Leaving the community in good hands

I recently announced my plans to retire June 30. Having served the citizens of Owatonna since 2010, this announcement is rather bittersweet. While I am excited to enjoy time with family and friends, I will also greatly miss working alongside outstanding officers who are committed to the community, a leadership team that works effectively together and elected officials who value public safety. I am grateful for the community’s support throughout my career here. It has been a pleasure working with TEAM Owatonna…a lifelong dream come true!
What I’ll miss most about working in Owatonna…
Owatonna is a community that has supported our police department in maintaining best practices recognized across the public safety profession. We have continually invested in technology, equipment and training to ensure our officers are able to respond and address whatever comes their way. Our team is dedicated to the highest standards of excellence in professional law enforcement and providing comprehensive programs, education and enforcement services. We have created these high standards while maintaining fiscal prudency.
Most significant changes during my career…
During the 35 years I have worked in law enforcement, many changes have occurred regarding how police officers do their jobs. Surrounded by awe-inspiring colleagues who have truly made a difference in the community, we have shared many moments of encouragement and, together, have navigated critical conversations to make Owatonna better. Our diversity of work has been vast and abundant. We created a Police Citizen’s Academy and a new Chaplain Program to engage and share experiences with community members. We remodeled and enhanced our law enforcement center. We supported the Owatonna Public Schools by providing School Resource Officers and Community Service Officers to develop relationships with students. We augmented our department with a new police reserve unit and improved public trust and transparency with a new body-worn camera program. We also prepared to protect the rights of others by creating a Mobile Field Force Unit. We trained new pilots to manage our Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipment. We promoted a canine unit that bolsters community pride. We also fostered and developed our Police Explorer Post by attending statewide competitions. We recently expanded our ability to connect with the community through social media and our website. Most importantly, we lowered crime rates and improved public safety.
About my decision to retire now…
Law enforcement is a challenging career, not just for officers who must always be ready for any situation that demands action, but also for our families. I am grateful that my career has nearly come to an end at a point where I am healthy and able to now go and enjoy activities with my family that have been limited to this point. My wife Sherry and I look forward to retirement. Our family is our greatest accomplishment and we want to spend more time with them as well as our friends. We may have shut a window in our life; but we plan to open a barn door toward the future!
What I’m most proud of…
I am so proud to have served with the men and women at the Owatonna Police Department. They serve with distinction and honor every day. I am most grateful for the experiences that made our community a better place to live, showed compassion and empathy for others and made me laugh. I’m not sure if I would consider this my legacy, but I hope to be remembered for a couple of things regarding my service to the citizens of Owatonna. First, the community policing model we’ve incorporated into our work has created a positive relationship between our officers and the community as a whole. With this mindset as a cornerstone of our work, we are constantly reinforcing and developing new bonds with community members to ensure that people most impacted by crime have a voice in identifying and resolving problems. I am honored to have spent the majority of my career building a department that is well positioned to transition and adapt as needed in the future. Our succession planning has dedicated resources to prepare the next generation of leadership to move our department forward to ensure Owatonna continues to enjoy the comfort of knowing that well-trained, ethical and caring police officers are here to take care of the community’s public safety needs.
A note of gratitude…
The people in our community make it a very special place to live, work and enjoy recreation. They are kind, hardworking and respectful stewards of the community. I want to thank the citizens of Owatonna for the opportunity to serve them. I have a sense of overwhelming pride when I say I am from Owatonna, Minnesota. This is due to the people who came before me, my friends and neighbors of today and the many that will follow. I want Owatonna to do wonderful things by great people!