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April 17, 2024 35 mins

Season 1, Episode 3: Indianola Police Chief Brian Sher joins "Indy Unplugged" for an insightful conversation that highlights his 30-year journey with the Indianola Police Department and how the City of Indianola has evolved over the years, his passion for Indianola, community policing and how IPD prioritizes community outreach just as much as law enforcement, key moments in 2023 that IPD experienced, new technology initiatives, programs and so much more.

Fast-forward to a specific topic covered:

  • 00:00-00:41: Intro
  • 00:42-02:04: Welcome & Guest Backgrounds
  • 02:05-03:29: City Evolvement During 30-Year Career
  • 03:30-04:20: What Made You Choose & Stay In Indianola?
  • 04:21-08:12: Being Named Police Chief, Leading Department & Creating Opportunities
  • 08:13-10:51: IPD’s Approach to Community Policing
  • 10:52-12:35: Public Safety Chili Cookoff & Norwalk Office Jayson Spurr
  • 12:36-13:47: Structure of Indianola Police Department
  • 13:48-14:56: Top Qualities of a Successful IPD Employee
  • 14:57-17:53: Working Events in Indianola & Their Impact
  • 17:54-20:10: How Has Technology Shifted The Department?
  • 20:11-23:42: New Cameras Appearing Along City Roads
  • 23:43-27:20: IPD’s School Resource Officer
  • 27:21-28:46: IPD’s DARE program
  • 28:47-30:05: IPD’s K9 program and Kilo
  • 30:06-31:20: Employee Recruitment & Staff Openings
  • 31:21-33:58: New Community Services Officer Position
  • 33:59-35:30: Closing
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to Indy Unplugged.
The podcast that’s your front-rowseat to the real talk of Indianola.
I'm Aaron Young, you're friendlyneighborhood host, and we're diving deep
into unfiltered stories, candid chatsand the nitty gritty of our vibrant city.
Think of this as a crash coursein all things Indianola.
No fancy jargon, just real conversations.

(00:33):
So get comfy,
hit that play buttonand let's explore the heart and soul
of our communitytogether on Indy Unplugged.
Welcome back to another episode
of Indy Unplugged,a City of Indianola podcast.
And today we're going to have
a wonderful conversation with our very ownChief of Police, Brian Sher.
Chief Sher,

(00:53):
how are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
I'm so happy to be here, Aaron.
I think these are wonderful.
You're doing a great job and I hope lotsof people get to listen to appreciate it.
Yeah.
I think the response so far
from the community on this podcasthas been overwhelmingly positive.
A lot of engagement from our community,
tuning inand listening to all these conversations.
And we're just at the beginningof so many great talking points

(01:17):
and so many great conversations
we're having collectivelythroughout the City of Indianola.
But you've been with the police departmentnow for roughly 30 years, right?
I'm in my 30th year,so yeah, I've been here a long time.
Just talk about the progressionof your career and just help people
get a better idea of who you areas a person and as a professional.

(01:37):
Absolutely.
So I'm a Hawkeye, graduatedfrom the University of Iowa in 1993.
Go Hawks.
From there,
I started applying placeslike a lot of young
people do when they wantto get into law enforcement.
So I applied in Indianolaand I applied at Clive.
And fortunately for me, Indianola calledfirst and I accepted the offer.

(01:59):
And I've been here ever since September15th, 1994 is when I started.
Just how much change or just how much hasthis town evolved over your 30 years?
I mean, that's a wholenother podcast we could talk about.
But, you know, aswe're getting into my career here,
you want to talk about things have changeddrastically in the last 30 years.

(02:21):
I remember when I first started,
the officers, the public did not knowI was a police officer.
I got hired to work undercoverfor as long as I could.
So from September to December,I worked undercover.
The chief of police and I had oneother contact with the sheriff's office,
with the only people that knewI was a police officer and my job at

(02:43):
the time was to gather intelligenceand purchase narcotics back in 1994.
The older generation herewill remember that
we used to have a terrible problem
with kids, narcoticsand alcohol on the Square.
There were hundreds and hundreds of kidsthat would gather there every weekend.

(03:04):
You know, you've got to remember,this is before podcasts. This is before
the Internet.
Really, this was before cell phonesand all that stuff.
So people were outsideand they would gather and
unfortunately, some illegalthings were going on at the time.
And I worked undercoverand gathered intelligence and made
lots of narcotics purchases beforeanyone even knew I was a police officer.

