On a recent June day, Hulett Police Chief Bill Motley drove down Main Street to complete his morning rounds.
This includes looking for signs of break-ins, vandalism of local businesses, and anything else that doesn’t look right in the small town of around 400 people, located in Wyoming’s far northeast corner and less than 10 miles from Devils Tower.
When someone waved from the sidewalk, Motley slowed down to make sure everything was okay. Yes, it was. That person was simply saying, “Hello.”
It was a typical morning, and Motley has had many of them over the course of his nine-year career.
He, like other police chiefs in small Wyoming towns, leads a one-man patrol force.
Except for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, where he has budgeted to borrow four part-timers from neighboring agencies for the week, he works alone.
Otherwise, Motley’s job requires him to work around the clock, whether it’s a bar fight at 10 p.m. or a strange noise reported early in the morning.
In between, he patrols the streets, visits students at school, checks on a few seniors, and occasionally answers Life Alert calls.
Being police chief also means that residents know his cellphone number and where he lives, so people sometimes bypass dispatch entirely to call him directly or simply show up at his door.
When he needs to be out of town for National Guard duty or vacation, he contacts the Crook County sheriff for assistance.
Modern Mayberry
Hulett is generally a quiet community, according to Motley, and there is little crime.
Hulett, like other rural Wyoming communities, has its fair share of drugs—mostly marijuana—assaults and battery, as well as numerous traffic violations.
“We have the same crimes as everybody else,” he informed me. “It’s just a normal life in a small town.”
Everyone knows everyone. Transients do not go unnoticed for long, including a traveler who became stranded on the side of the road just outside of town.
After receiving the eighth call from concerned citizens, Motley loaded the man and drove him 94 miles to Rapid City, South Dakota, where he was dropped off at a truck stop.
Situations may necessitate creative solutions.
“It was the best way to handle that situation for his safety and my peace of mind,” Motley told me.
Motley, a Kentucky native, began his law enforcement career at an Indiana detention center.
After 30 years on the job, including stints in Thermopolis and as a Platte County sheriff’s deputy, Motley has learned nearly everything he knows on the job — sometimes the hard way.
He, like most Wyoming law enforcement officers, is not there for the money and has learned to stretch a small budget far while working long hours.
But he also enjoys his job.
“Being a small-town cop has its benefits, and its downside, but I think the benefits far outweigh the downside,” he told me.
Doing A Lot With A Little
Hulett is emblematic of what rural policing looks like in the least-populated state of just over half a million residents with the 10th largest landmass.
According to estimates from the United States Census Bureau and Wenlin Liu, chief economist at the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division, the state’s population will continue to grow slightly, reaching 587,618 by July 2024.
Hulett is located in Crook County, which was the fastest growing county in Wyoming in 2024, with an annual growth rate of 2.4%, according to the same statistics. The other two fastest growing counties were Albany and Sheridan, with 1.7% and 1.2% growth, respectively.
Population growth does not always keep up with law enforcement budgets, according to Wyoming sheriffs, who are tasked with policing large counties on limited resources.
Rural law enforcement in Wyoming faces a number of challenges, including small budgets, long distances, and a general lack of manpower.
Wyoming is not the only state facing challenges in rural policing.
Insufficient funding was the overarching concern for rural law enforcement in at least five other states, according to the National Police Foundation’s 2020 survey “Conversations With Rural Law Enforcement Leaders Vol. 1” funded by the US Department of Justice.
The information was gathered through interviews with rural law enforcement agencies in Montana, South Dakota, Utah, Oklahoma, and Iowa.
Similar to Wyoming, these agencies expressed concern about how a lack of funding affects their ability to hire and retain peace officers to cover relatively large territories while also providing proper equipment and alleviating overcrowded jails.
The study also discovered that insufficient funding had a knock-on effect when communities lacked adequate substance abuse and mental health services, exacerbating substance abuse and a slew of related crimes, further taxing resources.
Staffing shortages were also identified as a major concern, as the population in many areas continues to rise despite stagnant budgets and increased responsibilities.
