South DaCola

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SFPD Sioux Falls

More Closed Government in Sioux Falls

l3wis 2Comments

I didn’t watch the police briefing on Tuesday over a long holiday weekend. Since the SFPD public info officer doesn’t usually tell us what is going on, I really don’t watch them anymore. If I wanted to listen to someone telling me nothing I would tune into the Greg Belfrage show. A concerned citizen told me yesterday they tuned in because of an incident in their neighborhood around 1 AM Sunday. If you look at the police log all that is listed was a weapons violation and a case report. The citizen tells me it was much deeper than that. Apparently some juveniles were drinking and shooting guns at a party. Did we not learn anything from the kids who wrecked their car on 18th street last year? I guess not. This would have been a great opportunity to alert the public about teenage drinking parties where guns are involved and ask the public for their help stopping these kind of incidents. I understand you can’t name the juveniles involved but you can certainly chastise and CHARGE the adults that are assisting in providing these kids a place to raise hell. Why wouldn’t you say something? I will say it again; OPEN GOVERNMENT = PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT. I guess the SFPD is doing such a whiz bang job these days they don’t even bother to tell us about who is committing crimes in our community because they have it handled. Sure. U Betcha!

Mayor TenHaken SFPD Sioux Falls

Should Police Chief Thum be terminated?

l3wis 7Comments

I wasn’t making the suggestion, but a friend and I were discussing all the murders in Sioux Falls over the past year and he suggested it.

I actually defended the police on one aspect, they have no idea domestic disputes are occurring in private residences unless someone reports it, so prevention of domestic violence is a tough one to tackle and actually takes the work of many non-profits in our community.

But I can’t defend the police when these murders occur in open spaces like a public park.

I think Thum has done a good job of trying to clean up a department that has morale issues, BUT he needs to UP the patrols of the officers. Several of these murders were preventable because they occurred in public spaces.

Just look at the Dunham Park incident. Nobody called the incident in while the physical fight was occurring in the middle of the afternoon in a park surrounded by apartments? C’mon!

I’ve said since the city’s covid lockdown SOME city employees haven’t really changed their habits of laziness. I have often said that ALL city employees need to have there workflows annually inspected, and if they are NOT up to par, lay them off. It would be harder to fire them do to how a Union works, but you could lay people off due to budgetary reasons. In other words cutting payroll so the mayor would have NO choice but to lay people off. Now while the mayor has the power to hire and fire whoever he wants to without interference from the council, the council does set the budget and they could slash payroll and leave it up to the mayor to cut the fat.

And the mayor’s lack of effective employee leadership is contributing to the problem. When your a city employee busting your butt filling potholes and you see the mayor that makes 5x what you do doing jumping jacks at an elementary school in the middle of the morning, it makes you not want to fill those potholes very fast. And cute little challenge coins don’t mean nothin’.

I have often said city employees are an INVESTMENT and we should make sure that INVESTMENT is working for us. So whether that is a parks worker or a patrol officer we need to give them all the tools to be successful and effective.

Crime Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless Mayor TenHaken SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

It was only a matter of time

l3wis 3Comments

I warned some city councilors several months ago that with the increase of transients in Sioux Falls, things like this would occur;

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A 32-year-old Sioux Falls man has now been indicted on murder charges after a man he allegedly assaulted passed away from his injuries.

Robin Swallow was indicted by the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office on Wednesday for murder in the first degree and one alternative count of murder in the second degree.

The incident occurred on September 22 near 12th Street and Cleveland Avenue in Sioux Falls.

A group of people were drinking in an area of trees when an altercation occurred.

A 64-year-old man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and Swallow was arrested for aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery and a parole violation.

The victim has been identified as Michael Raymond Colvin of Sioux Falls. Police said Colvin was hospitalized for several weeks and ultimately passed away. After an autopsy, Colvin’s death was ruled a homicide.

The troubling part is what if an innocent bystander happened upon this? Would they have been safe? The ‘transient’ problem we have in Sioux Falls isn’t just about addicts wandering our streets aimlessly it’s about a city government and police department that have stood their ground in NOT helping to MANAGE the issue, and also NOT filling us in. Why does the SFPD have a public information officer if that officer doesn’t tell us anything?!

It’s time the City Council had a serious working session to discuss a long term strategy on how to MANAGE the issue before more people end up dead.

Downtown Sioux Falls Open Government Open Meetings SFPD Sioux Falls

Lunch with Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum

l3wis 3Comments

I actually didn’t have lunch with the chief, but he was addressing the Breakfast Club today at NOON at the City’s admin building where I was the only citizen in attendance at the beginning (it’s mostly elected officials from the region that show up to these monthly get togethers). I go for the free lunch 🙂

Thum said that officers with more experience dealing with people and managing situations are better officers then those with degrees in criminal justice. While I believe him, I asked him this question, “I want officers to have at least a 2 year degree in criminal justice because I want officers to know the LAW when they are responding to a situation. Thum did confess he would like officers with experience in both areas, but prefers officers with people skills over law knowledge. His excuse was different laws in different jurisdictions. Well guess what? Officers should know the laws they are enforcing. I think the Chief should be focusing on hiring people with both skill sets and not just settling for mediocre. I got the feeling from his response that Thum is trying to fill a quota, and he doesn’t seem to care how he fills that quota, bodies on the street scenario.

The above picture is an officer hiding behind a utility box on private property of a local manufacturer I took a few days ago. Wondering if this is one of his ‘people person’ officers? I don’t have a problem with officers taking breaks, but they should be in a public parking lot or at the precinct.

I also presented this question to Thum, “I want to address shutting off the scanners. I researched the Federal regulations and it is well within your right to turn the scanners completely off (Thum nods) but the suggestion from the Feds is to only turn them off for sensitive situations like wellness checks, overdoses, domestic, etc. So I want to set up a scenario for you. We had a train derailment downtown a few years ago. Luckily it was just corn and it didn’t knock over the viaduct, but these same trains carry tons of chemicals thru downtown every day. What if it derails again and there is a massive chemical spill and you have to evacuate thousands of people from downtown. How will you get that info to the public in a timely manner if the scanners are shutoff?”

He did say the Fire Department has a notification system (not sure what that is) and that they TEXT people. I can tell you that downtown is full of older homes with poorer elderly people living in them, they likely don’t have cell phones. I wasn’t really satisfied with his answer. I often tell folks, once we have open government a lot of these issues disappear in the night, but I don’t think Thum gets it.

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