SFPD

Looks like the Police were jealous someone else was getting a FREE meal

l3wis August 18, 2015 4Comments

When I see photos like this, I often wonder why we need to hire more police. Five patrol cars respond to a stolen sandwich. I have often said we needÂ to focus on ‘quality’ over ‘quantity’ when it comes to our officers. We need to have a police force that focuses on being proactive on crime instead of sitting around in their cars waiting for someone to steal a sandwich.

My guess is that the cops wanted to search the car for drugs when all they found was a club sub.

SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

Hotter than a Pepper Sprout

l3wis August 13, 2015 7Comments

Holy Moly, that was fast;

The next Sioux Falls Police Chief will be Lt. Matt Burns.

Mayor Mike Huether named Burns to take over the department once current Chief Doug Barthel retires.Â Barthel announced last week that he will retire in October.

Burns is a 19-year veteran of the Sioux Falls Police Department.Â He was promoted to assistant police chief earlier in the year.

Huether hopes that Burns will be able to work closely with Barthel in the coming months and learn what he can from the outgoing chief.

The city council must approve of the nomination.

Just a few months ago, Matt was promoted to Assistant Chief, now just a week after Barthel’s retirement announcement, Matt is promoted again. And as I understand it, the city council wasn’t told about the promotion until minutes before the 10:30 police briefing today where it was announced.

Well it seems like most things â€˜Huether’ another decision ram-rodded through? But it also makes you wonder if this has been in the works for months? Nothing against Matt, I’m sure he will do a fine job, but some may be wondering why not a national search? Especially with crime soaring over the past week (ironically since Barthel’s announcement where the mayor accused â€˜naysayers’ of blowing the crime growth out of proportion) we have had stabbings, shootings, a physical attack, widespread vandalism, and home invasions (in almost every zone of the city). Seems Matt may have his work cut out for him.

Once again though, the mayor denies transparency to his legislative branch and ram rods something through. Screw the naysayers.

Sanford Hospital SFPD

What are your feelings on the Police Chief Barthel retiring and working for Sanford?

l3wis August 5, 2015 7Comments

And I thought I was going to miss out on the free lunches in my retirement.

I’m not sure what to think of our Police Chief going to work for Sanford;

After more than 12 years on the job, Sioux Falls Police Chief Doug Barthel has announced his retirement.

Barthel made the announcement Wednesday at the police’s daily media briefing, with Mayor Mike Huether by his side.

Barthel has served as a police officer more than 30 years. He has spent 12 years as Chief, making him the second-longest serving Police Chief in the history of Sioux Falls.

Huether credits Barthel with making the department more transparent, as well as improving community relations.

Barthel says he has accepted a position with Sanford Health as director of community relations.

I missed the press conference, but I guess the mayor gave Barthel credit for basically covering up the increase in crime rates in our city during the last mayoral election campaign. I guess Huether’s version of transparency is being able to sucker the public about statistics to help his re-election campaign. Oh, and we also don’t have access to any evidence from the night of the Tuthill shooting incident. Thanks.

I had heard rumors that Barthel was considering this retirement after assistant chief Lyons announced hers, which is no surprise after 30 years of service, but I’m surprised he is getting such a high profile job. I’m sure his pension from the city is very nice, and I don’t have an issue with him working after retirement, but it almost seems like a golden parachute handed to him from the mayor and his buddies at Sanford and First Premier for being a good soldier (Huether likes to reward his loyalist boot lickers with substantial raises and other perks (on our dime), it’s evident who follows orders and who rocks the boat when you look at the salary increases for management over the past 5 years) Well at least this time, Sanford will be footing the bill.

It also gives Sanford an edge over Avera when dealing with city police issues having an insider on their team, smart move by them, ethically questionable move by Barthel, but hey, we don’t have any ethics rules for public service in this state so what can we do about it? Also, to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t even know what ethics he would be violating? (I guess it is kind of hard to come up with something when no standards exist to begin with).

I wonder if he will continue to get free meals?

SFPD Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Nothing to see in Heritage Park, move along

l3wis August 4, 2015 5Comments

Seems Heritage Park still has some trouble;

Complaint calls about Heritage Park have ranged from illegal use of alcohol to fights, and even public urination. It’s a situation that has property owners in the area fed up.

We spoke with Dwaine Thill who owns two houses across the street from Heritage Park, and he says the indecent and illegal behavior at Heritage Park is only getting worse. He feels the close proximity to the Bishop Dudley House is leading to an increase of people at the park. Thill says he’s concerned not only for his property, but keeping his tenants as well.

Photos taken from a neighbor in the area show people drinking alcohol and even urinating on her property.

“It’s the scrud of the city, coming over here and they have a place to congregate, drink, shoot up, and whatever else they want to do out there,” Property Owner Dwaine Thill said.

But not according to the SFPD. Just ignore the number of calls, the neighbors, the violations and that we have a homeless shelter close by;

In June and July, police responded to 141 calls at the park. Â Even though the crimes at the park are minor, Clemens says police are keeping an eye on the area to prevent any dangerous situations. While some people are calling Heritage Park the new Van Eps Park, Clemens says this isn’t the case.

I think Mr. Thill has the best suggestion to fixing the problem;

Even so, Thill wants the city to do something about it.

“If the mayor wants to have them up in his area, more power to him. I’d like to have him live beside them awhile,” Thill said.

The streets in that neighborhood are so nice, the homeless would be scared to walk on them.

Event Center SFPD Sioux Falls

The ‘Tuthill’ ghost and Events Center siding have a lot in common

l3wis July 20, 2015 10Comments

Just like that, the siding will be fixed, just as soon as you catch me!

Is it time the SFPD comes clean on the Tuthill shooting incident?

Maybe it is time they tell us ‘what’ or ‘if’ anything happened that night.

As I have mentioned in the past, the chief of police, Doug Barthel has said that certain types of evidence wouldn’t be released because he believed ‘it wouldn’t help solve the case.’

Guess what Doug, you haven’t solved it yet, maybe it is time to release the evidence?

Let me start by saying that I think the SFPD has been very successful over this past year solving crimes. Drug busts, murders, prostitution and robberies, within a few days. Heck, they even caught a graffiti artist (and those guys are sneaky 🙂

Where I am going with this? Doesn’t anyone think it is strange that the police department has been so successful solving many of these difficult crimes but they can’t find the Tuthill mystery person who was shot at on the night of New Year’s Day?

As I have said in the past, I do believe the officer saw ‘something’. But what we don’t know is ‘what’. There was an internal investigation (The county sheriff’s office and DCI did not investigate), NO audio was released to the public from his body audio recorder, a crime scene map has not been released to the public and a reward has been offered.

Ironically, this case is a lot like the Events Center siding issue, the public has only been given ‘tidbits’ but nothing concrete. Maybe the city could keep press conference costs down, they could tell us about the Tuthill cold case the same time they tell us what is going on with the siding.

Let’s face it, the EC siding issue is an embarrassment to the administration and the Tuthill shooting incident is an embarrassment to the police department. They will go away, quietly in the night, no pun intended.

Looks like the Police were jealous someone else was getting a FREE meal

Hotter than a Pepper Sprout

What are your feelings on the Police Chief Barthel retiring and working for Sanford?

Nothing to see in Heritage Park, move along

The ‘Tuthill’ ghost and Events Center siding have a lot in common

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