Mike Winkels
Mike Winkels has been in law enforcement for 24 years and works with about 130 children with the D.A.R.E. program in Hills-Beaver Creek and Luverne schools.
Those contacts, he said, keep him connected with parents and young people and help bridge law enforcement and the community.
He thinks it's appropriate for the community to be involved in setting agendas or general goals for the department, with the sheriff, as an elected person, leading the department through those goals.
The philosophy of community policing, Winkels said, has been present in the Rock County Sheriff's Department in some capacity. The recent and ongoing training will help formulate specific ways to make it more complete though.
"We need to be better about getting information back to people and get out and talk and meet people," he said. "But some were already following up on things on their own."
Winkels said he's made good contacts in the community since he's lived here. "I had young kids when I moved to Luverne and I think that helped."
People got to see and know him outside his capacity as a law enforcement officer. For example, he developed relationships with children competing in sporting events with his children, who are now adults in the community.
Winkels said he supports adding an additional officer to the department to help ease logistical challenges like covering vacation times.
He also said the sheriff shouldn't spend as much time transporting prisoners, as the current arrangement is.
"Transports don't have to be done by non-sworn officers. A sheriff needs to be around more," Winkels said.
He'd like to see the department utilize part-time officers, non-sworn employees or volunteers to help the sheriff's department run more efficiently.
Winkels acknowledges the drug problem in the community, but adds that drugs, to some extent, have always been a problem.
"Parents can't allow risky behavior, like smoking cigarettes at home," Winkels said, because it can escalate to larger problems.
Theft and property crime are often related to drug use and supporting habits, Winkels said. But even with that activity locally, he points out that violent crime is low in Rock County and that people should generally feel safe.
Winkels said the department is always checking on leads from the community. He said officers stop suspicious vehicles on traffic violations, ask where they are coming from or going to, but stay within the law to avoid civil rights violations.
Ongoing investigations take time to develop into solid arrests, he said.
