by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
The Stearns County Sheriff’s Department has initiated several ambitious programs designed to bring together all department personnel, to expand contacts with residents and other law-enforcement agencies, to enhance employee wellness and to promote recruitment – all with the ultimate goal of strengthening public safety and protection.
While at the Stearns County County Fair in Sauk Centre, during a break from meeting fair-goers, Stearns County Sheriff Steve Soyka talked about the initiatives.
Strengthening bonds
A law enforcement study in 2017, Soyka said, revealed there are some tensions among the administrative levels from department to department, city to city. Those tensions, Soyka said he believes, are largely the result of misunderstandings and miscommunications. Part of the new initiative is to improve communications both within the sheriff’s department and to create a sense of unity and togetherness with police departments and other agencies that impinge upon law enforcement – fire-and-rescue, judicial, mental health and so forth.
That outreach communication effort, Soyka said, includes creating unity, equality and a democratization process within the sheriff’s department. All aspects of the department (deputies, dispatchers, records-keepers, jail personnel) will have a chance to meet the public to share what they do and to engage the public in question-answer sessions. The initiative is called the “Community Sheriff Engagement Team.”
Soyka said he is pleased that of the department’s 200 employees 50 of them have volunteered to do various public-outreach projects, including two women jail employees who spoke with visitors at the Stearns County Fair in Sauk Centre. Other factions that meet with the public and/or do demonstrations include the canine patrol units, the drone program, the horse patrol and many others.
Yet another outreach effort involves two deputies being assigned to each of the county’s 36 townships as contact resources. Now and then they visit town hall meetings, review reports, offer suggestions and hear ideas. In that way, the law officers get to know the townships and vice versa and can better solve problems because of the enhanced communications, Soyka noted.
Finally, the department is focused on employee recruitment. There is a serious lack of correctional officers at the Stearns County Jail, which requires the county to move inmates from time to time to other counties’ jails. Recruitment members will visit places like schools, law-enforcement learning programs and job fairs to get the word out that students should consider choosing some aspect of law enforcement as a career, including jobs as correctional officers.
The department’s Internal Wellness Program is so far a fledgling effort, Soyka noted, but progress is being made so employees who often work long nights will have the chance to participate in wellness programs scheduled with the work shifts in mind. Stearns County provides wellness programs, but very often they are learning sessions during luncheons, for instance, designed for employees on day shifts.
Soyka noted the new deputy squad cars will sport a new logo that is meant to be a visible reminder for the unity and communications of the initiative programs. There will be a blue line for law enforcement, a red line for fire-and-rescue, a silvery white line for corrections/jail, and a yellow line for communications/dispatch. Under the logo is the statement, “We Stand as One.”
