Sheriffs of Klamath Falls and Grants Pass debrief after rumors of destructive protests

Despite the rumors, no violent or destructive groups appeared in either city on Sunday, with law enforcement on high alert.

Newsfollowing up on the demonstrations in klamath falls last night- the klamath county sheriff says it was tense but largely peaceful.

We first showed you the protests last night on newswatch 12 at 11.

There have been a lot of rumors surroundings the protests.

Newswatch 12 has been digging into them today.

Sheriff kaber says people from klamath falls and out of town "guests" came out ot express various points of view.

There were times that words got heated, according to the sheriff.

Despite that the night remained peaceful.

There was potential for a similar situation in josephine county last night.

I spoke with sheriff dave daniel about it earlier today.

So how did the sheriff's office learn about this potential problem?

It actually came from readings from sources inside the city of grant's pass, department of public safety, where they notified us that there was the potential someone or a group was going to bus in to the city of grant's pass and basically stage and prepare for a riot outside of one of our, one of our local businesses.

How does an organization prepare for something like that that in most instances would, i don't know, do you take something like that seriously when it's, it seems like that unusual.

Yeah.

You have to.

It's very seriously.

I've been in contact with all the oregon sheriffs and in particular sheriff recent multnomah county, and what they're facing up there right now, and it's very organized, um, very, very quickly, uh, evolving.

Uh, this is not just kind of a show up and let's just, you know.

Make mayhem.

It's, it's much more organized than that.

Uh, they're not using social media lines, uh, their websites for information sharing.

Somehow they're getting that information, uh, around us, uh, so we're not, uh, completely certain of what they're going to be doing and what the, what the actions are.

When you say around us, are you, are they using other web portals or what kind of description was that?

I don't know.

I don't know the answer to that, whether it's maybe dark web or whether it's just a cell phone, you know, off to cell phone and they're in the organizations, but we are finding that the.

You know, but the lack of information we know and the way that they're, these, these riots are especially taking place up in portland, that it's, uh, it's organized and it's, it's a well conducted, uh, for the protests.

So what does your organization do to be ready for something like that?

You know, when we get some type of intel or we see some type of gathering, we obviously ramp up our forces as well.

Um, we'd pull in a deputy's on overtime and, uh, just kind of do what we can to get the equipment we need and prepare for that type of the situation.

It's really, to a certain extent at this point, a reactive, we, josephine county in the past has not been, shall we say, overstaffed and your department, uh, how concerning is that for you, given what could be a potential problem.

I, i don't know that, but the size and the magnitude of the protests that have been taking place in the state of oregon, any office in the state is, is really, truly prepared with, with the numbers.

Certainly justin county doesn't have a huge number of deputies, but we'll gather and do whatever we have to do to get our jobs done.

So, as of right now, what do you consider the threat level to be for you and your agency?

I don't have any infor information or intelligence on, uh, anything new coming in.

Um, you know, there's, there's one, uh, group coming in tomorrow under the city of grant's pass and, and we'll monitor that, um, at noon.

Um, but nothing