Over his term as sheriff, Bob Kindler has improved the training for the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, and as a result, he has improved the quality of service the citizens receive.  He has taken the previous training budget of around $34,000 and increased it to over $70,000, all while staying inside the budget approved by the county commissioners.

Four different deputies have attended field training officer (FTO) school — something that was never done under any previous sheriff. An official FTO program was started and new hires now undergo a 14-week FTO program. This provides for better-trained deputies after they are initially hired. FTO programs have been the standard in law enforcement for years, but Sheriff Kindler brought it to Freeborn County. Patrol deputies also attended schools to become trainers in areas such as: use of force instructor, Taser instructor and firearms instructor. Training in-house brings down overall costs to the Sheriff’s Office.

Patrol deputies have attended extra trainings such as: vehicle contraband training, stalking training, strategies for recorded interviews, impact of digital evidence, drug investigations, DEA narcotics school, financial exploitation on the Web, crime scene processing, Crime Alert Network, truck weight enforcement, suicide prevention, pipeline safety, basic arson investigations, advanced criminal patrol tactics, interview and interrogations, ground fighting, civil process, active shooter, CornerHouse interviews, missing persons training, vice prostitution and human trafficking and the National Gang Conference.

The chief deputy, patrol sergeants and investigators have had training in areas like: agriculture emergency training, identity theft training, crisis emergency management, advanced arson investigations, interview and interrogation, sovereign citizens, CornerHouse interviews, employee misconduct and domestics, Homeland Security training, supervision and management series and senior management series.

Sheriff Kindler and Chief Deputy Glen Strom have formed a partnership with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Because of that new partnership, classes were held at the Freeborn County Courthouse. By providing the BCA with our facilities, we were offered spots in the classes free of charge. As a result, the patrol sergeants as well as the jail sergeants were able to take the classes and graduate from the Supervision and Management Series.  The Albert Lea Police Department also benefited and was able to have multiple people attend because of the accessibility of the classes.

The previous lists of trainings are not all encompassing. There is more training that I have not mentioned and, of course, all the previously mentioned training is in addition to any “mandatory” training.

Sheriff Kindler has done a commendable job as the Freeborn County sheriff over the last 3 1/2 years. He is managing his personnel well, recognizing their talents and setting them up to succeed by providing them with the proper training and equipment. Sheriff Kindler is doing that with in the approved budget. Sheriff Kindler is not just leading today’s Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, he is also strategically implementing a plan for it to succeed in the future.  There is no reason to change sheriffs. I will be voting to re-elect Bob Kindler as Freeborn County Sheriff.

 

Ryan Shea

Albert Lea