Our LEOs go above and beyond

We’ve all heard the joke from the anti-law enforcement people. “I’m never going to call the cops. What are they going to do? Show up three hours later, take a report and shoot my dog?”
How about saving your life? Does that sound like a worthwhile endeavor?
Such was the case twice in the past year as three of our county’s finest did just that, saving a pair of lives during the course of their work as a Custer County Sheriff’s Office deputy. The three were honored last week by Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley, who after a group photo took his deputies into the basement of the Custer County Courthouse for a lunch and a brief ceremony during which he presented the plaque and read from letters submitted by those who were appreciative of the actions of the deputies.
Among those were Sgt. David Clevenger and deputy Steve Yenulonis, who worked together to save the life of a California man who had gone into cardiac arrest at a local campground while here visiting last July. The two performed CPR and shocked the man with an AED and were able to bring him back to life before the Custer Ambulance Service arrived. Clevenger was even at the end of his shift, but instead of going home helped answer this call. That is called going above and beyond, and our law enforcement does it regularly with little to no fanfare. They do it because they want to help.
One of the sheriff’s office’s newest deputies, Nick Myhre, was also credited with helping save a life. Myhre did so by performing bleeding control on an elderly woman who had uncontrolled arterial bleeding on an ankle. And, if you want to talk about going above and beyond, Myhre then even cleaned up the blood around the woman’s home so she wouldn’t have to do so when she returned from the hospital. That’s obviously not in deputy Myhre’s job description, but it’s something he did because that’s the type of law enforcement we have in this county.
Life-saving acts of heroism by police officers are really quite common but very much underappreciated in today’s anti-law enforcement climate. Just how common? According to the American Enterprise Institute, a Google search of the phrase “Cop Saves Life” yields nearly 10,000 results and a Google search of the phrase “Police Officer Saves Life” finds more than 5,000 examples of stories and news reports of law enforcement heroes saving multiple thousands of lives while on duty, including lives of thousands of infants, babies and children.
At the same time they are saving lives, police officers are putting their own lives at risk. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, there were 164 police officers who died in the line of duty last year  and 13 have fallen so far this year. In the last five years, 1,792 officers have died in the line of duty.
We have said it before and we will say it again: our law enforcement is the best among us, and we have some of the best here in Custer County. Thank you, gentlemen, for going above and beyond.