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MCSO eNewsletter
and Public Safety Agency
Spring 2013
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Sheriff Helps Unveil New Reader Board
On June 5, 2013 Sheriff Daniel Staton and Principal Cheryl Bickle officially cut the ribbon for a new Reader Board sign at the Community Transitional School. The new sign will welcome students and visitors to the school and will be utilized to post upcoming events and school information to the local community.
Students from the school created and posted their first school message for the sign congratulating their upcoming graduates!
 Over the past 22 years the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office has adopted and hosted an annual holiday party for Community Transitional School students providing the children with pizza, fun activities, and gifts to help them enjoy their holiday season. This past year, the Sheriff's Office donated and completed construction on an outdoor basketball court for the school children to enjoy with assistance from several private donations and Sheriff's Office unions and other groups. Purchase and installation of the new sign was also supported entirely by donations and contributions from several groups.
The Community Transitional School is a private school dedicated entirely to the needs of children whose families are homeless, in transition and experiencing chronic poverty related crises. The children receiving services from the Community Transitional School live in homeless and domestic violence shelters, low-priced motels, or on the floor of a friend's home. Some are from families that are on the brink of losing their housing,or are living in their cars. Some have just recently managed to move into permanent housing and all are in situations where poverty and uncertainty are dominant forces.
The purpose of the Community Transitional School is to provide the children with a stable, supportive environment that promotes both their personal and academic growth. The school combines character education with a curriculum that helps students succeed and develop their individual strengths.
Originally founded in 1990, the Community Transitional School serves 200 - 230 children every year, with an average daily enrollment of 80 to 90 students ranging in age from 4 to 14 and come from families living in the Portland Metro area, including surrounding communities in Multnomah County.
The Sheriff's Office would like to thank all of the contributors who helped realize this latest Community Transitional School project's completion. These included: the Vancouver Sign Group, Multnomah County Corrections Deputies Association, Multnomah County Deputy Sheriff's Association, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Management Association, and Local 88. In addition, thank you to Schommer and Sons who donated the labor and time to prepare the ground for the sign installation. Staff throughout the Sheriff's Office also provided support for the donation through individual purchases and other contributions to ensure the successful completion of this project.
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MCSO 2013 Spring Awards Ceremony
On April 10, 2013 the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office held its Spring Semi-Annual Awards Ceremony to honor those who have served our community with outstanding effort and selflessness. Twenty-two awards were presented at the Spring Awards Ceremony including two Distinguished Service Awards.
The Distinguished Service Award was presented to Deputy Jeff McMahon for his nearly twenty-four years as a Deputy with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and over thirty years of work in corrections. Deputy McMahon has continuously displayed initiative, exceptional work ethic, unwavering dependability, and overall excellence. He has always been a leader, a role model, and a standard setter for others. Deputy McMahon has also developed high levels of proficiency in technical posts. This set of skills and abilities has made him an invaluable asset to the agency. Supervisors, managers, and his fellow deputies know that he is dedicated to his job, his team, the agency, and the citizens of Multnomah County.
Deputy McMahon provides quality of supervision to the inmate's under his watch. He is always fair and fittingly understanding, while still clearly addressing issues and ensuring his area of the facility or operation is safe and secure. While in more public assignments, like Court Services and Close Street Supervision, Deputy McMahon is a pillar of professional behavior treating all with respect and he is always informative and helpful, consistently providing exemplary service to the public we serve.
The Distinguished Service Award was presented to Deputy Joe Graziano for his nearly twenty years of service including his assignment as the Corbett Community Resource Officer where he has established and maintained a positive rapport and garnered trust with the community. He maintains a visible and approachable presence for citizens to voice their concerns by making daily visits to local businesses, markets, taverns, and granges. Deputy Graziano is a liaison to area businesses, the Springdale Job Corps, and Corbett Schools. He is also involved with the Northeast Multnomah County Community Association (NEMCCA), Oregon State Parks, and County Roads and local utility companies.
In addition, Deputy Graziano began a "Citizen Patrol Program" for the Gorge area recreational sites. He developed training for the volunteers, which included disaster preparedness response, radio communications, patrol techniques, traffic control and confrontational simulation. Deputy Graziano has also developed classroom and school presentations. He has presented a "Crisis Management/Active Shooter response" for Corbett Schools and numerous Gorge area retreat centers and has developed specific threat assessments at these facilities.
