A substantial undertaking started today at St. Olaf College here in Northfield. Law enforcement administrators and supervisors from Faribault, Owatonna, Rice County Sheriff’s Office and Northfield Police Departments assembled on the campus today to begin a three day training session.
This is a substantial event. Putting the key people together for two counties as well as the public safety officers from St. Olaf spells good news for residents. It means the cops are talking….and not just the cops, but the supervisors and administrators who help develop the strategies to combat crime in your communities. When we all get together the communities and counties win and the crooks lose. The more we communicate, the better we work together. The more we train together, the better we innovate and collaborate. It also means that our officers and support staff are so good as to pick up the slack while we are out of the office.
Local talent and nationally recognized criminal justice experts will be presenting the next few days. Hopefully the experience will energize and the synergy created between the law enforcers will carry back to their respective departments. This is one “bug” that would be worth catching!
The event came out of a conversation that Rice County Sheriff Dick Cook, Faribault Police Chief Mike Lewis and myself held several months ago. It wouldn’t be happening today without the excellent help of CSOs Kris Wilson and Josh Malecha. They worked on the logistics: getting materials copies and compiled; delivered to the location and generally just taking care of business.