(03:27):
Wow, I mean, that's quite the story.
So then as you've kind of journeyedthrough, you know,
your police career,you became chief of police.
Was that always the goal throughoutstaying in one community
through your career to then kind of beat the top and leading the force?
Yeah, I mean,my goal has probably evolved over time.
I knew from the beginningthat I really love this town.

(03:51):
As people may not know, I'mfrom a suburb of Chicago,
Skokie, Illinois, 60,000 people plus.
I loved growing up there. I love my Cubs.
I love my Bulls.
I love my Blackhawks.
I love my Bears.
But I always felt like I was an Iowan.
I really did.
I'm an outdoors person and we can get intothat a little bit later.
I like to hunt, I like to fish,I like to golf.

(04:13):
I like to do the outdoors things.
And to do thatwhere I'm from was a lot more difficult.
Not impossible, but a lot more difficult.
When you became chief of police,what did that moment feel like to you
to kind of be, you know, leading the forceand leading the organization
that you've dedicated the bulk of yourlife to day in and day out?

(04:34):
Boy, that's a loaded question.
So what did it feel like?
So for the public to know, I've heldevery job at this police department,
every single job, including janitor,garbage taker, outer drywall.
Ah, every job.
You know, we do we do our own stuff.
We don't fleece the taxpayerswith stuff that we can do.

(04:55):
So, I mean, I've literally held every jobfrom patrol officer to for five years.
I was the Warren & Marion County Drug Task ForceCoordinator during the beginning
in the height of the methamphetaminelab issues.
Yeah, all the way to becoming the chief.
I mean, it was one of thegreatest achievements in my life.
I mean, it is besides my four kidsand my wife, it ranks right up there.

(05:19):
If you ask my wife someday,she'll she'll tell you it.
It ranks higher.
But we try not towe try to leave work at work,
but it doesn't always happenthat way.
So having kind of allthose various experiences
in terms of those different roleswithin the department, is that kind of the
the mantra,the tone that you try to set for officers

(05:41):
coming through their ranksto the department to be like, Hey,
there's a job that you can take advantageof if it impacts community and involves,
you know, their quality of life,you know, go for it.
When I became interim chiefand this was July of 2021,
we had a supervisors meetingand it wasn't at the office.
It was at my house.
I wanted to do something different.

(06:01):
I wanted to shake things up.
And we sat there and I wasI capped the meeting at 2 hours.
I said, okay, Rome wasn't built in a day.
We're not going to fix rearrange things.
In one meeting, 6 hours later,we were still there.
We had our whiteboard outand the guys were just
excited about the possibilitiesthat were here.

(06:22):
So if you don't know, we've lost a lot
of great officers to other agencies.Our only goal that meeting.
We had one goal and that waswhat can we do to retain people.
And so we created opportunities.
It wasn't about, you know,lots of more money or anything like that.
It was about creating opportunitiesfor people.

(06:43):
So what we did was we put a cap onhow long an officer
could be in the detective role – four years.
Then it rotates out.It gives someone else an opportunity.
SRO came about.
Well we're we're looking in nowwith the school district,
possibly for a second SRO. K-9program, drone program.
We've done a lot of things where peoplecan have ownership and opportunities

(07:06):
at the police department,so hopefully they stay.
You're really evolvingthe landscape of the opportunities
that officers have availableto take advantage of the even furthermore,
the community where they may not knowthat we have a drone program
or maybe they've lived under a rockand still don't know that we have
a, you know, a K-9 programwith the fundraising.
that’s gone through toto bring Kilo on board.

(07:27):
I think that's very cool.
I think it's in a way,it's also out-of-the-box
thinking to be creative with,you know, we are competitors
with our counterparts across the countyand even around central Iowa.
But, you know, there's plenty of thingsfor officers to take advantage of
and to grow their careerand to still make an impact
for the community right here in Indianola.Absolutely.
I mean, the sky is the limitand we're not done.

(07:48):
We're really just getting started.
You know, you talk about opportunities
and things have evolvedso much in the last couple of years
where you can do really what
you want to do within our umbrella
and have the autonomy and the freedomto do that, that sort of stuff.

(08:10):
It's been wonderful.
Yeah.
So when you think about the term “communitypolicing,”
which you know, you use regularly,what does that mean to you?
So community policing, communitypolicing can mean
a lot of different thingsdepending on where you're at.
Indianola is unique, as you know.
Aaron, you've worked here. What, six,eight months now?
Yeah, about there.

