Family Affair

Law enforcement is unique field. Owing to various factors like shift work, lifestyle, and myriad other circumstances it's somewhat common for first responders to marry. Some Keenesburg police officers are married to other cops. One is married to a victim advocate who serves crime victims in nearby communities. For a while we employed officers who are father and son. The tradition of families in law enforcement goes back centuries and is fairly common still today.

Interestingly, Officer Collins and Chief Jensen are married to law enforcement officers who both work in Douglas County. Last week the Douglas County Community Foundation honored them both for their exceptional service at the foundation's annual Heroes' Gala. Naturally, Chief Jensen and Officer Collins were honored to escort their respective spouses to the gala to celebrate their recognition.

Corporal Grant Collins is an officer at the Lone Tree Police Department. Corporal Collins was the Foundation's law enforcement award recipient for 2024. The Community Foundation honored Corporal Collins for his life-saving contributions working with suspects and citizens in mental health crisis. The award featured Corporal Collins' response to two calls the same night. During the first event Collins kept a criminal suspect from committing suicide by diving of an elevated structure and then in his next call Collins disarmed a man who was suffering a mental crisis and brandishing a knife. He was escorted to the gala by his wife, Officer Amie Collins, our very own SRO.

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Deputy Shannon Jensen works for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Deputy Jensen is also a school resource officer; she was nominated for honors by a school teacher from her school. Deputy Jensen discovered a pattern of abuse against two siblings in her school. They live with their father and his fiancée. Sadly, they lost their mother. One of the siblings is a young boy who exhibited symptoms of anxiety at school. Deputy Jensen queried many of the boys' teachers and other adults with whom he interacts and discovered through her investigation that the boy was being emotionally mistreated by the father's fiancée. Some of the abuses were so outrageous they were almost unbelievable. For example she learned that the fiancée would take away the boy's study materials so he would underperform on school work. And she would bring treats to her biological son's class and deliberately not provide treats to the other boy's class. Deputy Jensen compiled the list of abuses and met privately with the father and shared what she had learned. The father was unaware of the mistreatment his children was suffering and he intervened; he has severely limited the fiancée's involvement with the children and is himself much more involved with children. The boy is showing signs of self-confidence and lessened anxiety. Chief Jensen was proud to escort her to the gala.

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Please join us in extending our hearty congratulations to Corporal Collins and Deputy Jensen. We are proud to serve beside them, even if it's from several counties away!