Large land mass
According to Sheriff Alex Bakken, Carbon County, which has the lowest population density in the state, may be the perfect example of the challenges that rural law enforcement faces.
The county is just under 8,000 square miles in size and has a population of around 14,500. It is divided into ten municipalities: Baggs, Dixon, Encampment, Elk Mountain, Hanna, Medicine Bow, Rawlins, Riverside, Saratoga, and Sinclair.
Only four of them have police departments: Encampment, Rawlins, Saratoga, and Sinclair, while Hanna has one marshal and two part-time officers.
Bakken’s office has also reached agreements with smaller communities that cannot afford to hire a police chief to provide law enforcement services.
At the risk of sounding cliché, Bakken stated that the most pressing issue confronting his department is a lack of funding, which exacerbates the difficulty of policing such a large county.
“We are ultra rural, if you want to say, and we don’t generate enough revenue to sustain the services to cover such a large land mass,” Bakken informed the crowd.
Because property taxes account for a significant portion of funding, Bakken anticipates that his budget will become even tighter following the passage of a 25% property tax cut this year.
“We just don’t generate that much funding as a county,” Bakken informed me. “And with the property tax reduction act that was passed in this year’s legislative session, we’re looking at a pretty bleak future.”
There is hope that some of the county’s proposed wind energy projects will boost the local economy, he added, but that could be years in the future.
Meanwhile, he writes a lot of grants for equipment and other programs and relies on the community’s generosity in donating to his office, which has been significant over the last two years, he said.
In addition to regular patrol duties, the sheriff’s office is in charge of search and rescue operations in a state that attracts outdoor enthusiasts from all over.
Carbon County relies on volunteers and has recently restructured its two search and rescue teams as tax-exempt nonprofits to increase donations for operations.
Bakken estimates that the county conducts about 25 operations per year on average, but that number is already up to 20 this year, including one this week in which Bakken and another rescuer rescued three teenagers who had become lost on Medicine Bow Peak.
Keeping morale high
Bakken has been able to make several positive changes since taking over in 2022, including upgrading the sheriff’s office’s weapons and technology in patrol cars, which helps to keep deputies motivated.
“We’ve made a lot of positive changes, and I think that helps,” he commented. “We believe in our vision and want to make a positive difference in the county.”
The sheriff’s office employs 17 sworn officers for patrols and another 21 to staff the county’s detention center. Bakken estimates that each deputy costs the county $100,000 per year in salary, benefits, and insurance.
“We have a really strong office,” he explained. “I’m really proud of everyone and what they bring to the table.”
He is now working on reallocating funds to increase salaries in order to remain competitive with other departments both within and outside of the county, which has required him to eliminate two positions.
“Cutting these positions is not an easy choice, and in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to, but one of the issues we’re running into is recruitment,” he told me.
Low Pay An Issue
Nobody knows this better than Platte County Sheriff David Russell who is down seven positions and actively recruiting to hire a patrol deputy and detention officers.
“We’re down like everybody else,” Russell told Cowboy State Daily. “We can’t offer the salaries that the bigger or wealthier counties can.”
A current job opening for a deputy sheriff pays $19.50 to $23.50 per hour, while a full-time dispatcher salary ranges from $3,200 to $3,500 per month, according to job postings on the county website.
Russell identified two challenges in recruiting new deputies: low wages in comparison to other counties, as well as limited amenities and social opportunities for single people and families.
To compensate, the county reduced the hiring age to 18.
The sheriff’s office currently employs 34 sworn deputies and detention officers, as well as eight civilian staff members, to cover an area of slightly more than 2,000 square miles, which includes five cities with a total population of approximately 8,600 people.
Russell, like Bakken, writes a lot of grants with the goal of generating about half of his operating budget, which includes funds to place school resource officers in both school districts.
Russell, 31, is the state’s youngest sheriff and the second youngest in its history. He took office in 2023. Prior to that, he was a Platte County sheriff’s deputy and a seasonal Wyoming park ranger.
He is also one of the more educated sheriffs, having earned a master’s degree in law enforcement and public safety leadership and currently pursuing a doctorate in criminal justice.