(08:31):
So Indianolais definitely a unique community.
What works here
may not work in Des Moines or WestDes Moines or one of the other suburbs.
So what we've done for communitypolicing is
we take initiativeto do different activities
and it is about for us giving back,you know, the motto is protect and serve.

(08:51):
We're really good at the protection partand we're getting so much better
at the serving part.
We do so many events throughout the yearthat, you know,
we give up a lot of our weekends,we give up a lot of our nights.
For an example, right now we have thePeacemakers vs. the Pacemakers.
It's a granny basketball game.
The entire department will be there.

(09:12):
And thisthis one is a fundraiser for our K-9 unit.
Now, it's very cool.
And you talk about just the differentexamples of that community outreach.
I mean, one that's even morerecent is with the the balloon patch sales
that were sold out within 3 hoursbecause of limited supplies.
And now the communityis asking the police department,

(09:33):
hey, when's the next round of opportunityto purchase
these going to be? Because I want toI want to get one.
So we have, I don't know, two dozendifferent badges that we've done.
You know,we'll talk about the balloon one
in a second.My favorite one is the Iowa-Iowa State.
So before the big game,the big football game, every year,
the officers get to decidewhich patch they want to wear.

(09:54):
And of course, I wear two Iowa patches.
I feel sorry for those Iowa State fans,but whatever.
And so so the bet this year was betweenmyself and Captain Hawkins
that the loser has to wear the winner'spatch on Monday.
And Rob proudly showed off his Hawkeyepatch on Monday.
So we have fun with it.

(10:15):
Getting back to the balloons.
Yeah, we had,I don't know, 30, 40 extra patches
and literally 3 hours they were gone.
There's more on order, folks.
We want to do what we can.
You know, the balloon museum, right?
That isone of the fixtures of this community.
It should be supported.

(10:35):
It should be supportedthe best we know how.
And yeah, 25 bucks a patch.
There's more coming and
100% of the proceeds are going to goso they can help rebuild.
They can help regainsome of the items they lost.
Yeah, such a cool way for that outreachand that support for a community partner
in needand even beyond Indianola. The police department
held the first Public Safety ChiliCookoff that with all those proceeds

(10:58):
supporting NorwalkPolice Department Officer Jayson Spurr, who
a few weeks ago had passed awayfrom his bout with cancer.
Just talk about,you know, that aspect where what
the Indinaola Police Departmentdoes isn't just within these lines.
The jurisdictional lines,but it's far beyond.
And it's far and it's in partnership
with our neighboring countiesand neighboring organizations as well. We

(11:22):
we wanted to do somethingfor one of our brothers who is sick.
And we sat down in a roomand came up with the Chili Cookoff.
At the Indianola Police Department,we don't care whose idea it is.
We don't operate that way.
I don't operate that way.
We took the word“I” out of our conversations.
We don't do that.
We decided Chili Cookoffwas the way to go.

(11:44):
And fortunately for us,we had a humongous turnout.
We raised over $6,000 for his family.
We wanted his family to concentrateon Jayson and not about bills,
not about worrying about stuff.
And 100% ofthose proceeds went to his family.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago, hepassed away, but he will not be forgotten.
He was beloved.

(12:05):
I mean, he was
Talk about community policing.
He would give his time to anyonewho asked.
I knew his brother reallywell when he worked
at the sheriff's departmentas the chief deputy.
It's just a great law enforcement family.
And that's... it's too bad
that a 46 year old has to die from cancer.

(12:27):
But, you know, he will not be forgotten.
We will not ever let his memorybe forgotten.
And what he did to that community,what he did for Warren County.
Transitioning gears now to the overallmakeup of the Indianola Police Department.
How many officers do we have on staff?
Who are the people that makethe organization what it is today?
So we realigned a little bitwhen I became police chief.

(12:51):
We now have a chief, a captain,two lieutenants and three sergeants,
and then the officersand the clerical staff.
So that is the makeupof our police department.
We have three shifts, obviously,and there's a sergeant
in charge of each shift.
All three of my sergeants are have a year
experience as a supervisorjust due to the upward mobility.

(13:12):
Because I got promoted, that meansthere's room for promotions below.
We have not a lot of experiencein the supervisor roles.
The captain was was the lieutenantfor about 12 years,
so he has a ton of supervisory experience.
Lieutenant Largesse has about thatas a sergeant.

