Chaska Police - In the News!

Gang Unit Building Up Trust - 06/29/2005

Mexican Consulate - 11/10/2004

Drunk Driving - KSTP5 news story - 02/27/2004

Juan Gonzalez receives Medal of Heroism - 11/06/2003

Chaska Police receive missing-child software - 07/23/2003

Explorers search for evidence - 04/02/2003

Chaska Police seeking more local volunteers - 04/02/2003

Things are 'hopping' at the local police station - 05/08/2002 

Graffiti now against the law in Chaska - 06/27/2001

Community prays for Chaska police safety - 06/27/2001

Stop sticks' assist police to end chase - 03/21/2001

Police officers save people from burning Chaska apartment 02/07/2001

Police, sheriff split on sharing database - 01/31/2001

Bill would keep felons off school buses - 01/24/2001

 

Gang unit building up trust

Shruti L. Mathur,  Star Tribune

Read the article in the Star Tribune by clicking here  

Temporary consulate helps area Mexicans
Mark W. Olson
Staff Writer
Published in the Chaska Herald on Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Mexican consulate worker Adriana Herandez helps two men waiting in line at the mobile consulate. (Photos by Mark W. Olson)
U.S. citizens stood in line for hours to vote last week, whereas Mexican citizens stood in line for hours just to receive identification cards at Valley Evangelical Free Church in Chaska.

The cards, called the Matricula, were important enough to draw people from as far away as Thief River Falls. Midwest Mexicans appeared at the church as early as 2 a.m. to get in line.

The Mexican "mobile consulate" was in town Nov. 3-6, to service the needs of Mexican citizens living in the region. During its first day in Chaska, the consulate issued 280 Matricula, 100 passports, and 75 military ID cards (which are mandatory for young Mexican men).

The line of people stretched down the church's hallway. Inside the sanctuary, tables were set up with computers and 14 consulate employees were busy poring over hundreds of documents.

By Saturday, the number of people would triple, predicted Joyce Graciela Gonzalez de Stellick, a representative of the Consulate General of Mexico-Chicago. She noted the importance of identification, for everything from buying a six-pack of beer to getting a library card to cashing a check.

"You don't get anything in the U.S. if you don't have identification," said Alejandra Vargas, an insurance representative from Minneapolis who was in Chaska helping with the event.

"It's important. I need it just to get a bank account," said Ricardo LeBaron, an Eagan resident, but Mexican national. LeBaron had waited in line for two hours, taking off time from work installing drywall to obtain the important card.

For area Mexicans, the nearest place to conduct business with their country is in Chicago. It was too far to travel and would take too much time to travel to Chicago, LeBaron said.

Instead, the Mexican consulate sets up satellite offices once a month throughout Minnesota. It had traveled to St. Paul, Owatonna, and Winona but not Chaska, Stellick said. This is the consulate's first time in Chaska, but probably not its last, she added.

The Hispanic population in Minnesota has skyrocketed, she noted. The 2000 census determined that one out of every 17 Chaskans is Hispanic. Shakopee and other Minnesota River Valley towns have experienced similar growth in the Hispanic population.

"Our goal is to help our Hispanic neighbors feel welcome," said Dave Sletten, senior pastor at Valley Evangelical, which hosted the consulate.

The church has also housed the Spanish-language church Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer for about five years. The consulate service seemed like a logical extension of its outreach, Sletten said.

Police Chief Scott Knight met with Mexican officials earlier this year, where he learned of the mobile consulate. He lobbied to bring the service to Chaska. "It's a matter of serving the people of our community," Knight said, adding that if the city had a sizeable Russian community, he would try to bring the Russian consulate to town.

When Stellick introduced Knight to the long line in the church hall, they broke out into applause. "If there's any problems, you don't want to be afraid of the police," she told them.

