Law Enforcement Bureau

Law Enforcement Bureau

General Information

On behalf of the 170 plus employees assigned to the Law Enforcement Bureau, I welcome you to our respective web pages. The Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Bureau is comprised of two (2) divisions, the Investigations Division and Patrol Division, all tasked with carrying out the statutory responsibilities of the Sheriff.

The Support Services Division is the smallest of the three divisions but is augmented by several hundred volunteers. This Division is tasked with such duties as hazardous material clean up, wildland fire suppression and mitigation, search and rescue missions. 

The Law Enforcement Bureau is located at 27 East Vermijo Avenue, directly south of the courthouse.

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Contact Information

Patrol Division

Within the pages of this website are descriptions of the various Sections and Units that make up the Patrol Division. Each is designed to meet the needs of the community we serve in the most efficient and economical method possible.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division is comprised of three Sections including over one hundred twenty-five men and women dedicated to serve the public and preserve the peace for all who reside in or visit El Paso County.  With the passing of 1A, this number will be increasing significantly as we add approximately forty-four new deputies to the Patrol Division.

BHCON Unit

Mental Health issues affect every aspect of law enforcement, from encounters on the street, to court to incarceration. Mental health related trainings and Crisis Intervention Training is provided to EPSO deputies to prepare them to interact with this segment of our population. In 2017, Sheriff Elder began working with El Paso County Public Health to secure a grant to bring a “Co-Responder” policing model to rural and unincorporated areas of the county. In July of 2018, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office deployed a Co-Responder Model, Patrol unit called the Behavioral Health Connect Unit or BHCON (pronounced Beacon). The BHCON Unit pairs an El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputy with a Licensed Behavioral Health Clinician for a coordinated response to emergency calls that are mental-health related. The BHCON Unit is funded by a grant from the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) and will be a five-year pilot comprised of a partnership between the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, the El Paso County Department of Health and UCHealth. The Unit is primarily assigned to unincorporated regions of El Paso County.

K9 Unit

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit is comprised of two dual purpose dog teams and two single purpose dog teams. The dual-purpose dog teams each certify in narcotics detection and patrol work. Each dual-purpose dog team is certified in the areas of handler protection, evidence searches, tracking, building searches, field searches, suspect apprehension, obedience, agility, and narcotic detection. The two single purpose dog teams each certify in narcotics detection. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit is a member of and certified with the National Police Canine Association (NPCA)

Patrol Section

The Patrol Section is the heart of the Law Enforcement Bureau of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.  The Section is divided into three overlapping shifts more commonly known as Day Shift, Swing Shift and Mid Shift. The overlapping hours between these three shifts are strategically designed to ensure the community maximum law enforcement coverage during the hours of greatest need based on historical data and learned behavior. The Patrol Section also includes the Civil Unit, Sheriff’s Citizen Patrol and the Crime Analyst.

Reserve Section

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is continually seeking quality candidates to join our Reserve Deputy Program.  Being a Reserve Deputy Sheriff is among the most rewarding volunteer opportunities available in the law enforcement or public service fields.    If you think you might be a good fit, or know of a family member or friend who might be interested, please take a moment to review/share the information below. 

Ride Along Program

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is committed to fostering strong community involvement with the citizens we are proud to serve. The concept of community oriented policing strives for the building of partnerships within the community to solve identified problems.

During your ride along, you may observe deputies interact and work with citizens or business owners/employees to help solve problems in the respective neighborhood areas.  You might also see patrol deputies work together with Sheriffs Office specialized units including the Traffic Unit, the Crime Reduction Unit, the K-9 or Mounted Unit and at times, even the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team to solve issues throughout El Paso County, promoting our Community Policing philosophy.

Investigations Division

The Criminal Investigations Division is responsible for investigating felony crimes against persons and property occurring in the unincorporated areas of El Paso County. The division is led by 1 commander, 3 section lieutenants, and 6 unit supervisors that oversee Crimes Against Persons, Property Crimes, Technical Investigations, and the Metro Vice, Narcotics, and Intelligence Section.

