Trust between a community and its law enforcement doesn’t come automatically. It has to be earned. And one of the most direct ways to earn it is to make sure that when people in our community ask questions, they get answers.
What Most People Don’t Know They Can Do
In Utah, every resident has the legal right to request records from a government agency — including the sheriff’s office. Reports, video, audio, incident records. It’s called a GRAMA request, and it exists specifically to make sure that public agencies remain accountable to the people they serve.
The right exists on paper for everyone. But if the agency receiving those requests doesn’t have the resources to process them quickly and completely, that right becomes frustrating in practice. Requests pile up. People wait weeks. They give up. And the agency that’s supposed to be transparent ends up feeling like a wall.
That’s not good enough for Wasatch County.
The Problem We Had to Fix
Before Sheriff Rigby made this a priority, GRAMA requests were handled the way they are in a lot of agencies — squeezed in around everything else. No dedicated staff. No clear process. No guarantee that a resident asking a legitimate question would get a timely answer.
In a county where people know each other, where community trust is everything, that gap matters. When someone can’t get a straight answer from their sheriff’s office, it doesn’t just frustrate them — it erodes the foundation that law enforcement depends on to do its job well.
What Sheriff Rigby Did About It
He hired a dedicated records clerk — a full-time position with one job: making sure that every GRAMA request that comes into the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office gets handled quickly, completely, and professionally.
Not squeezed in. Not deprioritized. Handled.
That means when a resident in Heber City, Midway, or anywhere else in the valley submits a request for a report, a piece of video, or any other public record, there is a person whose entire focus is making sure they get what they’re entitled to.
Why This Matters More Than It Sounds
Transparency isn’t just about individual requests. It’s about the signal it sends to our entire community.
When a sheriff’s office is serious about openness — when it staffs for it, builds processes around it, and treats public records requests as a priority rather than a burden — it tells us something. It tells us the people running that office aren’t afraid of scrutiny. That they operate with integrity. That they understand the job belongs to the public, not the other way around.
That’s the kind of sheriff’s office Wasatch County deserves.
What Comes Next
Sheriff Rigby’s commitment to transparency doesn’t stop at records requests. His plan for the next term includes continuing to build open communication between the office and our communities — through regular office hours, direct access to leadership, and making sure residents always have a clear path to raise concerns and get real answers.
Because in Wasatch County, transparency isn’t a campaign promise. It’s already happening — and it’s going to keep getting stronger.
Sheriff Jared Rigby is running for re-election as Wasatch County Sheriff. See his full plan at sheriffjaredrigby.org.
