, the job involved 27,800 miles of travel -- longer than a trip around the earth -- to move 796 inmates into the Clackamas County Jail and 1,213 inmates out of the jail.

Corrections Transport Deputy Bergerson seized the opportunity to analyze every aspect of prisoner transport -- re-thinking the entire system in the name of saving money and time.

"I'm a penny-pincher by nature," he says.

Part of that savings included forming partnerships with other agencies to share transport routes.

"For example," says Bergerson, "we had the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office cover our normal transport route every other Wednesday so we could drive our Pendleton route. We used to have two deputies on eight hours of overtime cover the normal transport route. This one change saved about $1,470 every month -- or $17,660 per year."

As a 2009 Sheriff's Office commendation of Bergerson put it: "He's become famous for his memos detailing his efficiencies and cost savings as an 'inmate import/export specialist.'"

Other common-sense innovations included pre-arranging inmate doctor appointments and using the NW Shuttle System instead of deputies to transport inmates regionally -- which Bergerson estimates saved the Sheriff's Office $103,664 in 2009 alone.

"In August 2011, I had my biggest savings yet -- $23,312 in a month," he says. "That's state and county money that can now go for other things."

A nationwide network?

But Bergerson isn't stopping there. He's looking to expand and connect a network to extradite inmates to and from other states.

"States east of Colorado have no in-state transport system," says Bergerson. "Each individual county handles their own extraditions. I'm working on changing this. It's not easy -- counties aren't immediately open to the idea of change. So I take the time" -- sometimes with cold-calls, sometimes in person -- "to emphasize the benefits of forming an in-state shuttle system of their own.

"My ultimate goal is to create a nationwide network," he says. "There isn't a national inmate transport system in place -- that just doesn’t make sense in this day and age. All law-enforcement agencies need to work together to be cost-effective with limited budgets."

In his current role as co-president of the Oregon Transport Association (OTA), Bergerson is making inroads toward his goal: "When I started three years ago, it was hard getting people out of California. Now I'm getting them out of Missouri and Wisconsin."

He recently traveled with OTA co-president Corporal Trish Deland to the National Association of Extradition Officials in Charleston, South Carolina. According to Frances A. Lushenko, Oregon's Director of Extradition Services, they " did an outstanding job" -- even taking the extra step to meet with the local sheriff "to further discuss how to begin implementation of the shuttle plan for the State of South Carolina.... It was a grand slam."

"When I first told people my goal, a couple of people laughed and said it was little far-fetched," says Bergerson. "They're not laughing now. The biggest hurdle is getting people to think outside the box."

Says Undersheriff Kirby: "If you think of how much Gary has saved the citizens in Clackamas County, and then think about multiplying that all over the country, you can really see what a lasting difference he's making."

Sheriff's Office wraps up another successful search-and-rescue conference

We just finished Northwest SARCon -- our search-and-rescue conference, held in the shadow of Mt. Hood, America's most-climbed mountain.

Over 250 members of the search-and-rescue community showed up in Welches for the conference. Experts from all over the world led classes in all aspects of search and rescue -- water searches, wilderness and high-angle rescue, K-9 searches, communications technology, body identification and recovery and much more.

Click here to watch a video of a K-9 trailing dog tracking a volunteer at the Sandy River Airport during one of the conference's many field exercises.

You can learn much more about the conference at www.nwsarcon.com.

The Sheriff's Mailbox

The Sheriff's Office periodically receives thank-you letters from citizens and other agencies. We've reproduced one of our recent favorites below. You can read more by clicking here. (Letters may be edited for length or clarity, and identifying details may be removed.)

If you'd like to send your own note of praise, feel free to use our online commendation form. 

__________
I am writing this letter to show my appreciation and gratitude for the many men and women who have committed themselves to protecting our communities. Many of us take for granted the protection we are provided by our deputies, and at times they are misunderstood.

On an October evening, I had the opportunity to ride along with Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jerry Rippe. I spent over nine hours with Deputy Rippe. What I experienced during that time has given me an completely different outlook and understanding of what our men and women in law enforcement must do every day to keep us safe.

I was very impressed with the way Deputy Rippe conducted himself while performing his duties. He was professional and tactful in the way he interacted with the people he had contact with throughout his shift. Each person was treated with the same respect as he dealt with various challenges. Watching him perform his duties made me proud, and I felt completely safe as he showed complete competence.

I found this experience to be informative, and I saw a saw of law enforcement that most of us never see. I recommend that others in our community spend time with our deputies, as I did.

-- Portland

 

Also:

Sheriff's Office news releases

Public Safety Events Calendar -- A list of happenings sponsored by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office and its community partners.

The Sheriff's Mailbox
 
Sheriff's Office YouTube channel

Sheriff's Office on Twitter

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