On Jan. 4, his second day in office, newly elected Uinta County Sheriff Andy Kopp was already putting his plans for building relationships with other agencies into action.  He and his new Undersheriff Trevor Rasmussen had met with the Evanston Police Department that morning. They plan to meet with the Mountain View and Lyman police departments later in the week, with the Wyoming Highway Patrol the following week and later with the local courts.

“During my campaign I said if I was elected sheriff, I wanted to work on more coordination and repairing relationships with the other agencies,” Kopp said. “We are all dedicated to protecting and serving the public.  I want to get to know those officers and have them get to know us.  There are lots of opportunities when we will work together and it is important that we build a relationship.”

This was Kopp’s first campaign for the position of sheriff.  He has spent sixteen years in law enforcement, serving most of that time in the Uinta County Sheriff’s office.  He has experience working in detention, investigation, courthouse security, patrol and until he was elected sheriff, he was a patrol sargent. Additional experience in public service includes the three and a half years he served on the Evanston City Council. He was unable to finish his term due to moving to a different ward in town.

He was born in Perrysburg, Ohio, and when he was in third grade he moved with his mother to Laramie. They moved to Evanston when he was a sophomore in high school. After graduating from EHS, Kopp attended Western Wyoming Community College where he earned an associates degree in criminal justice and, in 2015, he graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.

Before taking the position of undersheriff, Rasmussen was most recently the Executive Director of Sexual Assault and Family Violence Task Force.  Prior to that he was an officer with the Evanston Police Department.

Another campaign promise Kopp said he made was to start making changes from the inside out. He said he and Rasmussen will begin looking at the need for more dispatchers as they are short of at least two. He and Rasmussen have already met with the dispatch supervisor and will work on a plan together.  Kopp said he knows that shift work is tough on employees and they will be looking at alternative options to find what works.

Kopp said he thinks the problems experienced earlier this past fall with the radio system have been solved and he is confident that the department’s communications expert can handle any further problems.  If he can’t, Kopp said, he is confident that person will reach out and find someone who can resolve it.

“We have extremely talented and skilled personnel in the department and I want to retain them,” Kopp said. “We plan to have regular meetings with personnel-division meetings to start with and then a meeting with the entire agency. I want to build an open and trusting relationship with personnel. From day two on, we want to recruit high quality people who want to work here and stay here.”

Rasmussen added, “There will be growing pains but we want to give everyone an opportunity to present ideas and feel comfortable coming to us. We are very hopeful we can get everyone on board and on the same page. Andy is very encouraging with his open-door policy, even if it is just to stop and say hi and shoot the breeze for a minute.”

Kopp said he recognizes there will be challenges ahead with the overflow of growth from Kemmerer as the small town of Kemmerer may not be able to handle the need for more housing, restaurants and hotels. 

“It is inevitable that we will experience the impact of Kemmerer’s growth,” Rasmussen said. “With that kind of growth other things are attached-a need for more entertainment, restaurants, more crime and a greater need for all kinds of human services.”

Both Kopp and Undersheriff Rasmussen said they plan to get more involved in community activities and events.  Kopp said that sometimes law enforcement personnel get a bad rap just because they are law enforcement and he wants to change that attitude by getting to know people and have them get to know him and the other officers.

“There is a lot of work to be done. The election wasn’t pleasant and the transition was difficult.  I want to put all of that behind us and move forward,” Kopp said. “We stayed true to ourselves throughout the campaign and here we are. I believe the county needs to catch up with the times and change the mindset of doing the same thing over and over. Change won’t happen overnight but it will come.”

Rasmussen said that the best part of the campaign was that people in the community supported each other.  He said unless you have contact with people as individuals, communication is diminished.

“My vision is,” Kopp said, “I want the Uinta County Sheriff’s department to be one of the premiere agencies here in the county. I want the department to be the agency the public trusts and is not afraid to call when they need help. We are public servants first and foremost.”