The Douglas County Sheriff's Office has trained our personnel to provide consistent and professional service. As a member of our community, you can assist the Sheriff's Office as we strive to ensure that the service we provide meets the high standards expected. We encourage your participation. We want you to give us information when you observe actions by the Sheriff's Office or individual employees, which you believe needs our attention. This information can be both actions that you find commendatory and those you believe are not at an acceptable level of professional service.

You may report your observations in person, by letter or on the telephone. The Sheriff's Office does accept anonymous information, however we may not be able to act on it as effectively as when you provide your identity. Anonymous reports are investigated to the extent which the information allows.

You should expect that your initial contact will be with a supervisor of the Sheriff's Office. The supervisor will prepare the actual Community and Personnel Relations Report. This is to insure that all relevant and available information is gathered when it is still fresh. Your cooperation is very important particularly in identifying witnesses and in helping us to gather evidence including photographs and medical treatment records if necessary.

A member of the Sheriff's Office will be assigned to investigate your report. You should expect to hear from that person within a couple of days. The investigator will attempt to arrange for a convenient time and location to conduct a formal interview with you. This interview routinely will be tape-recorded. If you have any questions or concerns you may contact Internal Affairs , but you should not feel that you are expected to call.

An essential part of this investigation is our direct contact and interview with the involved Sheriff's Office employees. They will be interviewed in a similar manner as your interview.

These employees will be instructed not to contact you unless it is in response to a law enforcement service need. In the case of an employee commendation, the employee will be notified of the event and a copy will be placed in their employment file.

We strive to complete all of these Community and Personnel Relations investigations within thirty days. Normally the review process takes a few more days. You will be notified of the outcome of this investigation if you wish. However, by law and Douglas County policy there is information such as disciplinary action taken, that we are prohibited from releasing.

We recognize and value the citizens who are the eyes and ears of our community and its law enforcement. We respect and welcome your input, both favorable and not. Whenever you see employee actions that you believe the Sheriff should be aware of, please report those actions to us.

Jay Armbrister
Douglas County Sheriff