Russell described Platte County as similar to other jurisdictions in rural Wyoming. The majority of the crimes deputies respond to are drug or alcohol-related, including domestic assaults, theft, and property destruction.
“On the drug side, we’re seeing a lot of meth and fentanyl,” he told me.
They also see their fair share of high-speed chases along Interstate 25, which runs through the county. In spring 2022, they were logging about one per week, which has since dropped to about six last year.
Russell, like other Wyoming agencies, stated that his biggest challenge is trying to do more with less each year.
The job remains unchanged, but the reduction in manpower makes it more difficult to cover the rural county, where it can take 45 minutes to travel from one end to the other.
“We’re still doing the same job, but with less staff,” he told me.
Response Times
Given the vast areas covered by sheriffs, a lack of manpower exacerbates response times.
Slow response times are one of Carbon County’s biggest issues, which Sheriff Bakken would like to see improved.
On a good shift, he said, there would be two to three patrol deputies to cover the entire area.
Given the vast distances between towns, it could take a deputy two hours to travel from one corner to the other, even in good weather.
As a patrol deputy, he has been in that situation. In one case, his partner on duty was responding to a domestic violence call in the Encampment area of southcentral Carbon County when they were notified of another domestic violence incident in Medicine Bow, in the far northeast corner.
When the call came in, Bakken was in Baggs, in the southwest corner, so he drove about an hour to respond.
Bakken noted that a lot can happen in an hour, but fortunately, the dispute had already been resolved by the time his arrival. Despite visible physical injuries, the female declined to press charges.
“Luckily, it didn’t end up in a fatality because we took so long to get there,” Bakken joked.
As sheriff, he has helped reduce response times by obtaining funds to pay deputies to be on call. However, he would like to have more manpower in general.
“Unfortunately, that’s just the reality of trying to police such a large area with such a small force,” he told reporters.
Riding solo
Deputies must also respond to calls alone, which contradicts standardized law enforcement training that requires a minimum of two officers, especially in domestic violence incidents.
“For the most part, there’s a lot of unknowns with a domestic with a lot of potential to deteriorate,” Bakken informed the crowd.
A Campbell County sheriff’s deputy learned the hard way when he was shot last August.
He was responding to a domestic call in Wright, a small town of approximately 1,653 people about 40 miles south of Gillette, when he was ambushed by gunfire.
He’d barely opened his door when the bullets hit his windshield. He was able to duck behind the door and shoot the perpetrator, which is the reality of small-town policing.
Because Wyoming deputies typically respond on their own, they receive extensive training in single-officer response and safety.
They are also trained to communicate effectively.
“It’s really incumbent upon you to be able to communicate, because your backup is a long ways away,” Bakken replied.
Bucking National Trend
Surprisingly, Wyoming has a low fatality rate for officer-involved shootings.
According to FBI data, no law enforcement officers were killed in Wyoming between 2014 and 2023, the most recent year with publicly available records.
The most recent fatality was Sheridan Police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee, who was killed while serving a trespass warrant on February 13, 2024.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks police deaths nationwide, 62 Wyoming officers have died while on duty since the state’s founding.
Lower Crimes
Wyoming has a relatively low crime rate compared to the rest of the country. In 2022, Wyoming had the fifth lowest crime rate in the country, with 201.9 crimes per 100,000 residents. Maine had the lowest crime rate, followed by New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, according to USA Facts, a nonpartisan nonprofit that monitors population statistics.
However, violent crime in Wyoming has gradually increased over the last four years, according to data from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.
In 2021, there were 1,199 violent crimes, compared to 1,290 in 2024. Aggravated assaults accounted for the majority of violent crimes in 2024 (715), followed by sexual assaults (520), with robberies down significantly from 42 in 2023 and 13 homicides.
There is no breakdown of where these crimes occurred, but each county faces its own unique challenges and types of crime.
Crowding Causes More Problems
In Big Horn County, for example, the sheriff’s office handles a wide range of incidents, including cattle rustling, neighbor disputes, missing persons, and other crimes.
This past February, one of the county’s worst incidents occurred when a Byron mother shot her four children before committing suicide.
