Sheriff Michael Haley honors 150 years of public service and community partnership by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office by arriving on horseback to an anniversary event at the historic ranch preserve in Bartley Ranch Regional Park

The event is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 2 to coincide with the anniversary date of Nevada’s designation as a territory by Congress.

“The coming months are a time for us to celebrate our past, while working to the future,” Sheriff Haley said. “This year our Office is faced with a great many challenges. We will face these challenges as we always have, working with the community, creating efficiencies with technology, and leading into the future as this Office has led for the past 150 years.”

The territory of Nevada was created on March 2, 1861. On December 26 of that same year, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office was established to help bring law to this rugged new territory. Since then, the Office has responsibly grown from a single lawman to an agency of over 750 sworn and civilian personnel.

Sheriff Michael Haley is the twenty-fourth person elected to serve as the Sheriff of Washoe County. The office continues to be the only full service public safety agency operating within northern Nevada and is responsible for operating the consolidated detention facility, regional crime lab, Northern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center, Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, court security, service of civil process and traditional street patrols.

The Office participates in a number of regional and statewide public safety task forces including the All Threats All Crimes Unit, Joint Terrorism Task Force, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force, Regional Gang Unit, Graffiti Task Force and the Illegal Dumping Task Force. In addition, the Sheriff oversees more than 800 trained Citizen Corp and Search and Rescue volunteers.