Agency of the Month - Tooele County Sheriff's Department

On July 11, 2005, the Tooele County Sheriff's Department and Life Flight held a joint training event on Landing Zone Safety and Hoist/Rescue Operations.

More than 40 people attended the training held at the Sheriff's Search and Rescue Building at 900 S. Main Street in Tooele. After the classroom session, Life Flight 1 from McKay-Dee Hospital gave a demonstration of hoist operations; dispatcher Tanya Phillips volunteered to be hoisted in the rescue net. Sheriff's Search and Rescue, area fire agencies, and EMS ambulance EMT's had the chance to look at the helicopter, talk to the crew, learn about helicopter safety, and ground-to-air communications.

Crews had the opportunity to learn how to help flight teams prepare and load patients for transport, see what equipment the medical crew carries, and learn how the flight team could help ground crews extract patients from difficult terrain.

Sheriff Frank Park and Chief Deputy Ron Matekel manage a department of 70 officers and staff in Patrol, Jail, Investigations, Administration, Dispatch, Animal Control, Search and Rescue, Hazmat, SWAT and Court Security. The Tooele County Sheriff's Department provides law enforcement and public safety services to an area of more than 7,000 square miles. The Sheriff's Department has a Citizen's Patrol program with over 55 volunteers and a Search and Rescue Unit with 45 members who give a lot of their own personal time to the citizens of Tooele County.

Leaders on the Sheriff's staff include:

Lieutenant Lynn Bush, Patrol
Lieutenant Regina Bekanich, Dispatch
Lieutenant Duke North, Investigations
Lieutenant Herman Herrerra, Hazmat, Special Operations/Fire

Life Flight
250 North 2370 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
Dispatch Telephone: 801-321-1234
Operation Center Telephone: 801-321-3330
Fax: 801-321-3327
robyn.campbell@intermountainmail.org