 

 

Recent news story from KSTP Channel 5 - aired on Friday, February 27, 2004

Investigating drunk driving arrest rates  
Updated: 02-28-2004

More than half of all deadly drunk driving accidents happen in just thirteen counties in Minnesota. Most of those counties are right here in the Metro. But did you also know there’s a difference in how often arrests are made? For example, you have a slightly higher chance of being arrested in Hennepin County than over in Ramsey County.

When people drink and drive they put all of us at risk.

But how great is the drinker's risk of being pulled over?

We looked at data from across the metro area and found there is a big difference. It all depends on where you're driving. 

The small town of Farmington has just a handful of bars. But based on population, a lot of arrests. Over the last two years we found, per capita, police here arrest more drunk drivers than any other Metro city with a jail.

Our investigation also took a look at which county is most likely to nail you for drunk driving and based on the number of people the winner is Washington, which is home to a lot of popular bars especially in Stillwater.">

Washington County Deputy Shane Linehan works the late night shift and finds plenty of drunks.

He told us, " I do enjoy taking them off the road".

Professor Steve Simon says his efforts pays off, "The key is more arrests.

Professor Simon has done extensive research into d.w.i. arrests.

He says there's no question that fear of being arrested is a much bigger deterrent than fear of a stiff sentence. “If the public has a fear of being arrested for d.w.i. they may change their behavior."

Eyewitness News examined five years worth of arrest data for seven counties across the metro. We first looked at the number of arrests based on population, and then the number of bars and liquor stores. Both put Carver County at the bottom of the list when it comes to d.w.i. arrests.

Although Chief Deputy Paul Tschida couldn’t explain those numbers he says the county has been working hard to step up its enforcement.  Tschida told us, “We know that there are a lot of d.w.i. crashes, or alcohol involved crashes in Carver County and we have taken steps to help that.

But the Chief of police in Chaska says the county's not doing nearly enough. Scott Knight says,

“What really angers me is when we're globally included with the county, we're painted with the brush of inaction. But if you break those numbers out you will see who's doing the job and who is not.”

A recent audit shows Chaska police arrested 147 drunk drivers.

Deputies which patrol the majority of the county arrested 132.

 

 

 

Local hero honored
Published in the Chaska Herald  Thursday, November 06, 2003

The Chaska Police Department and the Chaska Fire Department honored Juan Gonzalez for heroism, at Monday night's city council meeting.

Authorities credit Gonzalez with evacuating a family and saving lives in an Oct. 17 townhouse fire at 750 Ravoux Road.

Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight placed a "Heroism Medal" around Gonzalez' neck while Chaska Fire Chief Bruce Scheuing stood nearby. It's the first time in his almost 30 years on the force that such an award has been given out, Knight said.

"There's only one thing I want to say and it's something I should have said from the beginning. It wasn't me who really saved the girl. It was the Lord's grace," Gonzalez told the council. Gonzalez received applause and a standing ovation from the packed city council chambers, which included many of his neighbors, friends and family.

"Running into a burning building is something most people wouldn't try to do," said Mayor Gary Van Eyll, a retired firefighter. "Thank you very much for your quick actions and clear thinking. Thank you on behalf of the city of Chaska. Thank you very much," Van Eyll said.

 

Chaska Police receive missing-child software

Published in the Chaska Herald  Thursday, July 23, 2003

Photo taken by Mark Olson, Chaska Herald
The Chaska Police Department recently joined the Lost Child Alert Technology Resource (LOCATOR) program, sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, located in Virginia.

Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight and his staff have trained with the NCMEC. Patty Wetterling, whose son Jacob was kidnapped in October 1989, also works closely with the center and stopped by the Chaska Police Department to discuss LOCATOR last week.

Patty and her husband, Jerry, co-founded the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, and work closely with law enforcement agencies on missing child cases, and

the emotional impact child abduction has on a family.