(13:33):
So at the upper part, there's a lotof experience. When you move past that,
there is not as much experience.
But I tell you what, we promoted
three
people with great heads on their shouldersand they can learn from us.
What are those prime characteristicsthat you look
for in a successful leader

(13:53):
or just a successful employeewithin the department?
You got to work.
You know,we could think of all the mantras
and all the the sayings and everything,but the bottom line,
we've really simplified it.
It's do your job.
That's all it really comes down tois do your job.
If you do your joband you do your job well,

(14:15):
that's what I'm looking foras the next leaders of this department.
IPD is integrity,professionalism, dedication,
have the integrity to do the right thing,be professional at all times.
No matter what.
You know, I could sit here.
If this was a video show, I could show you
body camera footage after body camera
footage of officers getting berated, swornat that sort of thing.

(14:39):
And they maintain their professionalism.
They maintain their dignity.
They never took it to the level
where the person was misbehaving.
So, I mean, that's what's important.
Stay above it.
Do your job, go on to the next.
Are there any kind of memorableexperiences or shifts

(15:02):
that you yourself or just the departmentcollectively has held?
I know we do a number of different thingsfor at events, working security.
I mean, I've seen the photos,especially at Hinterland,
when we're supporting,you know, a neighboring community.
That's very cool.
What are some other thingsthat come to mind that you think of where
you know, again, Indianola is uniqueand you can do this?

(15:22):
Oh boy.
You know, thankfullywe're getting more and more events here.
I know Staci Scheurenbrandwith the balloons is a big proponent
of utilizingthe balloon field for other events
besides balloons is greatand they do wonderful.
And we're out there, too.
But using it for concerts,the financial impact.

(15:45):
I just had a conversationwith Staci this week,
so I know a little bitabout the financial impact for balloons.
The financial impact was north of $4million for a 10-day event.
But she also told me that
Knotfest two years ago,
one day, the financial impact,
I believe she told me, was $4.6 millionfor the community.

(16:07):
So we wholeheartedly support these events.
Yes. Are they are they taxing on us? Yes.
Are they
huge logistics issues? Yes.
But we're pretty good at logisticsand we love having these events.
Keep them coming. It'sgreat for the community.
It's great for the balloons.
And we have a great time at it.

(16:28):
And how actively involved is Indianola PD,we’ll even include Indianola Fire
and maybe some other cityagencies of kind of are those
pre-planning conversations, whether it be,you know, over at the balloons
or other event organizerswho want to host an event here in town?
Well, Aaron,you know the answer to that, right?
We just had a meeting last week,Spring Reverly coming May 4th.

(16:50):
And you know, everyone from the policechief, the fire chief
down to the communicationsdirector, because,
you know, we have things that are closedthat day, roads that are closed that day.
And it's importantto get the community on board
and give them the most accurateand timely information we can.
And while you are at those events, I mean,

(17:11):
obviously safety is that number onetop priority, right?
Absolutely. 100%.
I think it was last year or two years ago.
At Hinterland,there was a storm coming and the lightning
got within the parameters of timeto clear the event.
We had the event cleared in under 15minutes, had to clear
I think it was 15, 16,000 people outand then it passed

(17:35):
and we had to get them back in throughthe same way that they came in originally.
They had to go backthrough the magnetometers to make sure.
And so it was a safe event.
Yeah.
it just goes back to the importance
of that pre-planning because, you know,you have storm spotters,
you have all these different technologies,which I want to get to that, too.
With technologies.

(17:56):
How has technologyshifted throughout your career
when you first started to wherewe're at today with all the different
aspects
that you have to utilize as a departmentwithin your own vehicles and just
through investigations to some ofthe things that the community’s seen?
That is a wonderful questionbecause on my desk I keep my beeper.

(18:18):
So back in 1994, I had to keep abeeper on me 24 hours a day.
For those of youthat don't know what a beeper is,
it was a pager that would beep witha phone number that you had to call back.
So when I came to work, I had my beeperand I had a pocket full of quarters
because I never knewwhere I was going to be.
And I knew where all the payphoneswere throughout the county.

(18:40):
Because as leading the Warren &Marin County Drug Task Force,
I didn't sit at a desk. I was out.I was out surveilling.
I was out trying to get vehiclestop out watching places.
And my beeper would go offand I would have to find
the closest phone to make that call.
Could have been an informant.
It could have been something important.

