Sheriff’s Office To Enact Community Policing Agreement

(KNSI) – The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office is entering into a community policing agreement with multiple community organizations.

A signing ceremony will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday in the Stearns County Boardroom.

Stearns County Sheriff Steve Soyka says they’ve been meeting with different community groups since they approached him shortly after being elected sheriff.

“We started this almost two years ago when I first got into office. And that was obviously before, the times that we’re in now with police reform and some of the issues that are going on and the public’s perception of the criminal justice system. And so it even makes more sense now.”

He says meetings were held once a month to work through all the different facets of the agreement.

Soyka talked about what’s at the core of the agreement.

“It’s really just a way of how the public should be treated by law enforcement. It doesn’t really specify it. It’s not policy or procedure, by any means. It’s definitely an agreement that’s open for some interpretation.”

Soyka says the agreement includes many things they’re already doing regarding searches, seizures, and other duties.

He says letting the public have a say about how they’re policed and being open about how policing is done is a good thing.

“I think with everything going on in this day and age, some of that transparency is good, some of this agreement is definitely good to have with the community and just the educational side of it for the group to learn what we do and the cross-checks that we have to make sure we’re doing things right.”

The agreement is a copy of the St. Cloud Community Policing Agreement first enacted in 2005.

The Stearns County agreement also includes language on how people will be handled at the jail.

Around 20 different community groups were part of crafting the agreement.

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