TORRINGTON – The Torrington Police Department (TPD) is made up of men and women from diverse backgrounds that all work together toward a common goal of keeping the city safe and ensuring proper order as well as building and maintaining relationships from code enforcement to dispatch to the officers on duty. 

Code Enforcement Officer Tammy Cearns enforces city ordinances including those concerning weeds, water, trees, parking, trash and other little things that contribute to a clean and tidy community. She also helps out in dispatch and animal control when needed. Cearns also has a family history of law enforcement. Her father was former police officer Harley Mark, who was fatally injured in a high-speed chase and is honored by TPD every year.

Aug. 12 of this year will mark Cearns’ 20-year anniversary in law enforcement. Prior to code enforcement, she served 12 years as a dispatcher.

Cearns knows people aren’t always happy to see her, as they know her visits usually bring with them reminders to keep lawns clean and sometimes fines.

Of course, Cearns wouldn’t stay in law enforcement for 20 years if there wasn’t an upside.

“I just like to see the community look nice,” Cearns said. “I think that’s important. Especially when you get tours come through town. You don’t want them to think your town is not a nice town. I really enjoy when the community looks nice.”

Looking back, one instance in particular stands out to her. 

When in dispatch, she took the call saying Paul Smith, the former night deputy, had been shot.

“I received a 911 call from a female that her mom and dad were fighting and that I needed to send help.” Cearns said. “We had discussed that gentleman about a week earlier – about how to be careful, he has lots of guns.”

As Cearns spoke with the woman, she asked her if she was positive she was calling for Torrington police, as her location said she was in Scottsbluff. The woman insisted she had called the right dispatch. She was in Scottsbluff, but her parents were in Torrington.

 Cearns dispatched officers to the address the woman gave her, and Smith happened to be the first on the scene. When he got out of his pickup, the man came out of the house with his wife in a headlock. He raised his gun with the other hand and shot Smith. 

“It got him in the arm, thankfully,” Cearns said. “But Paul shot and killed him.”

Events like this are more exciting to watch on screen than to live out.

“It was really stressful,” Cearns said. “But in the end, I knew that I had done all the correct steps and gotten him the help he needed and helped him out in that way because it could have been a lot worse.”

In her role as Code Enforcement Officer, things don’t often get so exciting. There are, however, things people can do to make her job and their lives a little easier.

“If everybody would take care of their property,” she said. “If [there are] any questions or concerns, or they cannot physically do the work, they can call me. I am always here, and I am happy to help you figure out a solution for your problems. We’ve got volunteers so there is always a solution and don’t feel like you can’t call me. Call me, I’ll come to your house, we’ll sit down, we’ll talk about it, and we’ll figure it out. I would rather do that than have to come give you a ticket.”

Even as a child, Sergeant Paul Kistler always looked up to the law enforcement officers in his life. Both his father and stepfather were corrections officers, as were his best friend’s father and stepfather.

“My second cousin was actually a police officer in the town I grew up in and he was our DARE teacher,” Kistler said. “I always looked up to him.”

He eventually followed the same path, moving to Torrington from Illinois to take a job at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution. After some time, the prison just wasn’t cutting it for him.

“I’m a people person, I like dealing with people,” he said. “The prison wasn’t really a people-person job. Here I get to go out and visit with the folks of Torrington and make a difference.”

Kistler’s day to day duties as a sergeant include supervising the officer under him, running school traffic in the mornings and taking calls throughout the day, which can vary in intensity, especially when it involves someone Kistler knows well.

“It’s a small community and you build relationships with people,” he said. “Dealing with someone I’ve become acquainted with – make sure you get all sides of a story and make a determination from there, being non-biased. If you have to go to a call and it involves people you know real well, it could be pretty difficult.”

From emergency medical situations to domestic disturbances, Kistler and the team have seen it all. Sometimes, the result isn’t what they had hoped for. Other times, it turns out better than they dared hope for. 

“We went to an ambulance call,” Kistler remembers, “and it was a gentleman, and it looked like he was having a heart attack, and when we got there, it’s what it appeared to be – we put the AED on him. It actually…gave a command to push the button and give a shock, which very rarely happens. We did it, and he kind of came back to and was able to get transported and he is still with us today.”

It was a team effort, as an EMS crew and Kistler’s partner, Nick Jenkins was also on the scene. The teamwork of those involved saved a man’s life. 

The key to a successful dispatch begins with (obviously) dispatch.

Heather Kraus has been in dispatch for almost a year and a half. She and the other dispatchers Answer admin lines and 911 lines and are in charge of dispatching out fire, EMS and police for the whole county, as well as for the city. They also answer for electric and water after hours.

“I always wanted to be in law enforcement since I was 16,” Kraus said. “Out of school I went straight for Criminal Justice, and after finishing my degree, I decided this is where I want to work.” 

Dispatch was not her first choice in law enforcement, and she would still like to become a police officer one day, but the dispatch position serves as a good in-between in the meantime. “[I like] getting to see from all different aspects.”

With four full-time dispatchers and two part-time officers filling in where they’re needed, the dispatch office runs smoothly on 12-hour shifts.

Kraus said the most difficult part of her job is not knowing what happens after the call.

“If we get a call for EMS for fire, you’re not ever there to see what happens,” she said. “And you’re never there actually on scene, so that can be tough.”

Like Kistler’s story about the AED, Kraus remembers a time her quick response saved someone’s life.

“A lady called in and said her brother wasn’t breathing, and when that happens, we have to page out code blue. I was really new and pretty quick to call the code blue, so I was pretty proud of that.” 

In this case, Kraus did find out the rest of this story. A couple of TPD officers saved his life and received awards for it. Had it not been for her quick response, the situation could have turned out differently. 

Bailye Geller just kind of fell into law enforcement at the age of 19. She began her career with the Bridgeport, NE Police Department and for the last four years has been with TPD as the Communications Supervisor. 

Geller oversees dispatch and covers when needed, among other various duties. She mentioned they are in the process of implementing a new emergency medical dispatch program that will give dispatchers certain questions to ask to better determine the situation at hand and depending on what’s going on, they can give pre-arrival instructions to callers until help arrives. 

The current program is a little outdated and the new one is “approved by the EMS director as well as their medical oversight,” Geller said. “[Once implemented] it will be really good for us to help, especially for callers that are far away from an ambulance.”

The most challenging aspect of her position, aside from learning where everything was when she first moved to Torrington, is the inevitability of taking a call from someone you know.

“It maybe even a family member,” she said. “That can rock you to your core when it does happen. That’s one of the most emotionally stressful things, I think.” 

One of the things that stands out to Geller most as being a proud member of TPD, is remembering how the department worked together on the Madison Cook homicide case. 

“All the hard work and hours and dedication everyone put in during our recent homicide event. I know it took a toll on a lot of them, but they powered through to make sure that the case got closed and justice was served.”

Geller offered one word of advice to community members: If you accidentally call 911, don’t hang up.

“We’ll ask you a couple questions,” she said. “We just want to make sure that it’s an actual accident and there’s not something going on that you’re not wanting us to know about, or there’s someone there not letting you say what’s going on. We do check on those calls just to make sure.”

According to TPD Chief Matt Johnson, “We are a group of good people who care deeply about this community and about the problems that we try to help solve every day. And we’re human and we’re not perfect. But we try to treat people with fairness, and we’re committed to be accountable.”