Sartell Public Safety Adds Life Safety Division

(KNSI) – Now reorganized as the Sartell Public Safety Division, the first major changes within the police and fire departments are being rolled out to try to find synergies and improve efficiency in serving residents.

The new Life Safety Division involves a community service officer, public safety specialist, and fire inspector. Police Chief Brandon Silgjord explains why the division is an improvement over what came before it.

“We had staff doing licensing. We have staff doing fire inspections, a community service officer that was doing crime-free housing inspections and different things that all brought us to the same buildings in town, even kind of accomplishing some of the same inspection-type work.”

The goal is to have the Life Safety Division field low-level calls to free up the rest of the departments for urgent community safety matters. Silgjord gives an example of how it benefits the fire department. “The intent of that division is to also be fire-trained and look for some cost savings there. You know, during the daytime, Monday through Friday hours, when this division is working, there is actually a significant call load for fire alarms and different things like that that may not need a full fire department page out, and this division can assist in those duties.”

It will also aid the police department, responding to low-level calls, such as when someone locks themselves out of their vehicle. Expect the group to grow as more multifamily housing is built in Sartell in the coming years.

The division’s full range of duties include “fire response and inspections, single-family and multi-family rental inspections, permitting for rentals, liquor, tobacco, massage, mobile food vendors, flammable fluids, and moving permits, public safety and community event coordination, emergency contact management for local businesses, public education and safety initiatives, including car seat checks, and prevention and code / ordinance enforcement efforts that promote a safer, healthier community.”

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