Investigations Division
The investigations division consists of one Detective Sergeant, one General Detective, and one Juvenile Detective, two Narcotics Officers, and one Property & Evidence Technician. Also, we have our two School Resource Officers who work investigations when not at the schools.
Because the different types of crimes require some specialties to investigate, the division is separated into five sections:
- General Detectives
- Juvenile Detective
- Narcotics
- School Resource Officers (SRO)
- Evidence
The investigation division also works with other local, State, and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies. Another responsibility of the investigations division is handling and investigating any complaints filed against members of the Police Department.
While every member of the Division has their own area of expertise, they work together on major investigations, each contributing their knowledge, training, and experience to identify persons responsible for committing crimes, locating witnesses, locating and retrieving evidence, and apprehending suspects.
This division does presentations on a variety of informational topics, for more information see the GRPD Programs page.
General Detectives
This division is supervised by the Detective Sergeant. This section consists of two investigators whose primary responsibilities include:
- Identifying, locating, and interviewing witnesses, victims, and suspects
- Executing search warrants
- Processing crime scenes
- Identifying and collecting various types of evidence
- Identifying, locating and apprehending suspects
- Recovering stolen property
- Preparing cases for criminal prosecution
The majority of the detectives time is spent on investigating burglaries, larcenies, assaults, fraud, forgery, identity theft, sexual assaults. They work with other local law enforcement agencies to locate suspects who are responsible for committing crimes in this area.
If you have information about any crime that has occurred in Green River call dispatch at 307-875-1400
Juvenile Detective / Crimes Against Children
The Juvenile Detective is responsible for investigating crimes against children. They work closely with Detectives from the other sections, Sweetwater County School District 2, Department of Family Services, Southwest Counseling, and the County Attorney's Office. This Detective sits on various boards to help determine the appropriate course of action for youthful offenders and for victims of crimes.
GRPD introduced the first Therapy K9 to Wyoming. Juvenile Det. Martha Holzgrafe is our handler of Therapy K9 Buddy. Over 90 percent of Det. Holzgrafe’ s caseload involves children who are a victim, witness, or suspect in a crime. When interviewing a child, children disclose traumatic events that have happened to them. Therapy canines help reduce secondary-induced trauma, reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, increase disclosure rates, and provide trained pressure exercises that reduce anxiety attacks.
Having a therapy dog will assist in interviews during the rapport-building phase, reducing the child’s anxiety and increasing truthful disclosures of abuse.
Sweetwater County School District #2 facilitates many programs for the youth in our community. Several schools, within the district, assist children with special needs. These needs include both verbal and non-verbal autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and learning delays.
“Having previously worked as a School Resource Officer, I had the opportunity to experience working with children who were trigged and in crisis. Although I was able to externally distract children, I was never able to calm down their internal feelings.”
- Det. Martha Holzgrafe.
Our therapy canine can respond to our schools and safely assist in calming children down. When children are trigged, their education is disrupted and the use of coping skills are very limited. A therapy canine will assist in reducing internal struggles, allowing school staff to implement coping skills and return the child back into their learning environments.
“I feel this program will be very beneficial, and that is why I have been so passionate about implementing this program.”
-Det. Martha Holzgrafe
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC)
Crimes Against Children Research Center
School Resource Officers
Goal
The goal of the School Resource Officer (SRO) program is to protect students and reduce the incidences of juvenile crime and delinquency. SRO's strive to provide a safe, secure environment for the teachers to teach in and the students to learn in.
The Green River Police Department and the Sweetwater County School District II work together to provide two SRO's in our schools. They work with students, faculties, parents, and administrators to immediately address and resolve problems and to establish and promote a positive relationship between the youth, the schools and the police.
They provide in the classroom and out of classroom instruction on a variety of topics for students, facilities, and parents to achieve those goals. They conduct investigations of crimes that occur on school property and enforce local and state laws. They interact with students during/after school hours at school-sponsored events.
The SRO program is currently comprised of two officers who provide services to all the schools in the district. Their offices are located; one at the Green River High School, one at Lincoln Intermediate School. They also provide services on a call-by-call basis to all other schools in the district and visit each school in the City on a regular basis and are familiar with the staffs in each school and many of the students.
