Ask the Chief

Do you look online at the publicly accessible jail roster? Do you read about your police department’s calls for services in the paper or on social media? If you do, you may be wondering what is going on?!?
There have been a lot of extreme calls and strange events that have happened over the last several weeks all over Minnesota. Many of these calls don’t result in an arrest but a quick look at the jail roster and you can see patterns. As of 07/10/23, there are 47 people in the Lyon County Jail. Of those 47 people, some are serving a sentence following a conviction, or some are waiting to see a judge or post bail. A breakdown of some of the charges these individuals are facing including but not limited to: The following statistics are approximations based on generalized crime categories – nine have drug-related charges, 10 have sexual, pornographic, or exposure-related charges, 12 have property-related charges, 16 assault-related charges, and 6 DWI-related charges.
I feel these numbers are high and I have a few guesses as to why. First, people have less respect for each other which results in more conflict and less regulation of individual behavior. If you don’t respect the property owner, it is easier to steal the property. If you don’t respect the person, it is easier to assault them. If you don’t respect society, it is easier not to follow the law and social norms that are vital to living together in communities. If you don’t respect yourself then there is no end to how low a person’s life can sink.
Second, alcohol, drugs, and hot weather contribute to poor decision-making and tension.
Third, the vast majority of people in jail are not there for their first offense. Many are repeat offenders that have not learned from their prior actions and the punishments they have received in the past have not been sufficient to promote a behavior change. Officers will talk anecdotally about full moons, weekends, paydays, holidays, and extreme weather causing an increase in the type and frequency of crimes being committed. If you work enough years, you begin to realize that it happens regularly enough to be predictable.
What can society do? That is the question that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on answering. Frankly, I am not sure much can be done for those adults who continue to commit crimes. If you didn’t learn and practice respect for yourself and others as a child, then it is very unlikely that you will learn and live that lesson as an adult.
For the rest of us, we should continue to be respectful, honest, helpful, and willing to take a stand against criminal behavior. Report suspicious activity and be a good witness. Do all you can to prevent yourself from becoming a victim, and most importantly, don’t become an enabler to someone who commits a crime. Almost every criminal has someone who makes excuses for them, minimizes their actions, bails them out of jail with no significant consequences or oversight, and provides resources that either encourages continued criminal behavior or fails to promote a positive behavior change.