By K.P. Sander Rowland Heights – The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the largest in the world, provides law enforcement services to unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. LASD has 23 patrol stations and dozens of substations, Walnut/Diamond Bar and Rowland Heights among them. With over 18,000 employees, LASD has the power to make a difference for the county’s 10 million or so residents. One man in particular is making a difference, Deputy Louis Denver. He is the Community Relations Deputy, and his responsibilities are extensive. Serving Rowland Heights, Denver’s main focus is on community relations and crime prevention. Serving in this position since February of 2012, Deputy Denver provides critical information on societal concerns to our local schools. After-school programs benefit from his expertise in awareness and prevention of bullying, drug use, and gangs. In a society where nearly half of all children will experience bullying while at school, his lectures are invaluable. Pre-schools and children’s programs at local churches also benefit from Denver’s instruction on stranger awareness, general safety and bullying. Deputy Denver’s community relations aren’t just about the schools. He also lectures at senior centers, adult schools, and morning breakfast clubs (through the Rowland Unified School Resource Center) on crime prevention and disaster preparedness. He holds crime prevention meetings at retirement homes and local apartment complexes. There is even a Mature Driver class taught by Denver to help motorists 55 and older become safer drivers, and save on their car insurance. Community events for the Rowland Heights area are attended by Denver for promotion of the Sheriff Department’s special programs for children, and crime prevention. He coordinates events such as the Safe Community Festival, and National Night Out. Denver is also station liaison for the popular Special Olympics Torch Run, helping to raise millions of dollars for the Special Olympics movement worldwide; and he collaborates with Target and their “Shop with a Cop” program. It’s hard to believe there is still time left in Deputy Denver’s schedule, but he also conducts Neighborhood Watches throughout the Rowland Heights community. Local banks can take advantage of his lectures on robbery awareness and general safety. Denver also meets with business owners and assists them in developing safer working environments and crime prevention for employees. Denver assists the Rowland Heights Sheriff’s team with search warrants, parole, and probation compliance checks, as well as saturation patrols. He also works with the station’s Booster Club, and is the Coordinator for the Walnut/Diamond Bar Station Ride-Along Program. Prior to taking on the community relations aspect of the Sheriff’s department, Denver was a Field Training Officer at the Walnut/Diamond Bar station from 2008 until 2012. From 2005 until 2008, he was on patrol for the City of Industry’s Sheriff’s Station, and also part of the Industry Special Problems Team. Denver was on loan to the Lakewood station for a short time at the end of 2004, and he worked for the Temple station from 2001 to October of 2004. Deputy Denver was hired by the Sheriff’s Department in 1995, and began his career at the Men’s Central Jail. Before that, he was a reserve police officer for the City of Tustin, and an associate probation officer for the San Bernardino County Probation Department. With all of his expertise and dedication to the community, Deputy Louis Denver is out there, working to make Rowland Heights a better, safer place to live and work, and truly making a difference.