(19:00):
So, I mean, that'show things have changed.
The police
chief was not allowed to liveoutside of the city when I first started.
But technology has come so far that,
you know,you got your cell phone and it's 24-7.
Anyone can get a hold of youat any time.
And just
what about the technology,
like within your vehiclesand what you guys are able to do

(19:22):
when you are conducting your businessand just how things
have just drastically changedfor the better to be more efficient.
Back in the ninetieswhen you arrested someone,
you wrote your citation,handwrote your citation out
and you wrote your probable causefor the arrest out and you handed it
to an administrative assistantand they would type it on the typewriter

(19:45):
and then you'd make copiesand that copy would have to go to jail
and a copy would have to go to our folder.
And then you go on to the next
boy. Have things changed
and everything?
We have computers in the car now.
Everything is computer generated that way.
It's it's amazing the changes.
I you know, I'm a dinosaurand I've seen all these changes

(20:07):
and we've keptwe have kept up with the technology.
One of the changes that the communityis seeing right now, and we've seen a lot
of active conversations both onlineand just in person, would be those cameras
that we're seeing on some of our roadwayshere in town.
Can you just shed some lightinto what those devices are
and kind ofwhat they're doing here?

(20:30):
We are not the first communityto have these devices.
They're all over central Iowa.
They're all over the United States.
If you drive up to the mall,you go buy about 18 or 20 of them.
They are license plate readersand only license plate readers.
They do not generate tickets.
They do not do anything like that.
Altoona, Ankeny, Clive Johnston,

(20:52):
Pleasant Hill, Urbandale,Waukee, West Des Moines.
They all have these devices,so we are going to have 12 of them
in placeand all they are is license plate readers.
They read the license plateand they take a side or back profile
image of the vehiclethat we can't tell who's in the vehicle.
There's no pictures of peoplein the vehicle, there's no audio,

(21:13):
nothing like that.
What they are good for is stolen vehicles
missing and endangeredchildren missing and endangered people.
That's whatthese cameras are going to be used for.
And so far,there are about as of this recording,
there are about four installedcurrently in town.

(21:34):
Is that correct? Yes,four installed in town.
And there'sgoing to be a total of 12. Yes.
And I know that there's beensome discussions about how this is funded.
Can you just shed some light
into kind of that process and kind of whatthat cycle will look like?
Sure.
The first two years have been fundedby ARPA funds,
the American Rescue PlanAct through Warren County.

(21:57):
And after that, it's my responsibilitythen to go to the city council
and ask for a continualfunding for these.
Just how important are these cameras,
albeit, as you just saidto earlier, they're not to
get you
in traffic violations or anything elseof of a crime.
It's merely
for the aspects you addressed ishow important is that for the community?

(22:20):
I mean, it's so importantwe have crimes all the time,
but let's use a big boxstore, for example.
We have one at the north end of townthat occasionally gets
things stolen from them.
Well, their cameras only go so far.
It might get a vehicle
description, a red truck.

(22:43):
Well, if if something gets stolenin, the suspect is in a red truck,
we can go to our camerasand we can enter red trucks
and find one that matches the footageor matches the description.
And then we have a license plate,we have a lead, we have somewhere to go.
So this is going to helpimmensely solve crimes.
And within that dataand this footage, it's all stored through

(23:06):
Indianola Police Department
and dedicated
officers have access to thisand only they have access to this.
Is that right? That is right.
If we have a crime in another cityor another city has a crime,
that it's a vehicle related down here,
they have to give a case numberand a reason to access this.
This isn't like free.

(23:27):
Well,we can look up whoever we want to look up.
We want to seewhere the city manager is going.
It doesn't work that way.
Everything is recorded.
Everything is audited.
Yeah, we're going to keepkeep a tight rein on things.
And we have a great policy in placeto do that.
And going back to the overallaspect of the department,
what were some of the successesand highlights that you can share

(23:51):
or just the overall moments of pride
you take from last year'sIndianola Police Department?
Let's startwith our school resource officer.
So we were the last big school
to go to a school resource officer programand it was overdue.
We all recognized

(24:11):
it was overdue and the school was greatto work with to get this implemented.
And, you know, our our first piece
to this waswho is the right person for this job?
It's not a retirement gig where you can goand just sit there at your desk.
We wanted someone engaging.
We wanted someone friendly,
but we also wanted someone that whenit was serious time, it was serious time

(24:35):
because things happen in schools.
We've seen it all over the country.
So, Jay Hackett was chosenas our school resource officer.
He's in his fifth year now, so we'd liketo say he's a super senior this year.
You know,maybe he'll graduate next year.
He’s staying as long as he'scomfortable out there and he loves it.
Trust me, we talk every day.

