Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier open letter to the Ramsey County Board and the citizens of Ramsey County
Today, I conclude my time as Ramsey County Sheriff. I am grateful to so many members of the Sheriff's Office and our community for all that we have done together.
I have truly have enjoyed the past eight years as a member of the Sheriff's Office.
Below is the text of what I sent to our Board of Commissioners and what I wish to provide as my thank you for all the great work that has been done by so many dedicated people.
Be Well and Thank You Again,
Sheriff Jack Serier
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To the Board of Commissioners and the Residents of Ramsey County:
It has been an honor to serve as Sheriff of Ramsey County. I want to thank the Board of Commissioners for their confidence in appointing me and the people of Ramsey County for allowing me to serve as their Sheriff.
Over the past eight years, we have transformed this organization’s structure, mission, and values. I am very proud of all we have accomplished together. As your Sheriff for the last two years, we have accomplished much and this agency has become a leader in law enforcement services by how we connect mission and good character to our work each day. This is reflected in the four organizational values of Respect, Responsibility, Honor, and Truth.
Our Character Model combined with a movement for social and philosophical change has provided the following results over the past two years:
• Initiated the implementation process for body cameras and developed a long-term storage and integration strategy for new body cams, replacement squad cams, and current stationary cameras for our agency while being respectful of the budgets of Ramsey County and our Contract Cities. We started this work in 2017, and at this point, we are finishing beta testing of all the systems. Full implementation is expected to take place in late 2019 or on January 1, 2020 per our schedule as presented to the County Board in September 2018.
• Worked with the community in Falcon Heights to create a new model of policing for people in their community. In the aftermath of a tragic incident, I offered the services of our agency when asked by the City of Falcon Heights. We have forged a trusting relationship with this community and have been told by many that our policing services in Falcon Heights is a model for community policing in our state.
• Created the Community Circle of Race & Gender Equity with community partners to build trust and cooperation between law enforcement and residents. As a result, we have built a trusting relationship with the peace community, communities of color, and local organizations that consistently refer people to become members of our staff because of the level of confidence they have in our Office.
• Eliminated ICE Detention in Ramsey County so Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisoners will not be held in our jail. I made this decision in 2017 after listening to our local community. It became a moral obligation for me to do this to ensure trust with the local community and the law enforcement agencies that serve them.
• Eliminated booking fees which were charged upon an initial arrest. This practice affected people who were least able to afford them. This is an initiative I began in 2017 to ensure a measure of economic equity.
• Guaranteed Fiscal Responsibility. I have taken the management of your taxpayer dollars seriously. I returned $1.2 million back to the County in budget savings in fiscal year 2017. We practiced sound fiscal management daily and will have year-end savings at the end of fiscal year 2018 when reconciliation of the budget occurs in March of 2019.
We have worked closely with the County Board to make sure that our organization is well funded to do the work within the scope of its mission to serve the people of our County.
• Hired to reflect the diversity of our community. We now have the most diverse corrections staff of any jail in Minnesota. Over 53% of our corrections employees are women and people of color. Our Deputy ranks are also fully staffed and continued to grow in diversity beyond what has ever previously been seen in this organization. Additionally, we created a permanent Recruitment Team to work with our community to find great people we can hire for character and train for skill.
• Promoted a historic number of women and people of color into supervision and management. The first promotional process we did in 2016-2017 was 75% diverse among the candidates for promotion when we intentionally worked to eliminate bias in the phases of the promotional process.
• Launched the first Women’s Academy for law enforcement career exploration at the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. Some members of that academy have said that the experience was life changing and those who participated were grateful that we broke down barriers and offered an opportunity to explore a new career path.
• Maintained excellent standards for employment through our Character Based Model of Hiring, Training, and Promotion. We hire for character and train for skill. This innovative program has attracted nationwide attention. We have spoken for years at national conferences on this topic and were featured in Wyatt Cenac’s HBO series in April 2018.
