Most of us don’t think about how well trained our deputies are until we need one. Until there’s a situation at our front door, an accident on U.S. 40, a mental health crisis involving someone we love, or something happening at one of our kids’ schools.
In that moment, everything depends on the person who shows up. Their judgment. Their training. Their ability to read what’s happening and make the right call under pressure.
That’s not a small thing. And right now there’s a gap between where we are and where we need to be.
What’s Actually Happening in Most Agencies
Most law enforcement agencies in Utah — including many right here in our region — do what’s required and stop there. Deputies complete the police academy, check the boxes for annual minimum training, and that’s largely where the investment ends.
The result is agencies full of deputies who are technically qualified but not necessarily prepared for everything our communities ask of them. And in a county growing as fast as ours — more people, more complexity, more pressure on every deputy on the floor — minimum preparation isn’t enough for us.
What That Gap Looks Like for Our Families
Picture two different scenarios.
In the first, a deputy responds to a tense situation in our neighborhood. They’re trained to minimum standards. They know the basics. But when things get complicated — when someone is in crisis, when the situation requires careful judgment, when clear communication could be the difference between resolution and escalation — they don’t have the tools they need. The situation gets worse before it gets better.
In the second, a deputy with advanced training in communication, de-escalation, and decision making under pressure responds to the same call. They read the situation differently. They have more options. They handle it in a way that protects everyone involved and leaves our neighborhood feeling safer, not more shaken.
That difference is real. It shows up in Heber City, in Midway, on the back roads outside Charleston, and in every corner of our valley every single day. And it comes directly from the quality of training behind the badge.
What We Are Building
The plan starts with a powerful idea: every deputy in our sheriff’s office should be an instructor in at least one core discipline.
Firearms. Defensive tactics. Fitness. Emergency response. When a deputy teaches something they own it at a completely different level. Their knowledge deepens. Their confidence grows. And the expertise gets distributed across our entire office instead of sitting at the top.
Beyond that we are investing in leadership training before promotion, not after. Most agencies wait until someone gets promoted to teach them how to lead. By then they’re already managing people without the tools to do it well. Our goal is to develop leaders early — so that when someone steps into a leadership role in our office they’re ready from day one.
Education on Top of Training
There’s a difference between training and education and both matter.
Training teaches you what to do. Education teaches you why — and that deeper understanding changes the quality of every decision our deputies make in the field.
Our office now offers tuition reimbursement for deputies pursuing degrees at every level. Pay increases are tied to educational achievement. The message to every deputy serving our community is clear: if you invest in yourself, we invest in you.
What This Means for All of Us
When we call for help in Wasatch County we deserve a deputy who is prepared for what they’re walking into. Someone who can handle a mental health crisis on a back road outside Charleston with the same competence they bring to a serious investigation in Heber City. Someone who communicates clearly, makes sound decisions under pressure, and treats every person they encounter with the professionalism our community deserves.
Better trained deputies make fewer mistakes. They de-escalate more situations before they become dangerous. They build better relationships with us. They represent our valley the way we deserve to be represented.
Our goal is to build the best trained law enforcement agency in the state of Utah. Not the biggest. Not the best funded. The best prepared.
Because when something happens in our valley and a deputy shows up at our door, good enough has never been good enough for Wasatch County.
Sheriff Jared Rigby is running for re-election as Wasatch County Sheriff. See his full plan at sheriffjaredrigby.org.