The National Center, through federal funds, provided the LOCATOR system free of charge to the Chaska Police Department to investigate missing child cases. The center found that when pictures of missing children or abductors are made public, one in six children are recovered as a direct result, according to Knight.The LOCATOR system is comprised of a Dell Pentium IV computer, HP DeskJet 940C printer, high-resolution scanner, and customized software, and its use is not limited to missing children cases. It includes templates for more than 100 different types of posters such as missing adults, wanted persons, and crime alerts. The system is also compatible with the AMBER Alert plan, Knight said.

Every hour a child is missing, the likelihood of a safe recovery decreases, Knight said. When an area child (Chloe) was abducted in September, 2000, Chaska police lead a nationwide search. Ultimately the child was located in Indiana after an intensive four day tracking. "We beat the odds on that case," Knight, said.

There are many challenges facing law enforcement personnel in missing child cases. One of the greatest is collecting and disseminating the child's descriptive information quickly. LOCATOR was created to provide the computer hardware and software needed to rapidly distribute critical missing child data on a local, statewide, or national level.

"When we were working Chloe's case we had to rely in large part upon numerous fax machines across the nation to get flyers out to law enforcement. And, running down the fax numbers and operating the fax machine took the time of one of our team members almost exclusively," Knight said.

Knight urges parents and caretakers to act immediately, if they believe that their child is missing, by taking the following steps:

* Call the Chaska Police Department immediately, by dialing 911.

* If your child is missing from home, search the house checking closets, piles of laundry, in and under beds, inside old refrigerators, parked cars – including the truck space – and anyplace a child may crawl or hide.

* If your child disappears in a store, notify the store manager or security office. Employees should be immediately mobilized to look for the missing child, and the police should be called.

* When you call the police, be prepared to provide your child's full name, date of birth, height, weight, and any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses, braces, etc. Be able to give a detailed clothing description.

* "The importance of a current photograph to give to the police cannot be understated," Knight said. He asked all parents "to grab a camera right after reading this article and take pictures of their kids. It's a win-win, they will have current photos, and the extras can be sent to grandparents, and aunts and uncles, as a nice surprise."
Husband/wife charged in stabbing incident
Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Explorer Post 421 helped the Chaska Police Department search for a knife used in an alleged stabbing last Wednesday morning along Yellow Brick Road.  The knife was not found.  The Explorers, from left, are Mike Bengtson, Sgt. Jay Personius, and Ross Gildow.

 Photo taken by Mark Olson, Chaska Herald

A husband and a wife have been charged in connection with a stabbing that allegedly occurred in the early morning of March 23.

Zachary Joel Dahl, 24, of 726 Ravoux Road, was charged with assault in the second and third degree. Dahl's wife, Dana Marie Dahl, 33, was charged with furnishing a dangerous weapon that police allege was used in the assault.

According to the court complaint, police were dispatched to a Ravoux Road home, down the street from the Dahl residence. At the address, police found Jason Grady who, according to the complaint, was suffering from a wound to his left wrist, and a puncture wound under his right chest.

According to the report, Grady claimed that he had "just been stabbed by Zach" while the Dahls were driving him home from Butch's on Second. According to Grady, Dana gave Zach a blade from the vehicle's center console. Then Zach allegedly turned around and slashed him, the complaint stated.

Earlier in the evening, the Dahls and Grady had gone to Butch's, where Dana wanted to sing karaoke. According to the complaint, Zachary Dahl told police that he often roughhouses with Grady, and they had been wrestling earlier in the evening.

Zachary Dahl allegedly told police that on the ride home, he had been threatened by Grady, who had put a knife to his neck. According to the complaint, Dahl told police that he attempted to grab the knife from Grady and cut his hand. On another attempt, he was able to get the knife away, he told police.

Dana Dahl pulled the vehicle over along Yellow Brick Road and Zachary attempted to remove Grady from the vehicle and Grady refused, according to the Dahls' statements. "At that point, Zachary slashed him two times," the complaint stated.

