Sheriff’s Office Newsletter - July 2021

July 2021 newsletter (Volume 7, Issue 7)

To view each of the different stories in the July 2021 newsletter (Volume 7, Issue 7), please click on the tabs below.

Memorial Groundbreaking

Every day, our law enforcement officers risk their lives to keep our communities safe. Unfortunately, sometimes that risk becomes reality. Help us honor our fallen officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice. The Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation of SE MN broke ground on their first major project on June 24 - a Memorial located in Rochester dedicated to all law enforcement, part-time, reserve, and corrections officers killed or died in the line of duty from law enforcement and corrections agencies within the Minnesota Sheriff's Association Sixth District of Southeast Minnesota. 

The Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation of Southeast Minnesota was formed to honor the fallen officers of the following Municipal, State, Federal and Military agencies operating within Minnesota Sheriff’s Association’s Sixth District which are the following counties: Rice, Steele, Freeborn, Mower, Dodge, Olmsted, Goodhue, Wabasha, Winona, Fillmore, Waseca, Le Sueur, and Houston.

If you would like to get involved or donate,  you can learn more at the Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation of Southeast Minnesota website.

OCSO hosts Implicit Bias, Cultural Relevance, Mental Crisis, and De-escalation training

Captain Jon Jacobson

June 30, 2021, marks the first deadline for enhanced peace officer training by the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board. In legislation signed into law in 2019, the State of Minnesota was, once again, leading the nation in addressing training needs across the country. Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office lead the way with two other agencies, St. Paul Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, in bringing this training to fruition more than two years ahead of the cycling deadline. Minnesota Peace Officers are required to renew their license every three years. With this new legislation, every officer in this State must have no less than 16 hours of training every three years in the areas of Implicit Bias, Cultural Awareness/Relevance, Mental Crisis, and De-escalation; what we have coined the Four Pillars of Policing.

In developing this course, we already knew we had some internal talent amongst our own ranks and partnering departments. Lt. Jim Schueller and (fortunately for us) his other half, Megan Schueller, were founding members of Olmsted County’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) in 2007. Since that time, Jim and Megan have both achieved status as certified coaches and instructors for Minnesota CIT and have traveled all over providing training in Crisis Intervention and De-escalation. As a matter of fact, Megan was the first licensed forensic social worker in the State of Minnesota who rode in the squad cars with our office and the Rochester Police Department several years ago, responding to persons in crisis calls and offering her expertise, assisting in de-escalation and connecting those in crisis with expedited resources. Once again, Olmsted County law enforcement being ahead of the curve. But these were only two of the four pillars.

The search for an expert on implicit bias, cultural diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and racial justice was a challenge. And to find an instructor that could connect with and train deputies and officers (because we are a scary bunch) was even more daunting. We interviewed four people that came with recommendations, but none had more experience than Sgt. Martin Welte with the Seattle Police Department. As the racial and social justice coordinator since 2007, his education and experience certainly put him atop the list. Sgt. Welte has been coming to Rochester for three years now and we just completed this two-day training. Martin facilitates difficult conversations on race and cultural awareness and provides solid instruction on listen and explain with equity and dignity (LEED). Our office has hosted this course for more than 200 participants in the last 3 years (40 max per session) and representing more than 25 law enforcement agencies in SE Minnesota.

Sergeant Kirby Long to Retire!

Captain Chris Wallace

Sergeant Kirby Long will soon be leaving us and riding off into the sunset of retirement. Sgt. Long started his career as a Deputy Sheriff with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in 1989 before coming to Olmsted County in 1991. Throughout Sgt. Long’s career in Olmsted County he has been here, there, and everywhere within our office.  After working in Patrol for the first 7 years of his career, Sgt. Long transferred into the Warrants Division where he stayed until 2000 at which time he was promoted to Detective. In 2002 Sgt. Long returned to the Patrol Division.  In 2007 Sgt. Long became the Stewartville “COPS” Deputy and stayed there until 2010 at which time he was again promoted to Detective. In March of 2015 Sgt. Long was promoted to Sergeant and took over as the Investigations Sergeant.  In 2019 Sgt. Long transferred back to Patrol as a power shift Sergeant and this is where he will finish his long and distinguished career. 

Along the way Sgt. Long has taken on many other responsibilities within our office including the following: Firearms Instructor, Use of Force Instructor, Emergency Response Unit, Emergency Vehicle Instructor, Arson Investigator, handgun, rifle and shotgun armorer, Sgt. and instructor for the Project Life Saver Team.

During Sgt. Long’s 30 years he has received the Medal of Honor, 2 Life-Saving awards, and a letter of recognition. 

As you can see, Sgt. Long will be taking with him a lot of experience and knowledge (30 years worth) that he has gained and shared over the years. I will personally miss the expertise and stability that Sgt. Long brings to the table as a Patrol Sgt. but I am confident that Sgt. Long has shared much of his knowledge with the Sergeants and Deputies in our office.

Kirby, congratulations on your retirement but know that you and the experience you take with you will be missed.