Deputy Graziano maintains a community email list of nearly four hundred Corbett citizens and creates a monthly Crime Log, which he distributes to the citizens. This has increased community awareness and tips he receives each month. Deputy Graziano has created an environment that seeks him out and the devotion of that community to him is a testimony to his work.
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MCSO Memorial 2013
Members of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, family and friends gathered on May 15, 2013 to honor MCSO personnel who have sacrificed their lives while serving the citizens of Multnomah County. This event is held annually in conjunction with other events across the nation during National Police Week. In 1962 President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day. National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.
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MCSO Project Team wins County Annual Award for Team Achievement
At the recent 2013 County Annual Awards for Outstanding Public Service, the MCSO Project Team was recognized for their efforts in Information Technology.
This project was created to isolate all Multnomah County Sheriff's Office applications, reduce downtime impacts to MCSO customers, and meet identified CJIS data isolation requirements. The project evolved into a major upgrade of almost every hardware and software component, including migration to more modern technologies, simplified application processes, and alignment with new data center standards. All of this was completed while simultaneously supporting the applications in the legacy environment. This cross departmental effort brought a new sense of collaboration and team work to finish the project using existing resources. Sheriff Staton, along with the Chair Cogen and others applauded the team's success. MCSO CJIS Unit Manager Andy Potter, thanked the committee for the selection, while also thanking Sheriff Staton and County CIO Sherry Swackhammer for their support and confidence in the team to get the project completed.
 | | Commissioner Diane McKeel Presents the Outstanding Team Achievement Award to the MCSO Project Team. |
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office - Hornet Trail Rescue Team
"Running to the Rescue"
A new Sheriff's Office law enforcement program is preparing to "hit the ground running" this summer in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and other wilderness locations in Multnomah County. The Hornet Trail Rescue Team (Trail Hornets) is a small team of Law Enforcement Division members who are physically fit endurance athletes experienced with hiking, and trail running. This team will be completing advanced search and rescue skill training this summer.
The Trail Hornets is designed to be an on-call resource for the MCSO Search and Rescue Unit. Their ability to immediately respond to locations and quickly begin traversing trails will enable a more immediate response to lost and/or missing hiker calls in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area as well as other wilderness areas often frequented by local citizens and tourists. The Trail Hornets will also provide an additional active patrol resource (car or bicycle) of major trailhead parking areas, providing hikers with written hiking safety educational materials, talking to citizens about trail safety planning and providing additional law enforcement capacity to impact property crime and incidents requiring enforcement action at difficult-to-reach wilderness areas.
When a hiker becomes lost or is reported missing, the call is usually received by patrol deputies in the late afternoon or early evening hours. The loss of daylight creates additional problems for the unprepared and lost hiker, increasing risk of injury from falls. In an attempt to self rescue, the hiker may move further from established trails, creating worsening conditions and greater risk of injury.
Multnomah County recreational areas have many intricate trail systems not easily navigated by the inexperienced hiker. Cell phone reception is oftentimes compromised due to rugged landscape and high altitudes. When a hiker becomes lost it is critical for teams to begin search efforts as soon as possible. The introduction of the Trail Hornets enables the Sheriff's Office to deploy a quick response to trails prior to Search and Rescue resources arriving on scene in preparation to begin search operations. This may save significant response time which will increase the opportunity to locate a lost or possibly injured person on the trail quickly before darkness sets in. This can also reduce the time and expenses associated with deploying SAR resources to the field depending on the location and availability of SAR personnel when the call was received. The Trail Hornets will complement the regular response of MCSO's very effective and successful MCSO Search and Rescue Unit.
This coming summer, look for the new Multnomah County Sheriff's Hornet Trail Rescue Team training at recreational areas to include the Columbia River Gorge and Forest Park.
We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable time taking advantage of the wild and scenic locations offered within Multnomah County.
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LETR Polar Plunge 2013 another great success!
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MCSO 2013 Plungers
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MCSO Polar Plungers who took part in this year's LETR Polar Plunge on February 8th contributed to raising a total of $464,278 statewide for Special Olympics Oregon. A record 423 teams signed up for Polar Plunges throughout the state and MCSO had over forty staff members participate in this year's plunge.
