Thursday, March 28, 2024

Accomplishments of Sheriff’s Office are many

For nearly seven-and-a-half years now, our staff has worked diligently to serve our citizens within Dodge County. We couldn’t be prouder of the accomplishments and improvements they’ve made in every department in our office. Together, our staff has worked to improve procedures, equipment, training, and staff safety.

Our team developed the area’s first courthouse security program with weapons screening to keep our county staff and those citizens visiting our courthouse safe. Our Chaplains Program was the first of its kind in Southeast Minnesota to help support our first responders and citizens through times of crisis.

Our Peer Support Program was then developed as a wellness program to assist our staff and first responders struggling with the stress of this challenging career. Our 911 Emergency Dispatch Center is recognized by many as one of the area’s most state-of-the-art call centers. Our Emergency Management team has been recognized multiple times by the state of Minnesota for their incredible work during times of crisis. These are just a few of the many accomplishments over the past several years in our office.

You’ll notice there is no “I” or “me” in the accomplishments listed above — It’s “we” and “our.” When I was elected back in 2014, I came out of Investigations. I had never worked in administration here and was not even close to being the most senior deputy here.

There were many in every department who had more experience than me in nearly every aspect of this career. They are the ones to credit for the success we’ve had over the past seven-and-a-half years. My responsibility was simply to give them access to the tools, training, and support needed for them to feel confident to use their collective years of experience to accomplish these successes — essentially to help set them up for success and get out of their way.

Leadership isn’t about how far you advance yourself, it’s all about how far you advance others. It’s been very exciting to see, with the right tools and encouragement, our team working together and accomplishing some pretty major goals and improvements over the past seven-and-a-half years. Even more exciting is to see our employees learning and growing — developing into our future leaders.

For me, that’s probably one of the greatest experiences as sheriff — to be in a position to help those who are willing to work hard and grow to develop into our future leaders. Leadership is all about producing more leaders, not more followers.

I’m not your typical sheriff. While I respect other sheriffs that wear the white shirt, that’s just not me. White shirts in law enforcement signify command-level staff, making it easy to identify them over the rank and file.

The men and women out there making a difference, our rank and file, wear brown uniforms. When I’m out there working with them, I wear brown. When we are out on the street, we are all doing the same job, taking the same risks.

I’ll wear white for formal events, memorials, and with some media interviews but that’s about it. If you come to see me in my office, you’ll see I’m almost always dressed casually. I want you to feel comfortable visiting our office and talking to me and our staff anytime you need help.

It’s been humbling to serve as your sheriff for the last seven-and-a-half years. It’s been an honor to serve alongside such an amazing staff — in administration, investigations, patrol, dispatch, court security, and records, also the amazing volunteers who serve in our Sheriff’s Posse and Chaplain Program.

While we’ve accomplished a great deal over the last several years, I believe there are still a few things to accomplish before I retire from this incredible profession. It would be a privilege and an honor to serve one more term as your sheriff here in Dodge County.

Our focus in the next four years will be to fine-tune the systems and programs we’ve put into place, and develop the next group of leaders within our organization to carry us on as we adapt to ever-changing circumstances, whether it’s changing requirements in the law, changes in our environment and our training, or societal shifts that require an evolution in our profession. Recognizing that our greatest measure of success is the satisfaction of those we serve, I want to make sure the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office continues to meet and exceed your expectations.

Thank you for allowing me to serve these past two terms as your sheriff. I would love the opportunity to serve one more term for Dodge County, and humbly ask for your support in November.

Your Sheriff, Scott

 

Dodge County Independent

Dodge County Independent
Dodge County ADvantage
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

Dodge County Printing
301 S. Mantorville Ave.
Plaza 57 • Suite 200
Kasson, MN 55944

507-634-7503
 
Hours: 
Monday-Thursday 10a.m.-3p.m.