"After that, [Dana Dahl] didn't know what was going on, but both men were bleeding so she drove to Ravoux Road," the complaint alleged. They dropped off Grady at his home and went to the Sheriff's Office, because they were worried about their safety, stated the complaint.

Zachary Dahl's second degree assault charge could carry fines of 10 years and/or $20,000. The third degree assault charge carries five years and/or $10,000. Dana Dahl's charge of furnishing a dangerous weapon carries 10 years and/or $20,000.

The Dahls have both been released from Carver County Jail on bail and have an omnibus hearing in Carver County District Court on May 21.

Chaska Police seeking more local volunteers
Mark W. Olson, Staff Writer

 

 

 

Published in the Chaska Herald  Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Photo taken by Mark Olson, Chaska Herald

The Chaska Police Department is searching for a few good volunteers – young whippersnappers need not apply.

"We look to people who are retired or semi-retired who would like to volunteer at the police department, and we would put them to work depending on the talents they would bring to the job," said Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight.

Carver County reference librarian Marydel Ketcham, 57, is currently the only volunteer at the department. "She's an excellent reference research resource. She's incredibly talented in getting information," Knight said. Ketcham works on special projects and data entry for the police department.

"I grew up being taught that volunteering is a good thing. Almost all of my life I've done some kind of volunteering," Ketcham said. "I knew (the police department) could use help occasionally. It seemed like a good fit and I enjoyed it," said Ketcham

Ketcham is a keen observer of detective work and has given library talks with Chaska Police Det. Sgt. Jon Kehrberg about various types of mystery novels. "I'm a very curious person," she said. Her three children work in various forms of police work or law.

"They make me feel so appreciated for what I do," Ketcham said of volunteering.

The volunteers' duties and hours are flexible. "They could help with the front window, or with phone calls – not including emergency calls," Knight said. "What we would do is fit the tasks to their talents and ours."

"People want to volunteer their time to the community and are interested in what the police do. We'd never put them in harm's way and they would never come across sensitive information or report sensitive data," Knight said.

If interested in volunteering for the Chaska Police Department, prepare a brief résumé of life experiences and call 448-4200.

 

Things are 'hopping' at the local police station

By: Mark W. Olson, Staff Writer  Published in the Chaska Herald on May 8, 2002


Photos taken by Mark Olson, Chaska Herald

Janet Mercado is the first to admit she loves animals. It’s an appropriate trait for someone who enforces the city’s animal ordinances as a Community Service Officer. “Animals are my forte,” said Mercado, who has been a CSO since Feb. 11. She has suffered her share of snake bites and angry comments from the owners of unlicensed dogs, but she recently went above and beyond the call of duty.

At 7 p.m., April 22, she received a call to Kassel Lane after landscapers inadvertently displaced a nest of seven two-week-old bunnies. The mother was presumably killed. She has run across abandoned animals before, but they’re not usually this young, she said. “I couldn’t let them go through the life cycle without a fighting chance,” she said. Mercado feared the cottontails would be dinner for neighborhood dogs. So she rushed to the pet store and purchased milk formula and a bottle to feed the family. The nipple on the tiny bottle was actually too large for the bunnies’ mouths, so she had to drop in the milk.

She brought them back and forth to the police department from her home, feeding them on break. “How much has our family increased now?” asked her husband when she brought home the bunnies. (The Mercados have four children.) During the night they would squeak, and Mercado would wake up to feed them. “They scream like a baby screams,” said Mercado, who knows from personal experience. She bottle fed them for about five days with milk supplement and apple juice, then began feeding them dandelion greens and apple chips. She has kept them in a large covered Tupperware container, so they will maintain their nocturnal instinct. She has also refrained from naming the bunnies anything other than “Wild bunny.” She was trying to keep her children from growing attached.