Big Horn Sheriff Ken Blackburn said he and his staff are still dealing with the emotional and psychological aftermath of responding to such a traumatic event that shook the small community and the state.
Blackburn is one of the longest-serving sheriffs, having worked in law enforcement for 37 years, including 40 years as a first responder.
Blackburn, like Carbon County, is responsible for overseeing an enormous county of about 3,159 square miles with 11 municipalities and a population of just over 12,000 people, according to a July 1, 2024, estimate by the United States Census Bureau.
Only a few have their own police departments, and the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for covering the county with a small staff.
Along with budget shortfalls, Blackburn stated that one of the challenges his county faces is an influx of people, which strains their already limited resources.
Big Horn County was the fourth fastest growing county last year in a state that values privacy, personal freedoms, and open spaces.
Blackburn said that as the rural community becomes more crowded, neighbors appear to be bickering more and contacting his office to resolve their disputes.
He believes that the divisive nature of politics in general is manifesting itself in disputes as people appear to be less willing to respect one another’s differences.
Difficult Terrain
Along with budgetary constraints, one of the biggest challenges his office faces is navigating vast and mountainous terrain.
Blackburn, like Bakken, is responsible for covering a large area with limited manpower, as well as providing security in schools and courthouses.
And, like Carbon County, it could take a deputy two hours to travel from one end of the county to the other through rugged terrain. And that’s in nice weather.
“Wyoming is known for its weather conditions, and it can be very difficult to access some of the areas to get to locations in a timely manner,” he told me.
Along with the mountains, Big Horn County has a sizable wildlife population, Blackburn said, including threatened and endangered species that are expanding their ranges and causing increased conflict between humans and domestic animals.
His office also deals with livestock crimes such as cattle rustling, which they continue to see, particularly given the current record high beef prices.
“That’s a pretty tempting thing for a thief,” Blackburn admitted.
Drug stockpile
Perhaps more concerning for Blackburn is the state’s vast terrain, which allows criminal organizations to easily transport and store drugs in rural communities.
“It’s a known fact that Wyoming and Montana are some of the largest drug storehouses for the cartels in the United States,” he told me.
And as border security tightens and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increases arrests – both of which Blackburn supports – he believes this will create a more dangerous environment as supply dwindles and demand rises.
It’s a matter of simple economics, he said, and it could make those suffering from substance abuse even more desperate for the limited drugs available.
“The reality is, on any given day you have to plan for your worst emergency, and these are the things that law enforcement folks are planning for right now,” according to him.
Backup a Long Way Off
Big Horn County Sheriff deputies, like those at other sheriff’s offices across the state, typically respond to calls alone, which means they may be there for extended periods of time.
It is also different when law enforcement knows who they are arresting.
In his opinion, the most significant difference between rural and urban policing is that in rural law enforcement, you typically have some experience with the person – for better or worse – on approximately 85% of the calls.
He mentioned a shooting involving one of his former deputies, who was then the chief of police in a neighboring jurisdiction. The officer was close friends with a man who raised a rifle at him with the intention of committing suicide by cop. The officer had no option but to shoot.
“We handle these things, but these are also members of our communities and our friends that we have an emotional involvement with,” he told me. “It’s not like in big cities, where you are just a statistic or a number. These are real people to us, too.”
Another difference in rural policing, according to Blackburn, is that small staffs require deputies to do a little bit of everything, the majority of which is learned on the job, rather than developing specialties.
“It’s called on-the-job training,” he informed me. “It’s not like any other job because so much of what we do requires so much adaptability.”
Adapting to the Times
This necessitates ongoing training in order to maintain operational readiness and ensure job safety.
And, like all Wyoming agencies, sheriffs rely on help from other local, state, and federal agencies to cover the vast terrain.
As crimes become more sophisticated, rural law enforcement must adapt to meet the challenges. A decade ago, Blackburn would have laughed if you had told him he would be dealing with ATM robberies by Venezuelan illegal immigrants and gang members in the state’s rural areas.
“It’s not the Wyoming that we remember from our youth,” he told me. “The world has discovered Wyoming, and the problems are both real and insidious. It’s not the Mayberry we remember from our childhood.