(24:56):
He is the right person for this job.
He's a big teddy bear.If you've ever met Jay, he's loud.
He's always has a smile on his face.
He's just a big teddy bear.
Some of the concerns up frontbefore this program was started
that this will be a pipelineto the criminal justice system.
And that was absolutely one of our goalsnot to have that happen.

(25:17):
So most most official interactionswith Jay are handled informally.
They're handledthere may be a police report
which is a formal thing,but it's for record keeping.
But most of them are handled
through the teachers, the studentand the student’s parents.
That'show we want to handle issues that happen.
Now, occasionally it happenswhere criminal charges are filed.

(25:40):
But I know, Jay,I have some stats here in front of me.
I know Jay responded to 544official incidents in 2023.
It means a report was done.
May seem like a lot.
Jay deals with a lot of mental healthissues and he's trained in it.
He's had advanced training in it.
Of those 544 incidents,
only 32 led to criminal charges.

(26:03):
So as you can tell,this is not a pipeline.
This is not our goal to charge peopleand just get them in the criminals system.
But sometimes it happensand it has to happen.
Wow, just the impact alone.
You share those numbers.
And with Officer Hackett and his advancedtraining, that's remarkable.
And he's also, as we've celebratedduring the granny league basketball game

(26:25):
Year 2000 – I think the actual title of itis the Fiscal Year
24 Employee of the Yearfor the City of Indianola.
Just how deserving is Officer Hackettfor this distinction?
First of all, this isthis is not a police department award.
This is a citywide awardvoted on by the City Engagement Committee.

(26:46):
And we have a lot ofdeserving people at the City.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of hard workers.
Jay deserves it.
And he's worked very hard,especially last five years in the school.
He knows that,especially at the beginning,
all eyes were on himand how this was going to go,
which in turn all eyes aroundthe police department.
All eyes were on the city.

(27:07):
And he has done a fantastic jobmaking this one of our greatest successes.
He not only represents the policedepartment well and the schools well,
he represents the city well.
He he's fantastic.
I hope he never wants to leave the job.He makes my life easy.
What about some other stats or findingsthat you'd like to share from the report
or anything elsethat's important that you want to share

(27:28):
regarding the police department?
Yeah.
So this is going to air in about a week,and I'm hoping to have our 2023
annual report
posted by then, and I'm going to givea presentation in front of council.
I think that's coming up first part of May.
But one thing
I'm proud of that we implementedthis year was the DARE program.
We brought the DARE program back

(27:50):
in this day and age of social media,
when people think of the DARE program,they think, you know,
drugs and yes, that is a big aspect of it.
But the choice or the not choiceto use drugs comes with different things.
It comes with choices,
it comes with bullying,it comes with all those sort of things,

(28:11):
especially in this social media agewhere you don't have to be bullied
or you don't have to be,you know, choices face to face.
It could be on Instagram or Facebook or,you know, every time I say
Facebook, my kids call me old orany of the other social media platforms,
and we're very proud to bring DARE back.

(28:32):
It's been a long time since we've had it,and graduation
DARE graduation is coming up again,and it's been a great success.
Officer Ross Marshall is our DAREinstructor and he's doing a fantastic job.
In 2023, we brought a new officer onand his name is Kilo.
He's got four legsand likes to lick people all the time. And

(28:57):
so we have a K-9
again, and we were looking specificallyfor a very social dog
that we could do presentationsand bring him everywhere.
I mean, he's going to beat the granny basketball game
and a dog with a high drivethat would find narcotics.
So we found a great dog. He's

(29:19):
Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd.
He was imported from Poland.
I don't have the name of the cityin front of me,
but I'd probably get it wrongeven if I did.
And we looked.
We looked high and low and and found Kiloand he has been fantastic addition
to the police department since we broughthim on our controlled substance.
Cases have gone up 19.9% last year.