Growing up, Mercado had 15 dogs and 55 cats in her home. Her father is also a big nature lover, Mercado said. The animals will ultimately be relocated to her father’s Eden Prairie home near the Minnesota River bluffs. They’ll be able to join deer, wild turkey, woodchucks and other animals that frequent his yard. Now Mercado is off to her next assignment. She has been researching porcupines. A porcupine has been eating saplings in Chaska, and Mercado is attempting to trap and relocate it. (She’s attempting to lure it with a salt lick and young sapling tree bark.)

Some Chaska Police Department officers have called Mercado the Mother Teresa of animals. “I find it hare raising,” said Police Chief Scott Knight, with a straight face. “It’s good to know that even when I’m out of the office things keep hopping along here.”  

               
Graffiti now against the law in Chaska
By: Mark W. Olson, Staff Writer  Published in the Chaska Herald on June 27, 2001
Failure to remove graffiti from private property now violates a city code. The city council recently passed an ordinance stating that a property owner is responsible for removing graffiti.
"The danger is, graffiti begets graffiti. It's like dandelions - as soon as you have one then you have a yard full and we don't want that," said Police Chief Scott Knight.

There have been a "couple situations where property owners have not removed graffiti," City Administrator David Pokorney told the council, before it passed the ordinance. "Do they know how disappointing that is? It says a lot about their commitment to us and the community," responded Mayor Bob Roepke.

Chaska resident Penny Tarbell then informed the council of graffiti on the city's pedestrian tunnel under Stoughton Avenue near the sugar factory. "I'm sick of it," Tarbell said of the graffiti.

"If graffiti is found, the police department will within 10 days mail a notice and copy of the ordinance to the owner and/or occupant to remove the graffiti. If the graffiti is not removed, the city could then contract to have it removed and bill the property owner for the clean-up costs," explained a city memo.

"If the private property owner is uncooperative, a lien would go against a property for the amount of the cleanup," Knight said. If the police find the person responsible for the vandalism, the offender will pay restitution to the business. "It's beyond me why a private property owner would want to live with it anyway," Knight said.

Knight believes graffiti is serious business. "Graffiti is at times much more than simply an eyesore or simply vandalism. Often times, it is a means of turf-marking or boundary-setting by a gang. So it is simply more than disrespect for property," Knight said.

If a rival gang "tags" over another gang's graffiti, "it's a sign of great disrespect and a challenge to turf. We simply aren't going to tolerate it," Knight said.

Knight has sent a copy of the graffiti ordinance to Carver County Attorney Mike Fahey, asking him to consider promoting it as a county-wide ordinance.

The Chaska Cinema's east wall is a popular target of vandals. For David Falk, co-owner of the movie theater since February, the graffiti is another bill to pay. "It's pretty easy to pass an ordinance saying you can't have graffiti on a wall. At the same time if someone wants to spray paint on a wall, it takes $300 or $400 to take it off," Falk said.

Falk, who owns several properties, said city staff hasn't called him regarding the graffiti ordinance. "When you're trying to make ends meet, it's another extra 400 bucks. That's just like lighting a cigar with a $100 bill," Falk said. Right now the cinema is "just trying to keep paying our people," he said.

 

Community prays for Chaska police safety
By: Mark W. Olson, Staff Writer of the Chaska Herald June 27, 2001
As a child, Mary Stapleton remembers praying with her family for her uncle's safety. He was a police officer in Nassau, N.Y., and also a surrogate father to Stapleton.
Stapleton's close ties with police (two of her cousins are also in law enforcement) prompted her to start a "Shield a Badge with Prayer" program in Chaska.

The program calls on volunteers to pray daily for a Chaska Police officer over the course of one year. "It's a way those of us who are lay people can help support our police. Obviously we can't go out and direct traffic or do stops," Stapleton said. "This is a way of being connected with what they do and their work."

The program is in the beginning stage, said Stapleton, who is also a Chaska planning commissioner. Stapleton got the idea from a similar Eden Prairie program, which was noted in her church bulletin. "It's not my idea. It's not original. I don't want any accolades for this at all," Stapleton said.

