{"id":70181,"date":"2025-11-30T02:04:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/70181\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T02:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:04:20","slug":"el-paso-county-sheriffs-office-focuses-holiday-enforcement-on-red-sands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/70181\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office focuses holiday enforcement on Red Sands"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 The El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office (EPCSO) conducted a focused operation at Red Sands on Black Friday, Nov. 28, to deter crime as large crowds of people gathered for a day of off-roading and festivities.<\/p>\n

The operation resembled the EPCSO\u2019s efforts to increase patrol at Red Sands during the 4th of July holiday earlier this year, in which the agency reported no shootings, fatalities, or major accidents.<\/p>\n

El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office cracks down on DWI during July Fourth holiday<\/a><\/p>\n

EPCSO deputies said that 4th of July and Black Friday are two of their busiest nights of the year, especially at Red Sands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand people are going to come out and off road, and the reality is they are allowed to race. But we\u2019re hoping that everybody does it safely,\u201d said Jerome Washington, a commander with EPCSO.<\/p>\n

EPCSO set up a command post and stations throughout the desert area as early as Friday morning. They deployed about 30 Sheriff\u2019s deputies to patrol around the dunes in 4-by-4 trucks and ATVs starting in the morning and into the late hours of Friday night.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe operation has been very busy, very successful. One of the reasons why we\u2019re out here is because we know that people like to come and have fun. Off road, have bonfires, listen to music, hang out with family. What we don\u2019t want is for people to get hurt,\u201d Adrian Reza, a detective with the EPCSO.<\/p>\n

El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office to increase patrols during Thanksgiving week with focus on Red Sands <\/a><\/p>\n

Reza took KTSM crews on a ride-along at Red Sands during the later hours of Black Friday.<\/p>\n

Reza said the challenges the Sheriff\u2019s Office faces at Red Sands is that the desert area is not bound by traffic laws. He said after sunset, visibility becomes difficult and people mix off-roading with drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of ATVs. Some of these ATVs don\u2019t have the proper lighting equipment. Some of the ATV operators and ATV passengers may not have the proper attire when riding on the ATV. A lot of people don\u2019t understand that when riding an ATV, it\u2019s very important to be wearing a helmet and eye protection. There\u2019s no rules out here. It is a desert. It\u2019s a bunch of sand dunes. So sometimes you may not be able to see what\u2019s on the other side of the dune,\u201d Reza said.<\/p>\n

But EPCSO\u2019s focus on Red Sands went beyond just deterring crime and reckless driving. Deputies said their goal was also to save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past two years and going on even into the past, we\u2019ve had a loss of life. Someone has lost their life on Red Sands, either 4th of July and actually two years ago, on this particular day after Thanksgiving. So our main concern and goal is to prevent the loss of life. And a lot of that happens because of alcohol, fighting and firearms make all of that combination. So really our ultimate goal is to not lose a life today,\u201d Washington said.<\/p>\n

EPCSO reported no serious injuries, shootings, or fatalities during their operation during Black Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came out to Red Sands a couple times to investigate fatalities. And the reason for those fatalities is because there was very little presence, on our behalf. So people were really pushing it to the limit when it comes to the alcohol drinking, the speeding, the reckless driving of the ATV,\u201d Reza said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 The El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office (EPCSO) conducted a focused operation at Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[35572,34108,138,140,139,35571,35570],"class_list":{"0":"post-70181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-adrian-reza","9":"tag-black-friday","10":"tag-el-paso","11":"tag-el-paso-headlines","12":"tag-el-paso-news","13":"tag-jerome-washington","14":"tag-red-sands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}