Criminal Intelligence Unit

The Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) is a newly created Unit of the Sheriff’s Office. The CIU deploys using the concepts and philosophies of Intelligence Led-Policing. The Unit’s main task is investigating violent prolific offenders, but is also tasked with investigating pattern crimes, property crimes, robberies, motor vehicle thefts and deploys detectives with the Beat Auto Theft Through Law Enforcement (BATTLE) South Task Force. The CIU works closely with other Divisions within the Sheriff’s Office, to include Patrol, Detentions, and Special Operations. The Unit also works closely with multiple outside agencies, to include surrounding law enforcement agencies, state and federal agencies and parole. Working with these internal and external partners, the CIU has arrested numerous prolific offenders and has closed numerous cases associated with these prolific offenders. The CIU also works closely with the District Attorney’s Office and participates in the STOP program, to ensure these prolific offenders receive maximum sentences for their crimes.

Cold Cases

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office currently has 18 cold homicide cases and 7 missing person cases with suspicious circumstances.  If you have any information on any of the Sheriff’s Office unsolved cases, please contact Dispatch at (719) 390-5555 and ask for Investigations or call the Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 719-520-6666.


 

Crime Prevention

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office practices Community-Oriented Policing. This means that our agency, along with other law enforcement agencies in the area, are committed to a partnership with the citizens of El Paso County to prevent crime rather than just respond to criminal activity after it has taken place.

Metro Crime Lab

The Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office formed a joint forensic laboratory at the time the Police Operations Center first opened in 1993. The Metro Crime Lab provides impartial and professional documentation, collection and evaluation of a variety of different types of physical evidence. The Unit includes chemists, firearms examiners, crime scene technicians, DNA analysts, and latent fingerprint examiners who provide analysis and expert courtroom testimony for a variety of forensic disciplines.

Metro VNI Section

The Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division, or "Metro VNI" for short, is a multi-agency, co-located drug task force divided into multiple units, responsible for specific enforcement responsibilities. Detectives assigned to the Narcotics Street Teams investigate, control, and prevent the illegal distribution, possession, and/or manufacturing of illegal narcotics and/or controlled substances. Their primary focus is on individuals, businesses and groups of individuals involved in street level and mid-level distribution of narcotics throughout El Paso and Teller Counties.

Neighborhood Watch Program

Neighborhood Watch is a safety program designed to bring together law enforcement agencies, community organizations, businesses and individual residents in an effort to deter and reduce crime in neighborhoods.  As one of the oldest and most effective crime prevention programs in the country, it was created in 1972 and developed in response to requests from sheriffs and police chiefs seeking a crime prevention program involving citizens.  Neighborhood Watch programs are an effective tool in fighting crime.   

Victim's Assistance Program

The Victim Assistance Program is a Unit within the Investigations Division of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Victims of crime may have experience injury, loss, confusion, and a disruption of life. Feelings of Shock, disbelief, fear, vulnerability, anger, and frustration may occur. Having information and an understanding about the criminal justice system may be helpful for you. Our Victim Advocates can assist you navigate this process and provide services and resources that you may need immediately after a crime has occurred.

Law Enforcement Support Division

Law Enforcement Support Divisionis responsible for the specialized units designed to enhance the level of law enforcement service of the Sheriff’s Office, thus increasing the quality of life of the citizens of El Paso County.  Through programs and various services, the Division provides direct interaction between the Sheriff’s Office and the citizens of our community, enhancing a partnership that ultimately expands the capability of our crime prevention efforts.  

Civil Unit

Colorado State Law mandates all Sheriff's Offices within the State maintain a Civil Unit. The Civil Unit is responsible for the service of all civil papers received by the Sheriff's Office. The Civil Unit also executes all court orders involving civil process issued by the Courts, to include the collection of money and/or seizure of property, as prescribed by law.

The Unit collects any and all required fees and keep/send accurate returns to the courts of this County, as well as to all other courts in the United States. They are also responsible for arranging/conducting Sheriff's Sales and making due return to the court in accordance with the law.

