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Summit County Sheriff’s Office hosts area seniors

Linda Grant and Kay Jones, North Summit Senior Center president, stand with Sheriff Justin Martinez. Grant and Jones attended the outing, which included lunch and a tour of the facilities.
(Photo by Heather Nalette)

The Summit County Sheriff’s office was overrun this week by more than 50 seniors from the Park City, South Summit and North Summit areas.

The seniors selected the Sheriff’s office as the location for their monthly outing, according to Lt. Andrew Wright. He said the Sheriff’s Office was happy to comply.

“We just wanted to make sure that we provided them those tools on how to protect themselves and mostly feel comfortable with our local Sheriff’s Office,” Wright said. “We feel it was a great success and we had a lot of great feedback stating that they feel much more comfortable.

“We definitely will continue to host them,” he said. “We are more than happy to engage with our seniors and have them come back on an annual basis to have that dialogue with them.”

Sheriff Justin Martinez, chief deputy Frank Smith and several other law enforcement officials were on hand for the afternoon to lead the group on a tour of the jail and the communications center. The seniors were also served lunch.

Many of those who attended took the opportunity to discuss their vulnerability when it comes to scams involving people who are identifying themselves as agents of the Internal Revenue Service or other law enforcement representatives, Wright said.

“A lot of them have concerns about a lot of the scams that are going on with people telling them to send money or gift cards,” Wright said. “We also talked a lot about general safety and making sure they are aware of these situations. The elderly can be very trusting, which is why they are often targeted.”

Kay Jones, president of the North Summit Senior Center, said she was “very impressed” with the Sheriff’s Office’s emphasis on their availability to seniors.

“They wanted to make sure that we knew that they were there for us anytime we needed them and I was impressed with that because usually you don’t have happy thoughts about law enforcement,” Jones said. “It showed us the good side of our community.”

Prior to the outing, Jones said the seniors expressed an interest in understanding how the jail operates and what is provided to inmates. She said the seniors typically choose an outing that contains some informational component.

“We wanted to see how things worked and what they had available there,” Jones said. “I was impressed with the facilities. They were very clean and very orderly and it wasn’t my idea of what jail was at all. Overall, it was very well taken care of. I was impressed.”

Summit County

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