Patrol Districts

PATROL DIVISION

The Patrol Division of the Owatonna Police Department is comprised of 28 people, and is currently overseen by the Operations Commander. The Operations Commander supervises seven Patrol Sergeants who in turn supervise 21 Patrol Officers. The Patrol Division is supported by anywhere from one to five Community Service Officers (CSO’s) who supplement the police officers, supervisors and administrative staff by providing a variety of services that provides support in community policing efforts. The division also has canine program that aids in detecting illegal narcotics, evidence recovery and tracking and searching for individuals.

The Patrol Division is comprised of three separate policing districts, the north district, the south district and the west-central district, in which specific officers are assigned to each. Of the officers assigned to a policing district, one officer is designated as the “Team Leader”. The team leader coordinates all Action Requests from citizens who have special requests such as extras patrol and other enforcement efforts aimed at increasing individual involvement by the officers. In many instances, the team leader also serves as the liaison to the complainant of policing concern that directly affects their particular of the city. The purpose of the policing districts is to increase the role of each officer in the community policing, strategic enforcement and community partnerships.

New technology was added to the department in 2009 to further increase the department’s efficiency and effectiveness. Those advances include a field based reporting system that not only speeds up the writing of police reports, but also improves communication with judicial system. The field based reporting system, referred to as CJIIN (Criminal Justice Information Integration Network), was implemented to the department through a unique partnership with Dakota County. The department also added eTicketing to the squad cars this past year. eTicketing simplifies and shortens a traffic stops duration by creating a citation with the swipe of a driver’s license. eTicketing also allows the citation to be exported into the court system electronically rather than manually as has been done in the past: yet another means to allow the officers and the criminal justice system to work more efficiently. In addition, in-car digital video recorders have been added to the marked patrol fleet. The in-car digital video recorders can help officers by creating a digital recording of an event to help with the prosecution of case. The system can also aid the officers in the event any allegations may be made regarding their conduct.

Patrol Sergeants

The Owatonna Police Department has six (7) patrol sergeants, who along with day to day supervisory duties of patrol officers also coordinate efforts of the Team Leaders in each district as well. Each sergeant is also assigned an area of specialization that they not only coordinate, but also are responsible for duties as assigned. These assignments include, City of Owatonna Landlord Association (COLA),