No more Sheriff’s Report …

||| FROM SHERIFF ERIC PETERS for SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE |||

Effective immediately, the Sheriff’s Office will no longer prepare or distribute the weekly media line report to local newspapers. The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to transparency and keeping the public informed. However, the publication of the weekly media log has resulted in a significant increase in public records requests for the incidents listed in the report, as well as requests for associated body-worn camera footage. The volume of these requests has placed an unsustainable burden on our Civil Office and the county’s single Public Records Clerk.

As many of you know, the county is currently facing a serious budget shortfall, with reductions affecting multiple departments. At this time, there are no plans or funds to increase staffing. As a result, we must carefully evaluate how we allocate our limited resources and identify areas where we can reduce non-mandated work so our staff can focus on fulfilling the duties required by law.

We recognize that providing the weekly media line report has been a long-standing courtesy to or local media and community, and this decision was not made lightly. However, our priority must be ensuring that we can continue to meet our legal obligations while maintaining a sustainable workload for our employees and avoiding staff burnout.

We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work to serve our community as effectively and efficiently as possible.