BENSON -- The Swift County Attorney's Office along with several Swift County law enforcement agencies will be holding several public meetings in January about law enforcement and prosecution activities going on in the county.
Swift County Attorney Robin Finke says that he has been planning on doing such meetings for more than a year and a half.
Finke said he hopes the meetings will help his office "be more responsive to the community as to what their concerns are," he said.
Swift County Sheriff Scott Mattison hopes that the meetings can help both community members and the Sheriff's Department.
"We are hoping that we both benefit," he said. He wants to tell the public what his department is doing, how staff members spend their time and where public tax dollars are going.
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He hopes the public will give him feedback on how they think the department is doing.
"The folks we are getting feedback from now are folks who are getting our services: sometimes on a congenial basis, other times on an adversarial basis," he said. "Even with those two categories of contact, we can miss a third group of people, the general public. We want to hear the questions the public have about law enforcement."
Three meetings will be held: Jan. 3 in Benson, Jan. 10 in Appleton and Jan. 17 in Kerkhoven.
The meetings will include the county attorney's office, the Sheriff's Department, the Benson Police Department and the Appleton Police Department.
Finke said they will discuss a wide variety of issues, such as trends like use of the illegal drug methamphetamine.
"We want to get our office as well as law enforcement to be more in tune with what the needs of the community are," he said.
Finke said that the idea for the meetings did not come from the current investigation of harassment and threat allegations against a Swift County deputy sheriff, or last year's investigation into former Sheriff Ken Hanson's handling of petty cash.
Hanson allegedly took money from the Sheriff's Department petty cash fund without verifying how the money was used. The State Auditor's Office found discrepancies in the accounting for the fund, which is used to cover personnel expenses during prisoner transport or training, for example. The allegations arose in July 2004, and Hanson retired in late 2004. Swift County officials said all money was returned to the fund, and no criminal charges were filed.
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Several allegations of harassing behavior and allegations of threats have been made against Deputy Bruce Nelson. The Douglas County Attorney's Office is currently making a decision on whether Nelson will be charged for the latest allegations that he violated a harassment restraining order. He is currently on paid leave.
Sheriff Mattison said the Nelson issue may come up during meetings, but it isn't the reason for the meetings.
"I certainly wouldn't rule it out (as a topic for the meetings)," Mattison said. He hopes by that time there will have been some sort of resolution in the matter and he will be able to discuss it in "as specific a way as I can."
More important about the meetings, he said, is "To keep trying to get public engaged with what we are doing."
He said it is the first time since he started working with Swift County in 1994 that there will be such a meeting.