 Congratulations to MCSO Sgt. Phil Anderchuk who won the annual costume contest at the Portland Polar Plunge this year with his "inspirational" Michael Phelps costume. Sgt. Anderchuck raised several hundred additional dollarsby allowing MCSO staff to choose among three costume choices in the weeks leading up to the plunge and make donations for their favorite. Great job MCSO! |
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Law Enforcement Torch Run Dodge Ball Tournament
More than twenty members from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office participated in the 2nd annual LETR Dodgeball Tournament for Special Olympics Oregon on April 13, 2013. Over twenty teams participated in this year's tournament from local, county and federal law enforcement agencies as well as other businesses from the area.
Three teams made up of Sheriff's Office personnel and friends from the Sheriff's Office competed in the recreational bracket
 of the tournament with two teams placing 2nd and 3rd place. Over $6,000 was raised for Special Olympics Oregon through the 2nd year event and MCSO was proud to have so many of our members volunteer their time and participate in raising money for Special Olympics Oregon and help support their mission to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. |
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Sustainable Jail Project goes National
On March 20-22nd, 2013 a representative from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and Multnomah County's Office of Sustainability participated in the second half of a national symposium sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation to explore establishment of a national sustainability in prisons network to share resources, ideas and action plans for applying sustainability oriented practices into jails and prisons across the nation. MCSO also participated in the first half of the symposium last fall.
 Corrections professionals from several state Department of Corrections including Maryland, Ohio, California, Oregon, Utah and Washington along with Santa Clara County, Los Angeles County and MCSO gathered to present and discuss their individual action plans, successes and challenges they have had in implementing sustainability actions in their operations. Academic partners from the Evergreen State College in Washington, the University of Maryland-Baltimore and the University of Utah, which hosted the symposium, also held discussions to work towards fostering a national network for sharing sustainability practices in corrections. The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office was pleased to be invited to participate and help foster sustainability initiatives across the nation, particularly in county jails.
 The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office received an Achievement award this past year from the National Association of Counties for its Sustainable Jail Project and continues to strive to incorporate sustainable decision-making and practices into Multnomah County jail facilities, operations and programming. This past month in a partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, a "Seed to Supper" program offering began at the Inverness Jail, providing inmates with an opportunity to learn about gardening and healthy living choices. In addition, a vegetable garden is in its first season and is being tended by Sheriff's Office inmate work crews. Vegetables harvested from the garden will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank. |
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Boater Safety Tips
As the River Patrol Unit prepares for the 2013 boating season the Sheriff's Office would like to remind boaters and citizens, who enjoy being around the water, of some simple safety tips to help make their experience more enjoyable and safer for all. These safety tips are easy to do and worth the time and effort when spending the day on the water. Of course these are just some of the things that boaters and
 beach goers can do, and remember that accidents related to water can happen quickly and the consequences can be very severe. Please remember to always consult your local and State rules with regards to boating and park usage. We look forward to seeing everyone on the water this summer enjoying the many recreational beauties that Oregon has to offer.
Water Safety Tips
Always wear a personal floatation device when boating or near the water
Don't drink alcohol and boat or swim
Parents should be good look outs for children
Wear sun block
Keep hydrated with plenty of water
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MCSO Launches new Website
The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office introduced a newly redesigned website last month. The website is being moved to a more modern web-based platform to provide a more dynamic and streamlined
 website to the public we serve.
Along with the complete redesign of the site, new features have been added to the site to provide more information on specialty units within the Sheriff's Office. The River Patrol, Special Investigations Unit and the Warrant Strike Team are the first units to have their own MCSO Unit Profile pages within the site. These profile pages will provide information specific to the unit and about the valuable functions and services they provide to the community. A new blog feature on each unit's profile page will enable them to update visitors on projects and successes they have had or are working on. In addition, the units will also utilize their page to post safety tips and other educational and community resource materials related to their ongoing work. These three units were selected as the first to be introduced on the new website but additional specialty units will be added in the future.
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| Your opinions, questions and concerns are important to us. If you would like to comment on any of MCSO service(s), or any article you have read in this newsletter please click HERE. Or Email us HERE |
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