BRIGHTON, Colo. — Adams County Sheriff Rick Reigenborn promises viewers of his weekly Facebook livestream that they could see anything.
Viewers on the feed got just that Saturday night, when the sheriff was involved in the pursuit of a car theft suspect. The sheriff continued to follow that suspect after the pursuit was terminated, chasing him down on foot and arresting him.
After he gets back in the car after the arrest, Reigenborn tells the audience his sergeant, who was supervising the pursuit would be mad at him for continuing to follow the suspect, since Adams County typically directs deputies to turn around when the decision is made to terminate a pursuit.
“He’s going to be mad that they left me down there without coverage,” Reigenborn clarified in an interview with 9NEWS on Monday. He said he was following at a safe distance just to try to find the car. He didn’t anticipate seeing the suspect. And he said his sergeant wasn’t upset that he had followed the suspect.
The weekly Facebook Livestream, called "Ride The Road," began about a month ago. Reigenborn said he modeled it off a Facebook Live stream from a sheriff in Minnesota.
“It’s a good way for us to let the community still see what we’re doing and keep everything at a safe distance,” the sheriff said.
Live policing broadcasts on television, like the TV shows COPS and LivePD, have been criticized for their influence on police actions, often focusing on making entertainment out of serious situations. Reigenborn said that isn’t his intention.
“We leave the camera in the car,” he said. “We don’t take the camera out of the car. And, so I want to be aware of potential victims of crimes and not bring them in front of the camera.”
He also said he’s had discussions with the county attorney about the fact that the video will likely be used as evidence in active cases. He expects the prosecutors in the case from Saturday to request the video.
But there is entertainment value. At one point in Saturday’s video, Reigenborn hits a bump on the way to catch up to the pursuit. “I hope you didn’t drop your popcorn,” he says to the videos audience.
“There’s already a following and they call themselves Rick’s Road Runners, and that’s one of the lines that I give them, 'Hey, jump in the back seat take a show with us – grab your Pepsi grab your popcorn and join us but put your seatbelts on,'” Reigenborn explained in the Monday interview.
But he said entertainment isn’t the goal.
“We’re not out there trying to stir up trouble. We’ll respond to the radio calls that are coming in … we’ll be proactive when we find those things like the DUIs,” he said, noting that later in the night he stopped a suspected drunk driver traveling the wrong way down Federal Boulevard and responded to a shots fired call.
Reigenborn, a Democrat who unseated a Republican incumbent in the Adams County Sheriff race in 2018, is up for reelection this year. He insists the videos, which he said he was inspired to start in December, are not an effort to gain publicity for that race.
“I hope if I don’t get reelected that whoever takes my place would continue this because it is a good way to stay connected with the public,” he said.
Contact 9News reporter Steve Staeger with tips about this or any story by e-mailing steve@9news.com.