People in the program are asked not to make personal contact with their assigned officer, and limit communication to a few letters each year. "This will not get you out of a speeding ticket. If it did, I would have the whole metropolitan police force on my prayer list," Stapleton said. Stapleton stresses that the "city is not involved in this in any way," and it's completely a volunteer program.

The program is open to everybody, Stapleton said. "We're not limiting the program to people who are churchgoers, or even believers," she said. "It's for people who just want to hold the police force in their hearts and minds and thoughts."

Police Chief Scott Knight welcomes the program. "What a wonderful idea," he said. "What a gift to the individual officers and what a gift to the person choosing to pray for the officer and what a gift to the community," Knight said.

"Our officers were very enthusiastic about it, and I think it is very humbling. ... To pause and know that members of the community-at-large are (praying for them) is a pretty powerful thing," Knight said.

For more information on the program, call Stapleton at (952) 443-2232.
'Stop sticks' assist police to end chase
Published in the Chaska Herald  March 21, 2001
It's quick, it's effective and it reduces the risk of endangering both police officers and civilian lives. Called a "stop stick," Chaska Police Officers have been carrying them in their cars for years, but they are infrequently used.
They were used early in the morning on March 15. After a domestic situation occurred in Victoria about 1:55 a.m., Chaska officers were told the suspect was heading their way.

Brett Latterner, 33, of Aitkin, drove away from a residence after an alleged domestic assault and tried to evade sheriff deputies and police.

Knowing Latterner was heading into Chaska, police set up stop sticks at the corner of Bavaria Road and Pioneer Trail.

Stop sticks are long, three-sided pieces of plastic that are either placed on the road surface or thrown in the path of a vehicle, said Police Chief Scott Knight.

As the vehicle drives over the sticks, quills are deposited into the tires, causing them to deflate, but not blow.

In a short time, the tires will lose all their air, making the vehicle safely come to a stop.

For Latterner's vehicle, three stop sticks were deployed.

Soon after Latterner went over the sticks, his vehicle went into a snowbank and he was arrested without incident and without injury, Knight said.

Both of his vehicle's front tires and one rear tire were deflated.

Knight said the stop sticks help reduce the risks of injury to police officers, civilians and the suspect who is fleeing in what can be a dangerous police chase.

"They're very successful," Knight said. "The biggest thing is they stop these crazy pursuits literally in their tracks. It's just a Godsend."

Knight said Latterner has been charged with domestic assault, making terroristic threats, interfering with a 911 call, fleeing a police officer and driving with a canceled license.

 

Police officers save people from burning Chaska apartment

Chris Graves
Published in the Star Tribune
Wednesday, February 7, 2001

 

As he lay choking on smoke and unable to see, Brad Bandas saw the glimmer of a flashlight through the sooty black smoke filling his Chaska apartment building.

The 22-year-old man hoped that whoever was on the other side of the light saw his hand frantically waving.

Out of the smoke came a hand. Then Bandas was on his feet. Then he was outside, standing -- and coughing -- in the crisp, predawn air.

"The officer just clutched my hand and pulled me out and gave me the boost I needed," Bandas said. "I could have been dead. Smoke kills you.'

He was one of more than a dozen apartment residents saved by Chaska police officers Brady Juell and Mike Kleber as fire lapped up the side of the three-story stucco building in the 600 block of Ravoux Rd. about 4 a.m. Tuesday.

One resident, Robert A. Ebert, 38, died in the blaze after he broke out his garden-level apartment window to try to escape.

Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight said a bystander tried to pull Ebert out of his burning apartment, but he fell backward and died in the blaze.

Knight said preliminary findings indicate the fire, which started in Ebert's apartment, was caused by an electrical malfunction and was an accident.

Knight beamed like a father about his officers' actions.

"They are heroes. I know we would have many more deaths," he said, "with the people sleeping and the rapid spread of fire and smoke."

