I did not attend the Snoop Dogg concert last night, but I heard it was quite ‘smoky’ in the Denty. The SFPD released this statement;
Sioux Falls Public Information Officer Sam Clemens said that the police department did not receive any calls of drug use at the PREMIER Center during Tuesday’s show and there were no arrests made.
I guess he went on to say that there have also been no arrests made in the Tuthill ghost shooter event and the Gilberto’s incident. ‘At this time our concentration is just on arresting city employees’ (snarc).
Yesterday I received a campaign postcard from TenHaken in which he was endorsed by former Police Chiefs Barthel and Burns.
Besides the fact the Barthel never worked for him and Burns was hired by Huether, the postcard came off very partisan;
• Stood first against a national narrative and provided proper funding and unwavering support for Sioux Falls law enforcement.
The defund the police movement had nothing to do with actually defunding police departments. It has been debunked several times. It has to do with redirecting police funds for preventive crime measures and training officers on diversity issues and better deescalation efforts. If anything it would expand police departments by adding other services and counselors.
It’s just a right-winger partisan talking point like CRT (which is actually a law-school college level course on civil rights suits). Nobody wants to defund the police, including the most vulnerable like minorities in poorer neighborhoods. And it has never been a discussion in Sioux Falls. The only thing debated is whether they should get overtime for running parades which brings us to who actually approves the funding for the SFPD, the city council NOT the mayor.
He also brags about stealing an idea from his former opponent by renaming it;
• Opened the city’s first Police Department remote report-to-work location.
C’mon Poops! You are NOT fooling anyone with all your fancy name changes. If it walks like a duck, it’s a precinct. One of the dumbest things he has ever came up with. Also, he acts like we are NY City and that the officers can’t bother themselves by checking in at the main law enforcement center. You can get anywhere in Sioux Falls in about 17 minutes max.
Is using taxpayer resources again to campaign for re-election a crime?
Stormland TV actually did an interesting story comparing the crime rates of Sioux Falls to Lincoln, NE and Overland Park, KS.
While our mayor and police chief (and mayors and police chiefs before them) have been saying our crime rate grows with population, there is a different story in other towns, also factor in Lincoln has about 100K more people and they have around half the incidents that we do.
Why is that? Well I attribute it to having a community conversation when hiring a police chief instead of a fashion competition.
This is certainly newsworthy, if you watched the police briefing today you will notice that there wasn’t any crimes committed over the past day. Any questions?
While there has certainly a lot of talk about looking at hiring practices for SFPD I am NOT sure that is the bigger issue. I think our police force needs, no deserves, better ongoing training. Not only in diversity and criminal justice, but also integrity and ethics. I personally think that consistent and frequent training of our officers would produce better officers in the long run.
The City of Sioux Falls, Mayor Paul Ten Haken, and Police Chief Thum must immediately begin the process to seek accreditation for the Sioux Falls Police Department. It’s not enough for city leaders to simply say they’re “angry” about the recent arrests of officers – we expect a plan of action, and in my opinion, that begins with ensuring our department implements best practices, including independent oversight and auditing. Accreditation alone won’t solve every issue or prevent every case of misconduct, but it should drastically improve the culture within the department and establish standards for excellence. Everyone stands to gain from accreditation, including the Chief, officers, and community members.
Accreditation helps police departments operate more professionally, justify their operations, and promote trust in their community. Most accrediting programs require agencies to assess high-liability areas of their operations, provide officers with more training, and hold officers accountable for policy and training compliance. Accreditation also promotes transparency and self-reflection within an agency, which fosters a culture of accountability. When an agency enrolls in an accreditation process, they are committing to excellence in leadership, resource management, and delivery of services.
Recently at Amir Locke’s funeral in Minneapolis, his Aunt spoke out about police and the job they have. While most of her eulogy embraced how police treat young black men, she did touch on something (FF 40:50) that got me thinking when it comes to ALL police officers ‘We don’t want to hear about being a police officer is a difficult job . . . You were NOT drafted into the police department. You chose that profession.’
Her statement is poignant, because she is absolutely correct. Deciding to take a career in policing is your choice. And if you make that choice, you have to live up to a certain code of conduct, on and off the job.
Trust me, I am not putting this all on a person who chooses the profession. Anybody that works for the tax payers should feel safe, but that safety only comes from being well-trained and professional.
So far 3 Sioux Falls officers have been arrested over the past 6 weeks or so, there may be more, no one knows for sure, even Lincoln County State’s Attorney Wollman was uncertain if more arrests would be made due to officer Jock allegedly distributing child porn videos.
But there is a bigger gorilla in this mess, LACK OF LEADERSHIP!
I have been warning for quite awhile that our city leaders have been on cruise control and only focused on handouts to big donors (mostly massive tax breaks for developers and insider land deals) instead of the day to day operations of the city.
The city charter clearly states the role of the Mayor (City Manager);
§ 31.002 POWERS OF THE MAYOR. The mayor shall have the power to prescribe executive orders for an interim successor and for the creation of departments of the administration, as provided in city charter §§ 2.03 and 4.01. The mayor shall also have the power to prescribe rules and regulations that the mayor deems necessary or expedient for the conduct of employees in departments and administrative agencies subject to his or her authority. The mayor shall have the power to revoke, suspend or amend any executive order, provided the executive orders do not conflict with city charter or ordinance. All executive orders shall be filed with the city clerk.
That middle sentence is important, because that is ultimately his ONLY duty as mayor, and Poops has failed miserably. In fact you could argue it is a dereliction of duty. While he is off in the weeds worrying about policy making (the job of the council) he has done very little to lift up the SFPD or even regular city employees who have to go begging for an inflation bonus.
Just look at the list of directors or managers that have either quit on their own, were terminated or retired in 3 short years;
• TWO Fire Chiefs
• Police Chief
• Planning Director
• Deputy Chief of Staff
• Housing Director
• Building Services Manager
• Innovation Manager
• The FIRST and ONLY Chief Cultural Officer (this was the supposed important one he needed to get the city employees inline with his imaginary initiatives)
• Health Director and one Assistant Health Director
I may have missed a few.
I don’t think the city has a hiring problem when it comes to selecting new officers, they have an ongoing training problem, and I am not sure this Mayor and Police Chief are cut out for it. As I said in public input during Tuesday’s meeting, ‘Politicians get angry when they get caught.’ TenHaken got caught not running the city and the police department properly and all the crocodile tears in the world won’t fix it.
l3wis 
