LOUISVILLE, Colo. (KDVR) — A group of Colorado Rangers is deployed in Louisville to help assist in the aftermath of the Marshall Fire.
Patrolling and protecting in Louisville, the Colorado Rangers’ officers look a lot like local police. However, they come from local communities across Colorado with the first statewide police reserve in the country.
“We are regular citizens. We are like anyone else, we just are certified and qualified to be police officers,” Capt. Idilio Moncivais said.
They may be regular citizens in their minds but extraordinary neighbors to others when they learn that policing isn’t always their full-time job.
“I’m actually a Ph.D. in applied statistics,” Moncivais said. “I’m the chief data architect for a very large technology company, but we do this because we like it. We like to help our community and we’re qualified and certified to do that.”
The Colorado Rangers was established in 1861 and “served as Colorado’s first statewide law enforcement agency until the 1920s.” Now, the organization involves volunteers.
“I’m the COO of an international education company, we train healthcare professionals,” Sgt. Paula Gurak said.
Serving as certified officers is what the Colorado Rangers officers do to give back at agencies across the state, wherever and whenever needed. The time they take off their full-time careers: the nights, the weekends spent serving, they do it for free.
“Being able to get out and do the work, working alongside brothers and sisters who do this job on a daily basis has been something I enjoy and will continue to do as long as I am able,” Gurak said. Gurak was a full-time police officer for the Eaton Police Department in the early 1990s.
“I was looking at getting back involved, I wasn’t done,” she said.
Moncivais followed in the footsteps of his father, who was a police officer in Mexico for 50 years.
“I was an army officer in Mexico,” Moncivais said. “I went to the equivalent of West Point over there and when I retired, we went to the U.S.”