Tom Rother Employer:
Mankato Department of Public Safety
Years of service:
11
Favorite part of job:
“My favorite moment in my career is being in an interview room with somebody and knowing that person is guilty of something and getting that person to confess to you.”
Problem solver By Brian Arola
P
eople want answers when a violent crime occurs. As an investigator with the Mankato Police Department, Tom Rother’s job is to find the answers. There’s a degree of pressure inherent in the job. While he does his work, the public, media and victim’s family are hungry for any bit of new information. Through all the noise, an investigator’s job is to find those answers without cutting corners. A slip up could mean a botched case. Someone might even make a podcast someday about how bad you are at your job. Yet Rother said he relishes when the case enters its homestretch. Interviewing suspects is his favorite part of the job, in part because he feels like he’s finally getting to the bottom of the crime. “For me sitting down with a suspect in an interview room is far more of a rush for me than driving 70 miles per hour to an accident,” he said.
What comes after the confession — informing the victim or their loved ones that the crime is solved — makes it all worth it. “To be able to come down and shake their hand and say ‘We solved your crime’ is huge,” Rother said. “That’s what drives me everyday.” To Rother, an investigator is the justice seeker for those who aren’t able to seek justice for themselves. “To be able to put the pieces together at a death scene or an assault and give that family some sort of closure as to what happened,” he said, “ultimately that’s what we’re doing is speaking on behalf of the victim’s family.” Rother’s desire to enter law enforcement traces back to a singular event. He was undecided about his future as he entered college. Then 9/11 happened, and he knew he wanted to help people. Rother graduated from
Minnesota State University in 2005. He started as a patrol officer, became a school resource officer for six years, then switched to investigations for the last three. Rother said he enjoys the dayto-day variety of his work, and his career path reflects that. “In the same day I’ve been to a homicide scene, and later on in the afternoon I’ve been in a parade,” Rother said. “It’s where Mayberry meets Minneapolis,” he said. “You have issues with small-town USA you’ll be dealing with, so there’s never a day when I’m bored at work.” Boredom shouldn’t set in any time soon. Rother is part of an ongoing three-county team investigating sex trafficking in southern Minnesota. “Originally it was trying to arrest buyers of sex,” he said of the effort. “Now we’re trying to get people out of the lifestyle.”
MANKATO MAGAZINE • April 2017 • 19