- Rice County Sheriff’s Office report by Sheriff Jesse Thomas and team
- New mission statement to emphasize role of public trust: “proactively protect the residents of Rice County through empathetic service that preserves public trust.”
- Reviewed roles and staffing structure of the Sheriff’s office
- Administration: 5 staff
- Patrol: 21 staff
- Courthouse: 5 staff plus some part-time support
- Civil process: 2 staff
- Emergency management: 1 staff and 2 part time
- Records: 4 staff
- Evidence technician: 1 staff
- 90% of licensed deputies live in Rice County
- Rice County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Recruitment Video
- Provided examples of those served in the last year: Gun permits
- Permit to carry – 711 permits, up from 2022-635 permits
- Permit to purchase – 140, down from 2022-187 permits
- Discussed types of calls for service received. They range widely.
- Call for service, traffic stops, and crashes are up this year
- Discussed special assignment roles, such as K9 handler.
- Reviewed south metro SWAT program
- Total activations up from 22 in 2022 to 33 so far this year in 2023, including increased use of the BearCat, a rugged off-road armored SWAT vehicle designed for military and law enforcement use, from 1 use in 2022 to 5 in 2023 so far.
- Discussed community engagement events
- Shop with a cop program supplying coats to kids
- Discussed ways to building trust in the community
- Reviewed investigations roles
- Eg: child protection, welfare fraud, drug task force
- Cases are up this year from last year, particularly more employment background checks
- Water patrol
- Seasonal workers, usually college students interested in going into law enforcement
- Reviewed boats for lakes, rivers, and thin ice rescue settings
- Dive Team
- Ice rescue
- 11 deputies trained, and “gumby suits” for water rescue
- Recreational vehicles for off-road rescues, including in winter
- Polaris Ranger
- 2 ATVs
- 2 snowmobiles
- New Public Safety Center
- Includes river access for river boats and new shed for equipment
- Jail
- New facility: Going from 36-bed to 72-bed facility
- Staffing:
- Jail Administrator
- Asst. Jail Administrator
- Jail Program Coordinator
- RCSS Community Based Coordinator
- 4 Sergeants
- 21 Correctional Officers
- 3 staff currently assigned to
- Transition Team duties for new PSC
- Bookings are up so far from 2022
- 2022 – 927 bookings
- Average Daily Population: 34
- As of Oct. 15th 2023 – 974 bookings
- Average Daily Population: 42
- Rice County cannot hold all the people who need to be detained, so Rice county has paid $175,000 through September 2022 to other counties to take Rice Co detainees.
- Rice County Sheriff’s Office Corrections recruitment video
- Questions
- Hoisington: The people of Rice Co are blessed to have the Sheriff’s staff.
- Docken: Appreciate all you do. Great job on recruitment videos.
