Teller Sheriff Vows to Work with State and Federal Partners in Nixing Back Country Lawlessness
~By Trevor Phipps~
Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell is doubling down on his agency’s “Zero Tolerance” campaign, targeting illegal activities within the county’s national forest areas.
The department has now held several meetings, aimed at conveying the seriousness of this problem and getting the county’s state and federal law enforcement agencies on the same page, just prior to the summer tourism season.
One of the key highlights of these meetings and media tours involved a highly publicized press conference in which the sheriff showed video clips depicting many of the crimes that have occurred inside Teller County’s national forest areas. Mikesell issued a warning to anyone coming out to the county for recreation. That message is: No land in Teller County is “ungoverned.”
The increased law enforcement presence proved to be successful with sheriff’s deputies making hundreds of contacts with people recreating, resulting in many arrests. The sheriff’s office did say though, that the Zero Tolerance crackdown has helped reduce illegal activity in the National Forest. Moreover, their elevated presence has been well-received by residents and outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
The sheriff’s office had at least six deputies out in the national forest sections of the county per shift throughout Memorial Day Weekend. As a result, authorities contacted 338 people and conducted 131 off-highway vehicle inspections.
“Our deputies evaluated situations with reckless driving, possession of a firearm while impaired by alcohol, driving an OHV while impaired by alcohol, open burning violations, and other offenses,” the sheriff’s office reported on social media. “They took 16 case reports which resulted in arrests and citations.”
The deputies were thanked by many residents and recreation-goers. Some people even assisted the deputies by reporting illegal activities taking place.
“I’m highly appreciative and thankful for the amount of support that the community has offered with this and the help that they have extended towards us,” said Commander Kevin Tedesco, who is leading the operation. “And I’m happy that the enforcement campaign is having such a positive effect on the community. And we plan to continue; we are not letting off the gas on this.”
Multiple Agencies Join the Lawlessness Crackdown
Local officials, such as the Woodland Park Police Chief and mayors of cities in the county joined representatives from the U.S. National Forest Law Enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Division (CPW) at a recent joint meeting gathering to firm up the partnerships. All of the agencies promised to work together to help eliminate illegal activity taking place on National Forest property.
To further demonstrate the extent of this problem situation, the sheriff showed a video produced by their office of a compilation of video clips on social media to visually show what has been occurring in the county’s National Forest lands.
The video clips depicted massive groups of hundreds of off-highway vehicles (OHVs). Many social media posts showed people drinking hard alcohol while driving OHVs, sometimes with children riding as passengers. A video of vehicles riding through the woods with “F*** ICE” flags was also part of the mix.
“We receive calls and reports almost every single day from people where we had side-by-sides coming up where people were drinking and shooting AR-15 assault rifles off into the air in subdivisions,” Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said. “And it was becoming very unsafe for people to be in the forest. We found that we have had more unattended campfires in the last few months than we have seen in the last few years.”
The sheriff said they were working with ICE, but only when it comes to arresting those committing crimes. However, the sheriff did say that no illegal immigrants have been arrested or detained by ICE during the Zero Tolerance crackdown.
Teller County Commissioner Dan Williams also spoke during the press conference. He said that the “leave not trace” principles in the outdoors that most were taught were not being followed. He said that It was getting to the point in which Teller County residents felt unsafe recreating in the forest areas, close to where they live.
“Today really begins a public notice to those who come to our forest and think this is an ungoverned space, we’re done! We are at zero tolerance” Williams said.
State Senator (and Republican Governor Candidate) Barbara Kirkmeyer was also present at the joint law enforcement meeting. Since she serves on the state’s joint budget committee, she heard about ways that legislators could help support law enforcement operations aimed at making national forest areas safer.
“I’m very encouraged by the discussion that I heard previously where we open up these lines of communications and really put into a place a plan on zero tolerance of how we are going to affect safety within our public lands system,” Kirkmeyer said.
The Zero Tolerance law enforcement operation will continue to send extra patrol deputies into the national forests, especially on the weekends. The operation is slated to continue throughout the entire summer season.
