Kraushaar comments on first year

The Thermopolis Independent Record will be running a series of articles on Thermopolis and Hot Springs County elected officials who took office in January of 2019.

Second in the series we spoke to Hot Springs County Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar

After one year of services as sheriff, Kraushaar sat down and shared his reflections with the Independent Record. 

Kraushaar started his career in law enforcement in 2004 as a patrol deputy with the Sheriff’s office. He then worked his way up in the department through a variety of personnel changes and now was elected Sheriff. 

Kraushaar said,  “It’s been a good experience, I knew there was going to be a learning curve. There has been a lot of advancements in detention security and personnel-wise.”

When asked about those advancements, Kraushaar said, “We were able to bring in video kiosks, which gave the inmates the opportunity to have video phone calls with their families. They can also send out emails, which have to be approved by the staff, and text messages to their loved ones or friends. Whereas before it was a telephone call.”  

Kraushaar said this change was hard for the people to get used to. He explained that this new technology actually prevented some harm and addressed a significant safety issue. He said, “We’ve eliminated face-to-face visits where they are separated by a piece of glass due to the fact that that is our highest possibility of injury to our staff and to the inmates.”

Regarding the challenges of the past year, Kraushaar said getting staffing is the hardest thing to do. “Finding people who are willing to work with us with what we are able to pay and who want to be here and want to work within the confines of the county.”

Kraushaar said there are other challenges in his role because of law changes and decisions made by the state government, “There are an absolute ton of administrative things that the state requires you to do.” 

Not only has Kraushaar overcome these various challenges in his role this past year, but he also had some other success.  He said, “We’ve had some really good seizures of drugs, which is something I take very seriously. We did learn DCI, Department of Criminal Investigation is actually making a concerted effort to give us in Hot Springs and Washakie Counties more attention than they have in the past.  For the past, we’ve always been really self-sufficient here, but they’re going to bring someone in their office specifically assigned for Hot Springs and Washakie Counties, just because we could use the help. We know there are a lot of drugs coming through. We do the best we can, but we can only get so much. Their assistance will be greatly appreciated.” 

In addition to the greater assistance from other state entities, more funding came in too.

Regarding his goals for next year Kraushaar said, “I would like to have a better presence in the schools and just be out and be seen and be able to speak with people and see what their concerns are, and see if we can better them. Because when you’re in your own little fishbowl, to me ‘this’ might be the most important thing but to them, they might have something else. So, I would like to get out and talk to people and see if I can be more responsive to help them.”

The relationship with the public is very important to Kraushaar.

Kraushaar’s work with Thermopolis Police Chief Julie Mathews has also been positive this past year. He said, “Working with Julie has been very, very nice. She’s been my fourth chief since I’ve been here and everyone has been different and not all of them have been easy to work with. She’s demanding in what she wants but she’s also been responsive whenever I’ve wanted something. We work well together. So it’s worked out really well. There really weren’t officers not getting along before, but there was administration and that seems to be gone as far as I can tell. Which makes everything much better.”

Finally, Kraushaar wanted to express to the community, “We’re always open to hearing them. If they’ve got a concern, if they want to bring something to me as an idea, I’m always open to any ideas. Any concerns feel free to come to me or approach me on the street. Call me down here, I’ll listen. The main thing is we’re here for them.”