Emergency Management Joins Sheriff's Office

File photo, Klamath County Sheriff's Office.

The Klamath County Emergency Management Department, formerly a separate department of county government under oversight from the Board of County Commissioners, has joined forces with the Sheriff’s Office. The Emergency Management Department houses one employee, Emergency Manager Morgan Lindsay. Emergency Management is now a section within the Sheriff’s Office Administration Division, supervised by the Sheriff.

“This move combines the Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Management similarly to how the majority of other counties in Oregon operate,” said Sheriff Chris Kaber. “We’re happy to be able to use the Emergency Manager’s public information abilities to better serve the community.” Emergency Management will be taking on the role of Public Information Officer for the Sheriff’s Office, assisting with media releases for both emergency and day-to-day operations.

This move has been carefully considered for the past several months by the Sheriff’s Office, Board of Commissioners, and the Emergency Management Department, to ensure efficiency was maximized and the fit was right. Emergency Manager Morgan Lindsay said, “This is a fantastic opportunity for my department to be able to leverage the resources and capabilities of the Sheriff’s Office during disasters and major emergencies.”

As of now, because the Sheriff’s Office is limited on space and because the Emergency Management Department benefits, information-sharing-wise, from its current location at the 9-1-1 Communications District, the move is only administrative and not physical. Emergency Management’s mission to help prepare resilient communities by coordinating local, state, and federal emergency response agencies to mitigate hazards and respond to and recover from imminent or actual disasters remains the same.

Press release provided from the Klamath County Sheriff's Office.