Bandas had made it down to a first floor hall before collapsing. His fiancee, Jackie Gallipo, 19, watched from their third-floor apartment as he was pulled out of the building. The officers, as well as Bandas, were yelling at her to jump. The officers assured her they would catch her.

And they did.

"I climbed out the window and was hanging off the sill. I didn't want to jump," she said. "But I didn't want to burn up ... so I jumped."

Knight said the two officers crawled through the smoke, banged on apartment doors and yelled to awaken residents. Several times, the two men used their shoulders to break down doors.

"They reluctantly accept the title 'hero,'" Knight said. "They said they were doing nothing short of what their peers would have done. But I have to tell you, they are heroes.

"I'm beaming with pride."

Chris Graves can be contacted at cgraves@startribune.com

 
Police, sheriff split on sharing database                               
Published in the Chaska Herald                 By: Mark W. Olson, Staff Writer January 31, 2001
After hopes of sharing a computer database, the Chaska Police Department and the Carver County Sheriff's Office are going separate ways. "We believed (one database) would create some efficiencies between county and city government. And I'm a little bit disappointed if it isn't going to work that way," said Sheriff Operations Commander Bob VanDenBroeke.
If the two agencies shared a database, they could directly access each other's records. Ideally, if a sheriff's deputy pulled someone over for a violation in Watertown, a Chaska Police officer, (using a squad car computer), could easily access the violator's record if he was pulled over in Chaska. The shared database would give officers and deputies a 'heads up' when dealing with repeat offenders.

Hoever, police department officials said they decided to implement their own database after it proved cumbersome to retrieve data from the county system.

"A joint database has been a desired outcome for years," said Administrative Assistant Peggy Hatfield, who is implementing the police department's database. "I can remember as far back as 1994, being in meetings with the chief to move toward an integrated system," she said.

The police had used the county system, called Computer Information Services (CIS), for most of 2000. They had used their own "LEADRS" system from 1987 to 1999. However, the LEADRS program was not Y2K compliant so last year the department opted for the county system.

The police department was unimpressed with the program, according to Police Chief Scott Knight. "We tried to work with the system for a solid 10 to 11 months, and my (perception) was that it was a black hole. Information was going in, but our ability to retrieve it became absolutely futile," Knight said. "We went backwards instead of forwards ... The year 2000 is lost to us in terms of data collection."

But the CIS is in the process of being upgraded from a more labor-intensive system to an easier "point-and-click" system, county officials said.

Even with the upgrades, the system wouldn't meet our department standards, Knight said. "If (upgrades) were to happen, it was unknown if and when. We seriously doubted that there would be any change," Knight said. "We saw nothing that indicated to us that the situation would improve."

"I think there would have been value in them waiting until they looked at the new version since we're so close (to updating the program)," VanDenBroeke said.

Going alone

There were several reasons the police department chose not to go with CIS, Hatfield said. The upgraded CIS program wouldn't include old CIS data, or data from the old police database, she explained. Officers would have had to check several databases to find information (collected before 2000) on one suspect, she said. The new police database includes old and new database information for easier access.

The new CIS will require deputies to check two databases in order to access information collected before and after the update, confirmed Pamela Raser, Sheriff's Office manager of administrative services.

If two different officers entered different spellings for the same name or address (Marcus Olsen, as opposed to Mark Olson), the old CIS program wouldn't necessarily have caught the error, Hatfield said.

If investigators didn't use the exact spelling entered by other officers, the computer wouldn't necessarily find a suspect's record, Hatfield said. However, the new police program alleviates these problems.

"If it wasn't spelled exactly right (the old CIS was) a little bit more labor intensive," Raser said. However, she added, the updated CIS does alleviate the problem.

The CIS program would require officers to input data twice - once into the police database, and once into the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension database, Hatfield said. PC ENFORS is compatible with the BCA database, Hatfield said. The updated CIS would have addressed this problem as well, Raser said.