Patrol Chaplain

Patrol Chaplain's are an available resource to provide comfort, counseling and spiritual guidance to any Sheriff’s Office member in need. They assist citizens during times of tragedy, such as serious injuries, accidental and natural death, homicides and suicides, and make death notifications. The Chaplains also provide invocations and benedictions at Sheriff’s Office functions. 

Regional Bomb Squad

The Regional Bomb Squad is a joint team of highly motivated officers who are specially trained in the recognition, construction, handling and rendering-safe of improvised explosives and devices. The Unit consists of members of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado Springs Police Department. The Regional Bomb Squad has a primary response area which includes El Paso, Teller, Lake Park and Chaffee Counties, as well as 33 counties in the southern half of the State of Colorado.

Rural Enforcement & Outreach Unit

In early 2015, the Sheriff’s Office created the Rural Enforcement and Outreach Unit (REO) to support the Patrol and Investigations Divisions and increase services to the community by offering enhanced law enforcement response to the large expanses of Eastern El Paso County.  REO is community oriented and high impact policing with a rural twist. 

Search & Rescue

The El Paso County Search and Rescue is a Mountain Search and Rescue Unit dedicated to saving lives through search, rescue and mountain safety education. The Team is comprised of volunteers and is available upon request for help with mountain searching rescue anywhere in Colorado under the authority of the local County Sheriff, or in other states and countries under local authority. The team is able to search for downed aircraft and lost people by tracing the location of the aircraft’s emergency location transmitter, as well as personal locator beacons. The members, numbering over 70 strong, serving a variety of roles are working toward a single goal; saving lives. There is never a charge for Search and Rescue services and they are on call year round. They typically accept applications during last quarter of the year for consideration for the next year’s new member class.

Sheriff's Citizen Patrol

In early 2009, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office implemented a new volunteer program, the Sheriff’s Citizen Patrol (SCP).  The Sheriff’s Citizen Patrol is a citizen based program which allows residents of El Paso County the ability to volunteer within their community performing law enforcement related duties which do not require a sworn member.  This program allows volunteers to actively participate in a wide variety of opportunities which were historically unavailable to volunteers.

SRO Units

School Resource Officers (SRO's) are deputies who have been selected and assigned to work in and around assigned middle and high schools on a long-term basis.  SRO's job functions are based on the "triad" concept of school-based policing.  The triad concept divides the SRO's responsibilities into three areas:  Teacher, Counselor/Mentor, and Law Enforcement Officer.  By performing these functions collaboratively with parents and school officials, the Sheriff's Office promotes a positive image of law enforcement to the youth of our community when they are most impressionable and most likely to benefit from such exposure.  The opportunity for students to have one-on-one contact with respected law enforcement professionals allows for trust and mutual respect to develop. 

It is our goal to help provide a safe learning environment for our youth, while we blend the SRO program with the many other community policing programs within the schools.

TSU (Tactical Support Unit)

The Tactical Support Unit (TSU) consists of multiple specially trained Units. These Units include SWAT, (Special Weapons and Tactics), TDU, (Tactical Dispatch Unit), CNU, (Crisis Negotiations Unit), REU, (Regional Explosives Unit), TEM, (Tactical Emergency Medics), BEAR drivers, and Mobile Command Operators. All these Units combined are deployed to handle high risk situations which aren’t commonly encountered by patrol personnel.

Traffic Unit

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Unit is a community oriented, problem solving unit, which provides public safety service and traffic enforcement to the citizens of El Paso County. The Traffic Unit was established in 1996, and is comprised of one sergeant, and six deputies.

The Traffic Unit focuses on providing traffic specific enforcement throughout the county, responding to citizen complaints, as well as working those areas known to have high occurrences of traffic accidents and/or speeding. The Unit also provides training both to deputies in our Office, as well as other law enforcement officers throughout the region.

Wildland Fire Management

El Paso County Wildland Fire Management is a combination of career and volunteer members comprised of citizens from El Paso County and the surrounding areas dedicated to saving lives and property that are affected by fire. The crew members come from all walks of life to assist in these endeavors.

Office of the Sheriff

27 East Vermijo Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
United States

719-520-7100 / 719-390-5555 (after hours)

El Paso County Jail

2739 East Las Vegas Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
United States

719-390-2000