Sharing law enforcement between county, city gets turned down

Moody County and city of Flandreau leaders have opposing opinions on whether the two government bodies should consider if there is a way to have unified law enforcement.
The Moody County commission wants to see if there is a way to provide the same level of law enforcement coverage while also saving money on rising costs to taxpayers. But the city of Flandreau isn’t interested in talking about options with the county, after Mayor Mark Bonrud and Jeff Pederson, city administrator, said a change isn’t needed.
The two told city council members that if it needed to save money on the nearly $750,000 budget item, it could figure that out at the city level using the police model they already have in place. In addition, city residents are happy about police coverage, Bonrud said. They also said the county did not come with a combined plan to consider so there was nothing to talk about.
“We’re happy with the police department and don’t see any reason to research county-wide law enforcement,” said Bonrud, who described the Nov. 28 meeting with county representatives as lasting five minutes.
Alderman Jason Unger asked for an update on the issue at the end of the Dec. 3 council meeting when it wasn’t on the agenda. “I think it’s a broader discussion,” he said. “It’s an obvious issue. I don’t think we can say it’s not a concern with our community.”
He and council president Dan Sutton said that the issue should have been brought to the council instead of dismissed without discussion. They gave several examples of how residents have been concerned about the city police.
County commissioners first brought up interest in seeing what kind of options might be possible for county-wide law enforcement serving Flandreau too, in meetings in the past few months. The county is looking at adding a fifth deputy to help cover the county and wondered if there would be an opportunity to work together.
More recently Commissioner Dan Miles and Marty Skroch, assistant to the commission, met with Bonrud and Pederson.
“We’ve had no discussion what that would look like,” Skroch said. “We just wanted to know their interest, just are you guys interested in having this discussion?”

The city has been working on improving the professionalism of the department and recently has sent Chief Zach Weber to FBI leadership training. The course focused not only on department leadership but on credibility, discipline, liability, teamwork and improving performance by understanding different personality traits.
Pederson said he has been working with Weber to improve the department and he was concerned that going with the county would be a decrease in service. The county had told him there would be at least one officer in town at all times, which would be less than the city has now.
Unger said that a town hall-style meeting earlier this year as part of the Healthy Hometown initiative drew several complaints from citizens who said officers sit at the entrance to town and stop people, including stops for dirty license plates or license plate lights that are burned out. Some people won’t even drive through Flandreau because there are too many officers, he said.
“Are we organized in a way that is benefitting the community and is worth the $750,000 investment?” Unger asked. The issue needs council discussion, he said.
Sutton agreed with Unger and said that Bonrud and Pederson should not have disregarded council input and unilaterally said everything is fine.
“It was kind of council driven. I had hoped we had an opportunity to come back and discuss what you’ve done,” he said. “I think there’s always ways to improve. I would hope we would continue this discussion. I don’t think I’m ready to suggest we should stop looking at that.”
Don Whitman, former administrator and now an alderman, said he wants the department to stay part of city government, and the community wants more than one officer on duty in town at all times. “I’d said ‘hell no,’ too.”
Alderman Karen Tufty said county-wide law enforcement didn’t work in the past, and Alderman Brad Bjerke said the city would lose control if the county took over law enforcement.
“Are we overspending? Maybe a little,” he said. But the council could look at that and other issues. “The public perception is kind of tough right now. There’s a way to come out of that.”
County commissioners also discussed the meeting with city leaders and the reaction at the Dec. 4 commission meeting.
“They basically shot it down,” Miles said.
Sheriff Troy Wellman and staff have started to put together some ideas of different scenarios of shared law enforcement, what it would look like and how much money taxpayers would save. They will continue working on that for the county’s information. There is a least one staffing study that is helpful, and there are scenarios where they can look at times officers from multiple departments responded to a call because of safety concerns, he said.
“I think it’s a doable option,” Wellman said.
The county sees the benefits of looking at the issue, said commissioner Rick Veldkamp. “We’re interested, but it’s their call. We can’t force county wide on them. They’ve got to buy into it first,” he said.
It’s not an issue that can be done quickly, he said. The county could look for joint models that have worked elsewhere, he said.
The county in the past year answered more calls than city officers, Wellman said. In addition to the Sheriff, the county has four deputies and has budgeted to hire one more next year. The city has seven officers, and Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal police have four positions.
Commission chairman Jerry Doyle said he was surprised by the city’s response to the discussion of county-wide law enforcement. “I can’t believe they wouldn’t be open minded enough to at least look at it.”