Communicating to Manage a Crisis

Captain Scott Behrns

During a crisis, be it large or small, communication is the key to effectively managing the crisis. During a crisis situation, the OCSO has developed an informal, but effective, communication plan that we use on smaller, more common incidents such as traffic crashes, tactical situations, and missing persons. When the crisis starts, the Patrol Division is first to respond, contain/control the crisis, and obtain the information needed to manage a crisis.  The key to managing the crisis is to obtain accurate and timely information. All of this information gathering, validating, and dissemination has been learned through Incident Command System (ICS) training, emergency operations functions, and simply working together as a team.

A recent fatal accident investigation showed the teamwork that has developed over the years within the OCSO. The Patrol Division was dispatched to an accident with injuries at the intersection of two busy county roads. The accident was quickly determined to be fatal crash and information was needed quickly to inform the public that the roadways would be closed for an indefinite period of time. The Scene Commander was able to obtain the information needed and the Public Information Officer (PIO) was able to craft a press release to help reduce the traffic flow and provide a safer scene for our people to conduct their work. 

As our Office gains experience through incidents and lessons learned, one of the key points that must be remembered is this: The accuracy of the information we send is more important than how fast we send it. The last thing we want to do is create a crisis within a crisis by delivering false, inaccurate, or unverified information.

So, when the next crisis strikes, we will take control of the situation in a safe manner; gather accurate and verified information, get that information to the Scene Commander, and share that information to the audience targeted. If you are new to this career and have not taken your ICS classes, get going; they will help you when that next crisis squawks over the radio.

As Always; Be Safe.

Olmsted County holds Civil Unrest and Continuity of Operations Tabletop Exercise

Captain Jon Jacobson

In mid-May, nearly every department of Olmsted County Government participated in a virtual tabletop civil unrest exercise (TTX) testing two primary things; County infrastructure and Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) during the response to the simulated event.  The exercise was conducted by Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management Division and observed and evaluated by the State of Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) Division. This TTX was the first large-scale exercise in the Southeast Region in more than one year due to COVID-19. The State of Minnesota HSEM has highly recommended to grant recipients, which Olmsted County is, to conduct some type of exercise surrounding civil unrest due to the high volume of civil unrest incidents throughout our country at the current time.

Although the experience was virtual, there were nearly 50 attendees with many of them taking an active role participating in the exercise. Most people believe that Law Enforcement is the most crucial resource in keeping and restoring peace during an event like this. Albeit the Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement will more than likely be the most visible during civil unrest, all participants discovered how critical some of our other County departments are in assisting and keeping infrastructure secure and restoring peace and how vital a role they play in returning to normal operations. Without Olmsted County Building Operations and Information Technology Solutions (ITS) playing an integral part during a real-life scenario, Olmsted County government would quickly fall behind and may be unable to serve other departments, partners, and its citizens.

The exercise brought to the forefront some very serious questions about understanding Incident Command Structure (ICS), the possibility of redefining who may be considered an essential employee of the County, and how to prioritize services to be restored in the event of some infrastructure failure.  Quite a few positives also came from the exercise.  To name a few, here are some comments made by participants and evaluators that are not Olmsted County employees.

“Olmsted County departments work extremely well together during both day-to-day operations and in times of crisis. You should be proud to be part of such a wonderful organization.” – State of Minnesota employee.

“The cooperation between County and City and the County with external partners is noticeable and excellent.” – City of Rochester employee.

“Having been part of internal exercises previously, although not this unique, it is clear that County departments are learning lessons from the past and implementing constructive change as a result of exercises like this.” – Olmsted County employee.

The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office Training and Emergency Management Division would like to thank everyone involved in this exercise; it certainly would not have been successful without the contributions and participation of attendees.  We also apologize for no pictures from this event as a photo of a computer screen might prove boring, which this exercise was nothing of the sort!

Dates of Interest

Note—these are regular dates—please verify these meetings are taking place as well as the forum they’ll be held in.

July 1

Dover City Council Meeting

July 5

Oronoco Township Meeting

Pleasant Grove Township Meeting

Quincy Township Meeting

Rochester City Council Meeting

July 6

Elmira Township Meeting

High Forest Township Meeting

Olmsted County Board Meeting

July 7

Salem Township Meeting

July 8

Eyota City Council Meeting

Rochester Township Meeting

July 12

Cascade Township Meeting

Chatfield City Council Meeting

Orion Township Meeting

Rock Dell Township Meeting

July 13

Byron City Council Meeting

Marion Township Meeting

New Haven Township Meeting

Stewartville City Council Meeting

July 19

Eyota Township Meeting

Kalmar Township Meeting

Rochester City Council Meeting

July 20

Farmington Township Meeting

Olmsted County Board Meeting

Oronoco City Council Meeting

Pine Island City Council Meeting

July 21

Haverhill Township Meeting

July 22

Eyota City Council Meeting

Olmsted County Fire Meeting

Olmsted County Township Association Meeting

July 26

Chatfield City Council Meeting

Dover Township Meeting

Viola Township Meeting

July 27

Byron City Council Meeting

Stewartville City Council Meeting

Senior Administration