• Solved the long time staffing problems in the Ramsey County Jail with the help of the County Board. Our Adult Detention Center is now fully staffed and has a new, industry-leading schedule for employees to ensure work/life balance and to promote a safer work environment. When I took over as Sheriff, we had 105 Correctional Officers and a scheduling method that was over forty years old. We now have over 140 Correctional Officers working in Detention and a state of the art family friendly schedule with many different options for staff to choose.
Also, we have had great success in recruiting new Correctional Officers and have reduced overtime in our jail to historically low levels. Here are some of the more recent statistics for Jail overtime:
Overtime 2016 $1,269,211
Overtime 2017 $1,256,378
Overtime estimated 2018 $644,065
We expect overtime to decrease below $350,000 in 2019 if the current schedule and staffing levels are kept in place.
• Established a Safety and Security Threat Assessment Team for people in our schools, businesses, and places of worship. This is a community wide asset to assist places where people come together and should have an expectation of safety for themselves and their families through Active Shooter Response Training, Run-Hide-Fight Training, and site assessment for building safety.
• Built a high level of trust and great working relationships with our local public safety and government partners. Our work with local law enforcement and other government partners created a great synergy in our community due the level of trust and confidence we have had with one another. This included our work with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, and many other groups we are part of due to our cooperative spirit.
• Formed the Ramsey County Coalition to address and act on the nationwide opioid crisis. Our #NotAnotherOverdose Coalition included local law enforcement, government, and non-profit agencies working together to restore people to health. We worked with Know the Truth as a community partner to reach out and change lives and families that are struggling with addiction. Additionally, we instituted Narcan as a life saving measure for all staff.
• Developed many community programs to connect with youth and families including Hot Dog with a Deputy, the Horse Patrol Mounted Unit, increased participation in Nite to Unite by 200%, bike rodeos, more D.A.R.E education in schools, increased the number of School Resource Officers, and many other outreach initiatives in partnership with our community. We have engaged 1000’s of youth and adults across our county each year.
• Established the Care On The Go Initiative for inmates who are in need of basic items when released from custody in our jail. This initiative relies 100% on community donations.
• Advocated for common-sense gun safety legislation through the Universal Background Check and Gun Violence Protection Order proposed legislation of 2018; and through my support of Moms Demand Action and Everytown.
• Many other process improvements in the past eight years include:
-Created a Modern Policy Manual
-Developed a new Records Management System
-Developed a new Jail Management System
-Instituted Deputy and Correctional Officer Academies
-Created an Employee Safety Committee
-Implemented a 10-hour schedule for Public Safety Services
-Created Employee Wellness and Fitness Programs and
Facilities
-Implemented Mental Health Programming and Staff to the
Detention Center
-Offered Life Skills Training to Inmates
-Introduced the PRIME Unit to the Detention Center
-Worked to initiate the Ramsey County Suburban Law
Enforcement Memorial Services
-Installed Permanent Camera Systems Installed throughout
the Detention Center
-Established a permanent Water Patrol Station facility &
Impound Lot Facility
-Established the In-Process capital improvements for Safety &
Security in the Detention Center
-Added Deputies to the Courts & Security Services Division
-Established continuing education programs for Correctional
Officers
-Unified the uniform for the entire agency to fully incorporate
Correctional Officers into our organizational culture
-Established a formal recognition committee made up of agency members to recognize the excellent work of employees
-Created one of the first all-hazard response teams made up of law enforcement officers
-Established high levels of organizational competence in Emergency Management and Preparedness
-Worked with Ramsey County IT Services to improve responses and oversight to litigation and data practices requests
Our administration leaves you a Sheriff’s Office that works cooperatively with our County Board, community partners, and focuses operations to meet state statutes, community expectations, and work within the budget provided generously to us by taxpayers.
My hope for all of us is to look to one another for community, civic opportunity, and optimism.