Berghuis bids farewell to Police Department after 33 years

Kasson Police Chief Kent Berghuis, who is retiring the end of June, grew up in Marshall, where his parents were on the school faculty. He participated in football, some wrestling and was a member of the DeMolay youth organization in the community, plus he liked hunting and fishing.   
He then attended Alexandria Technical School as this was the premier school to become involved with police work, and still is today, he said.   Berghuis said it was similar to being in the military as they had regular inspections, PT, shined shoes and strictly enforced rules. This did not work out for a handful of the students to finish.  
He applied to be a part time police officer in his home town of Marshall and was offered a tentative position if he passed the law enforcement board tests.  He did and held the position for about 1-1/2 years before being hired full time by Kasson.
The Kasson Police Department had an opening so he applied and was later contacted by then Police Chief Dave Johnson for an interview; later, after a short and informal interview, he was offered a full time job in November 1987. 
There were five officers on the Kasson Police force so being the new guy his role was the night shift. Eventually he was moved to split shift switching between mid evening and overnight. When promoted to Sergeant his duties still remained mainly patrol.
Later in his career, he was named assistant police chief but still had patrol duties along with taking on a more administrative role when the police chief was not around.  
Eventually Kent was appointed police chief and took over the position from Ken Schuck in August 2016 when he retired.   
For many years the police department was located on the ground level of the old Kasson City Hall on Main Street.  
Kent mentioned since their evidence room was located in a closet, which had the boiler pipes running through it, many times their liquid evidence samples would evaporate from the heat. He laughed that for most cases it was not that big of a deal.   
Kasson was a smaller community of about 2,800 people when he arrived 33 years ago.  Kent said that he liked the nights better for driving around as the town seemed bigger, but when he moved to days he said it seemed to be a much smaller place.
Some kids will say when they grow up they want to be a fireman, policeman, etc., but he doesn’t remember really thinking that much about it.  After each Sunday church service his parents would stay for the coffee hour to talk to others so one day he got tired and upset of being there so he walked home. The door was locked which was unusual and he didn’t have a key so he kicked the door in like you see on the TV shows. When his parents arrived home he made up an excuse, but later on confessed about what happened.  
His mother, Lana, would confess later, that “I knew you would become a police officer.” An influence while growing up in Marshall, was his good friend’s father, who was a sergeant on the Marshall police force.  Sgt.Nelson would look so sharp in his uniform and he liked to hunt and shoot guns just like Kent liked to do.   Sgt. Nelson later put in a good word for Kent and helped him get his first law enforcement job with Marshall after Kent finished school.
Working in law enforcement has its positive and negative days, he said.   A couple of incidents that were tough, was when he was first on the scene of a house fire when the mother and child could not be rescued.  He felt really helpless standing there and watching the billows of smoke come from the upstairs windows knowing that mother and child were in that room, he said.  
Another was when an officer on his staff was involved with felony criminal activity and he was arrested and was later sent to prison. That was hard on Kent and the other officers on the department, though he says that the city residents stood strong and supportive for the department. 
He has been involved in numerous successful suicide calls and while he while he feels bad for the victims, he really has sympathy for the family members and friends left behind and that is the true tragedy of the act, he said.
During a big snowstorm, he was unable to drive the police car because of the deep snow so he commandeered a Kasson pickup truck with a plow and cleared out a path so the ambulance could make a run for a medical situation. He also plowed some streets while making the rounds and even had an arrest for drunk driving that night. 
Since his brother Ryan also worked for the Dodge County Sheriff's Office as a dispatcher his brother wanted to ride along one night. Kent was happy that he was riding along that night as he had pursued a snowmobileand they chased down a suspect who was fleeing on the snowmobile. Like in the old Westerns, Kent jumped out of his car then ran and tackled the person off the snowmobile. 
He was really glad his brother was along at the time as the guy was resisting and was a known drug user high on something.  One night he and another officer entered a building with an open door and while searching the dark rooms with flash lights and heading down stairs into the basement the other fellow yanked on the ceiling light pull chain and it sounded just like someone racking a shotgun so Kent whipped out his pistol immediately. He said that caused a pucker factor.    
Kent was a firearms instructor, use of force, chemical, ASP, baton instructor for the city and county staff and trained them on many types of weapons for many years. Kent says that he enjoyed training the other officers and especially liked working and training with his friend Deputy Loring Guenther of the Dodge County Sheriff's Office who has since passed away. Since police staff need to carry guns, tasers and other items that might weigh 20 lbs. they are now starting to wear a vest rather than carry everything on just the belt as it is easier to remove especially during the warm summer months and puts less strain on the lower back.  
He has been hands on working with the computer equipment and setting up the office network, so he feels he has helped to save money for the city by also using this skill to keep things operating efficiently.
His wife Bev, works for Mayo in the engineering department, while his youngest son, Brad, is now in Colorado working for Bankers Life. Daughter Brianna also works for Mayo and Steven the oldest, just started a new job in Rochester. 
So he said they are now empty nesters and enjoying the house to themselves. He really likes to golf, and enjoys trout fishing especially since they do a lot of camping and biking in the Lanesboro area. He is also a member of the K-M Lions. Another hobby is photography and he has taken some high school senior photos, but doesn’t want to get involved with wedding photography.
His parents, Larry and Lana Berghuis, moved to Mantorville many years ago after dad had retired from being a elementary principal in Marshall to be closer to the kids and grandchildren. His brother Ryan and only sibling lives in Dodge Center.  
One of the many influences his parents had on him, Kent said, was to care about people and that has really been part of his job plus his priority has been to help and protect people in need.  
As most of us say when leaving a job, he will miss the people he works with plus hanging out with the guys.
“We have a great department, with people who care very much about the community and do the very best they can to serve.  It has been great working all these years with the residents of Kasson. We have a great community with great people,” he said, many of whom he now calls friends.