GRPD School Resource Officers are sworn Police Officers employed by the Green River Police Department, who attend regular training relating to School Resource Officers. One of our School Resource Officers is a certified drug recognition expert (DRE) which helps them recognize drug use legal/illegal in the schools. They are both members of the State SRO Organization as well as the Wyoming School Resource Officer Association, (WYSROA).
K9 Searches: The school district and the Police K9 officers work together and schedules monthly random K9 searches of the schools for drugs and paraphernalia.
The SRO Program operates on limited funds and relies on local business donations to be able to implement the programs for the students. Some of those programs include:
Camp POSTCARD—Volunteers of America.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/campaign/distracted-driving
Green River High School - SRO office 307-872-8329
Lincoln Middle School - SRO office 307-872-4454
Narcotics Officer Narcotics Officer
The Investigation Unit currently has two investigators assigned to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Drug Task Force for Southwest Wyoming (SWET), which is partially funded by a federal HIDTA Grant.
Investigations are focused on drug trafficking organizations and individuals who are bringing drugs into Southwest Wyoming and the local community. This also includes highway interdiction and Clandestine Laboratories.
SWET works with local and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies because many people who commit crimes are involved in drug activity. Information provided by these agencies assists investigators in cases that result in arrests.
Narcotics investigators are seeing an increase in abuse, especially by juveniles, of over-the-counter (OTC) medications and Ecstasy. Juveniles are using OTC meds to get "high" as they are easily accessible. Some of the over-the-counter medications being taken by juveniles include DayQuil, NightQuil, and Robitussin.
These contain a drug called Dextromethorphan (DXM), which causes the high. DXM's street names include "Orange Crush", "Triple C's", "Dex", "Robo" and "Skittles".
Known as the "club drug", Ecstasy is a popular drug with teenagers, especially at raves. Ecstasy is most commonly seen in pill form and has numerous names.
Some of the more popular Ecstasy pills include Blue Butterflies, Pink Mario's, Hugh Hefner's, Yellow Ferrari's, and Green Euros. Ecstasy is fairly inexpensive, making it easier for kids to get their hands on.
Several websites that can be viewed for more information on OTC Medications and Ecstasy are:
Partnership for Drug-Free Kids Website
http://www.teenoverthecounterdrugabuse.com
Find a Drug Guide for Parents.
If you suspect drug activity going on in your neighborhood please contact the Green River Police Department Dispatch at 875-1400 to speak with an officer.
Evidence & Property
The Property and Evidence unit is responsible for the receipt, documentation, storage and tracking of all evidence, found property and property taken for safekeeping.
The Property & Evidence unit is also responsible for returning property to the rightful owner at the conclusion of an investigation or disposing of such in accordance with Wyoming state statutes and GRPD policy.
The Property and Evidence unit is only responsible for property/evidence collected by the Green River Police Department. If your property was collected or seized by another law enforcement agency (ie: Sweetwater County Detention Center, Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office, Rock Springs Police Department), you will need to contact that agency directly for the disposition of your property.
Property Release
Below is the information needed in order to release property -
- Written authorization to release the property from the Sweetwater County Attorney's Office or the City of Green River Prosecuting Attorney. The process for obtaining this approval may take extra time
- Written authorization to release the property from the Detective or Case Officer responsible for the case.
To retrieve property from the Green River Police Department an appointment should be made prior to the request of any property release by calling 307-872-6170. Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Evidence Technician can facilitate the process for the release of property, but does not have the authority to determine what property can be released or when it can be released.
Photo identification is required for the return of your property.
- You may be asked to provide proof of ownership.
- If you wish to have another person recover your property for you, notarized authorization will be required.
- Under no circumstances will a firearm be released until a criminal history is conducted on the person retrieving the firearm.
- Evidence and property used in the commission of a crime such as controlled substances or related instruments and/or contraband, which are unlawfully used or possessed, will be destroyed.
Found property will be held by the department for 30 days. If the owner is known, notification will be attempted by GRPD. After 30 days, found property will be disposed of in accordance with department policy.
Check out our Facebook Lost & Found Album