Rice County Sheriff Department Overview at County Board Meeting

The Rice County Board of Commissioners met as a Commitee of the Whole today at the Government Services Building in Faribault.

Sheriff Jesse Thomas brought some of his supervisors by to provide a overview of the department for a presentation to the County Board.

Captain Paul LaRoche provided a statistic he said he was proud of.

LaRoche emphasized the Department's contract calls for 60 hours of service to the City of Morristown.

Captain Nathan Budin went over the equipment the Sheriff's Department has including a new Jet Boat they received a grant of $89,000 from the MnDNR to purchase.

Sheriff Thomas talked about what he termed the Department's "biggest liability", the jail.

Thomas stated his office is constantly trying to do outreach programs so interactions with citizens are more positive in nature.

Positive news provided by the drug task force with total cases in 2022 at 158 and through November 1, 2023 there have been 98 total cases.

Calls for service totaled 13,253 last year from January 1 through October 15.  This year the total during that time frame is at 14,244.

That's an average of approximately 48 calls a day.