Squad computers

Currently, police and deputies radio a sheriff's office dispatcher, who accesses and relays information. Once the agencies begin using squad car computers, officers can access information without a dispatcher.

In December, the police department began using its own database - "PC ENFORS." Hatfield hopes to have the information accessible to squad car computers by June.

The sheriff's office began training staff this week, and plans to implement its own upgraded database by the end of February. Deputies should be able to access information from their squad cars by this fall, Raser said.

All calls will still go through the dispatcher. But the dispatcher will record just general information regarding police calls, such as the time of the call, and who made the call.

The dispatcher information will be stored on a CIS computer, but the police will need to update its own database.

At this point, officials said they have not held discussions regarding how they will access each other's information.

"There needs to be a lot of planning and coordination to take place, that hasn't," VanDenBroeke said. "Part of it is the county is extremely busy just trying to get the new system off the ground," he said. (Besides the upgraded computer system, the sheriff's office is also in the process of moving its dispatcher office and implementing a new 800-megahertz radio system.)

Grant funds

Initially, the sheriff and police agencies were part of a United States Department of Justice technology grant that included funds for a central database, as well as new computers.

The grant provided $307,625 for 30 laptops and office-based computers, and $50,000 for software upgrades and licensing, Raser said. The county is chipping in another $40,000 for software upgrades.

The city would have paid for half of the annual maintenance of the database, which would have been less than $5,000 annually, Raser said.

The police department accepted grant money for five laptops and one office computer before opting out of the database program.

The City of Chaska is paying $31,634 for its own PC ENFORS system, including first-year support and training; and $9,400 for software to transmit data from radio towers to cars. According to Hatfield, system maintenance and support will cost about $5,600 annually.

The sheriff's computer system and the police computer system will differ considerably. The police software deals primarily with data collection and the sheriff's software deals with everything from evidence inventory to jail records.

However, if expanded, the police software could tackle the same chores, Hatfield said.

The sheriff's office researched different software vendors before it opted for an updated CIS. "We ultimately decided to do an upgrade to the software we had," VanDenBroeke said.

A new system would also have required scrapping much of the software packages already used by the computers in the county cars, Raser said. "We believed for the most part that the software we currently have upgraded would meet the needs of the sheriff's office," VanDenBroeke concluded.

 

 

Bill would keep felons off school buses

Published in the Chaska Herald                                                                 January 24, 2001
State Rep. Carol Molnau (R-Chaska) has introduced a bill at the state legislature to keep people who have committed sex crimes against children from being employed to drive school buses.
Recent incidents involving school bus drivers with sex crimes records prompted Molnau's action.

Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight spoke in support of the legislation before the Legislature in St. Paul Tuesday morning.

The legislation (House File No. 57) adds a number of sex crimes against minors to the list of offenses that prevent people from driving school buses:

* Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Fifth Degree (i.e. non-consensual sexual conduct, masturbations, or lewd acts in the presence of minors under 16.

* Interference with privacy (i.e. "Peeping Toms")

* Use of Minors in Sexual Performance (i.e. child pornography)

* Possession of Pornographic Work involving Minors (i.e. possession of child pornography); and

* Dissemination and Display of Harmful Materials to Minors (i.e. selling pornography to minors or displaying pornography in the presence of minors).

"Pedophiles shouldn't be driving our children to school," said Molnau. "This is common-sense legislation that should be passed into law immediately."

Molnau presented the bill to the House Transportation Policy Committee. If the bill becomes law, it would become effective Aug. 1, 2001 and would apply to school bus endorsements issues on and after that date.

Molnau has been named a 2000 Honoree of the Legislative Evaluation Assembly of Minnesota (LEA), a non-partisan organization established to keep the citizens informed of the voting performance of each senator and representative in the state legislature.

Molnau is one of only 15 members in the 134-member House of Representatives to win the award. She has been so honored every year since 1992 when she was first elected.