(29:43):
And that is largely in partto we've dedicated
a detective to narcoticsand we brought Kilo on.
So one thing I like to say,Aaron, is, yeah, we're a police department.
We enforce laws,we enforce all that sort of stuff.
But there isan educational aspect to that.
That is why we have DARE.
So we like to balance the educationand the enforcement

(30:05):
With the officersthat you have on board,
Believe the police departmentsin a recruitment period
again, right now.Talk about what the department is doing
and just to be, you know, competingwith some of those bigger agencies
that we talked about earlierin the podcast.
Right.
In 2023, we lost five officers,one to a retirement,

(30:27):
and four chose to go to different placesnow, and not once have I blame them.
Not once have I given them a badrecommendation because they want to leave.
You know, I'm all for peoplebettering themselves that they think
that'swhat's better. I'm going to support it.
It's hard
sometimes to retain people in Indianola. We're such a unique community

(30:48):
where, you know, we're ten milesfrom all the rest of the metro
suburbs in Des Moines,and there's a lot to offer.
That'swhy we're trying to change the culture
here, get more opportunitiesfor them to have officers stay.
Right now, we're in great shape.
We have one unfilled position,which was a authorized 24th position.

(31:10):
So we're finally almost at full strength.
I can see the pot of goldat the end of the rainbow.
We get that 24th personand then we can really start
doing a lot of different thingsAnd the department in connection
or in joint effortswith the Community Developed Department,
a newly created positionwith the community services officer. Talk
about that position and the individualthat just recently began that role.

(31:33):
So the community service officer is a shared position
between community developmentand the police department.
He's a civilian.
Well,he does have a different type of uniform.
You will see him out and aboutand he is going to help with with
from the police side, thingssuch as unlocking cars that people
lock their keys in, lock their dogsand lock their kids in once in a while,

(31:57):
traffic control, funeral escorts,
those sort of
things which will free upthe certified police officers
to concentrate on the crimesand and that sort of thing
for a communitydevelopment will work on code enforcement.
I know I've talked to Charlie Dissell,our community development director,

(32:17):
and he's got a new title now.
And I can't tell you what that is,but but that's one of his roles.
They were very reactiveto those sorts of complaints.
Well hopefully nowthey can be a little bit more proactive
and be greater on the reactive side,have a faster
turnover to resolve the complaintsthat come in Charlie's office.

(32:39):
Yeah, And just how vital is that role?
I mean, you talk about it'sfreeing up your certified police officers
from having to do those important tasks,don't get me wrong.
But then also from the development side,be able to handle
to continueto keep that upper trajectory of
successful
completions of inspectionsand not having too many delays.
Just how vital as we'restarting to shift and grow

(33:02):
our community is this role specifically?
It's going to be huge.
I'm a believer in the brokenWindows theory, which I don't know
exactly where it came from, but MayorGiuliani in New York, he believed in that.
And crime was reduced so much byyou fix the things that need fix
and it doesn't attractthat element of people.

(33:23):
You fix the broken windows, you fix thejunk in the yard, you fix the mowed yards,
you fix all those things that need fixedand it beautifies the community.
It helps the community grow.
You know, we have RAGBRAI coming, right?
That's not a secret.
And we want to put our best foot forward.
We want to show peopleour beautiful community,

(33:44):
the beautiful Simpson College, the square,how vital it is.
And, you know,we want it to look great for that day
and we want it to look great the other 364days.
Right.
So that that's part of the roleof the community service officer.
Lastly, Chief, just want to open the floorfor you to share any closing thoughts
or remarks that you haveor anything that we might be missing?

(34:06):
No, I mean, so 30 years into it,
my wife says I need to work longer,so I'm going to keep working.
No, I'm I'm so grateful to work hereat the City of Indianola.
I'm grateful to have my job,the men and women
that that work at the police departmentand work at the city.
This is a great place.

(34:27):
Well, Chief, I want to thank youfor your leadership and what you are doing
leading the Indianola Police Department,but also leading the city through
the various things, the various effortsthat you do day in and day out,
365 days a year, even on vacation.
I remember,I think when I had joined the city
my first month or two, I'd called youand you were on a combine on a farm

(34:48):
and you took the timeto answer my questions.
So I appreciate your leadershipand your willingness to help out
a new employee and all of our employeesand all of our city anytime.
Absolutely.And yeah, that's my part time job.
And I mentioned that.
Well, hey, thank you so much for tuning infor another episode of Indy Unplugged.
Make sure if you're not already following

(35:09):
us, make sure you hit that follow buttonand leave us a comment.
Leave us a review.
This is our fourthepisode of Indy Unplugged.
So we're a little bit new on dabblinginto the the podcast game.
So provide us with yourwith your feedback, your comments,
your questions, and maybe somedayyou'll be a guest on Indy Unplugged.
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