clay county commission

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting updated the Clay County Commission on law enforcement’s accomplishments and issues in the past year – a presentation that sketched out the scope of his department’s involvement in fighting crime, supporting citizens in emergencies, and providing incarcerated men and women with opportunities to do better after their release.

The sheriff brought chief deputy Chris Martin, emergency management director Gabe Tweten and jail administrator Kari Tuton to summarize their areas.

Martin, who moved into his role last month after years as a Moorhead Police Department officer, talked about the growing challenge of filling open positions for licensed police officers. He said the MN POST online job board currently lists 149 openings in city, county, state and tribal law enforcement operations, many of them for multiple officers. (POST stands for Peace Officer Standards and Training.)

While Clay County has only one current opening for an officer, he said increased openings for the shrinking pool of applicants completing peace officer training has intensified competition among agencies. “It’s the highest number of openings I’ve seen in 20 years in the field,” he said, compared with the 10 to 15 postings common at the turn of the century. “We’ve gone from double to triple digits.” That has led to more aggressive recruitment strategies by many departments, from front-loading new hires with vacation and sick days and offering lateral hiring (with new hires credited with experience at their previous agency) to bonuses of from $2,000 to $10,000.

Empting detailed statistics recorded by the Operations Divisions, including seizure of substantial amounts of drugs from Clay County streets: 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine, 7.8 pounds of marijuana, 1.23 grams of fentanyl, 511 vape cartridges, 195.3 grams of mushrooms, and large amounts of liquid meth, gummies, M30 pills and cocaine. “In one notable case, we assisted with bringing in over 7,000 pills,” he told commissioners. He also cited collaboration with the Drugs Enforcement Agency in an ongoing investigation of a large narcotics distributor in the region.

The October drug take-back event collected 101 pounds of pharmaceuticals to be destroyed, almost half of the year’s collection of 197 pounds. Residents brought the unneeded prescriptions to drop boxes in Dilworth, Glyndon, Ulen and Barnesville.

The support services division transported 714 prisoners and mentally ill individuals during the year, traveling a total of 75,000 miles. Officers also assisted with 94 scheduled court and 25 jury trials.

Tweton noted that the county experienced eight blizzards and seven winter storm warnings during the winter of 2021-22. The most severe storm, he said, occurred June 20, when damaging winds and a confirmed EF-0 tornado near Glyndon damaged the power structure in the area and caused other damage near Ulen and Hitterdal. “We were fortunate to not have anything real major, summer-wise,” he added.

Jail administrator Kari Tuton described advances in her division, including one lauded by both the department and commissioners – a dramatic reduction of the number of open jobs. Commissioner Kevin Campbell responded, “That’s good news on staffing. In the past, even with our new jail facility, we’ve had to transport inmates because of lack of staff here. Full employment means a big savings in transport time, costs and boarding out of the county.”

Instead, Tuton said, Clay County is now accepting prisoners from the Department of Corrections and Ramsey, Beltrami and Morrison counties, while receiving payments from those jurisdictions.

She talked about programming designed to create a better environment at the jail, both for employees and for the incarcerated. Among the innovations she described are offering online GED classes through  Moorhead Adult Education; music, art and trauma-based yoga sessions; mini libraries for those who don’t have access to the larger collection; “Hip Hope and Hope” sessions in cooperation with the Heart of Clay jail ministry; and, perhaps most of all, digital devices. The closely monitored devices, she said, allow them to communicate with family on the outside, as well as access audio books and a large ebook library of self-help titles. They also have online access to a law library.

Commissioner David Ebinger, who retired as Moorhead’s police chief several years ago, told Empting, “You have done an excellent job, Sheriff, and you’ve brought excellent people in. I’m proud of your agency and people and the services you provide, including your services for the incarcerated. You offer them an opportunity to better themselves and, after they get out, have better lives.”