Farmington Feed: Community Service Officers (CSOs)
This is the Farmington Feed, bringing you information from the city of Farmington. Hi, and welcome back to the Farmington Feed. I'm Caryn Hojnicki, the city's communications specialist, and I'm hungry for another
Caryn:episode of the feed. We have two special guests with us today. We're introducing some of our Farmington faces with another new employee speed round.
Caryn:Welcome, Claire Kennedy and Christina Calderon, both our CSOs, which is community service officers for the Farmington Police Department. Hi, and welcome, guys. Hi. So excited to have you on for your first time here, hopefully again after. But my first question will be to each of you.
Caryn:How did you become interested in your current position? Claire, how about you go first?
Claire:I had a school resource officer in high school who was a big inspiration to me, so I would say that is kind of what sparked my interest, especially, like, being a female. You don't see that a lot, so
Caryn:So she was a female? Yes. Okay,
Claire:cool. was a female.
Caryn:Awesome. How about you, Christina?
Christina:My instructors at school really encouraged it to join anything we really could, like the reserves, becoming a CSO, just to give us a boost into what it's going to be like becoming an officer.
Caryn:Because that's your eventual like endgame, right? You guys want to be officers? Yeah. Awesome. So are you guys, in school right now?
Christina:Yes.
Claire:Yeah.
Caryn:Okay. And where do go to school?
Claire:I am at Rasmussen University. I'm currently in skills, so I'm done with all my coursework.
Caryn:So Cool. That feels good, doesn't it?
Claire:Yeah.
Christina:Yeah. How about you? I go to Riverland Community College. Yeah. And I start skills in January.
Caryn:And so how long is that entire process for school?
Claire:I originally started at St. Thomas, so I think mine's a little delayed. I think Rasmussen is like an accelerated program. So eighteen months. My skills is six months.
Claire:So yeah.
Caryn:And you?
Christina:Yeah, mine is two years. And then since I started skills in January, I'll be done in May. So just a few months.
Caryn:That's exciting. So how long have you been with the city?
Claire:I have been with the city since January, so I think ten months now.
Caryn:Oh, yeah. That's coming up. We took a picture outside, I think, in the snow.
Claire:Yeah.
Caryn:When you first started.
Caryn:Not that we want any snow right now, but No. And how long have you been?
Christina:It's going on five months.
Caryn:Five months. Okay.
Caryn:Awesome. So, obviously, your career aspiration is to become an officer. But what else? Like, what other things inspired you?
Claire:Well, going back just to my school resource officer, I would say that's probably a position I'll look into some years down the road. Kind of goes into, like, community engagement and stuff like that and just being with the kids and stuff. SRO, I think everybody finds interest in K-9, not knowing how much work it really is, but I think that would be cool, too.
Caryn:Yeah. I mean, because that dog's your dog.
Claire:Yeah. Yeah. 24/7 training.
Caryn:Yeah, right. And what about you?
Christina:Well, I'd say K-9.
Caryn:Yeah, you want be K-9?
Christina:Yeah. Or eventually join the SWAT.
Caryn:Oh, Okay.
Christina:Yeah. I mean, I know there's like so many opportunities being in that career. So I don't know. I guess I'm open to exploring as well.
Caryn:For sure. Now, not all people are familiar with what a CSO is. Can you guys kind of explain various parts of your day and like, what are some of your duties?
Claire:A lot of it is just helping around, like, helping out around the department, like, helping the officers, but we get dispatched to animal calls
Caryn:Okay.
Claire:Parking violations, vehicle unlocks, so if you lock your keys in your car, we can try and come get those out for you. We transport, so if one of the officers arrests someone, we can bring them down to the jail.
Caryn:Oh, okay.
Claire:But we don't have, like, the arrest powers or we can't we can't pull you over.
Caryn:Yep.
Claire:We don't go to hot calls or ones that could, potentially be dangerous.
Caryn:Yeah. It's like you're there for help, right?
Claire:Yeah. Yeah.
Caryn:So what is your favorite part of the job? How about we start with you, Christina?
Christina:Yeah, I like getting to interact with the officers and kind of seeing how they handle situations. I mean, since we're going into that field, it's nice to get a little bit of an inside scoop of what they do and how they handle it just so we're better prepared. I also love the animal calls dealing with the dogs.
Caryn:What happens like on an animal call? Like what's usually?
Christina:We get a different kind of calls. We get like barking calls. Sometimes a dog is loose, so we'll have to go pick it up.
Caryn:I feel like that happens a lot.
Claire:Yeah. Dog bites. Yeah. Yeah. Over on Flagstaff, we get some loose cows.
Caryn:Oh, yes. I've seen those posts. Anybody lose a cow?
Claire:Yeah. We'll call up the Donnellys and let them know.
Caryn:Yeah. How do you wrangle a cow?
Claire:We don't. Okay. Yeah.
Christina:We just watch.
Caryn:Okay.
Claire:Well, yeah.
Caryn:Just make sure that it's not in the traffic.
Claire:Yeah.
Claire:The animal calls, sometimes it's pushing animal control. Like, we get calls where, like, last night I was wrangling a possum.
Caryn:Oh, no, that does not sound fun.
Claire:A goose the other day. We're kind of like the city's, like, animal control.
Caryn:Well, speaking of that, in a previous house of mine, we actually had a possum, like, in our tree in our backyard, and it scared the bejesus out of me. Yeah. I was, like, walking on the sidewalk outside, like, our fence, and it was, like, kinda, like, hanging over the fence. And my kids actually saw it first, and I was like, oh my gosh. And it didn't move, though.
Caryn:That was what was creepy about They
Claire:they're weird. I've never seen one so close.
Caryn:Yeah. They're weird. I called the city that I lived in at the time, and they're like, well, there's nothing we can do if it's not doing anything to you. And I was like, Cool. So it can attack my kid in the backyard?
Caryn:Like
Claire:Yeah.
Caryn:But it ended up going away, but still Yeah. It's kind of They're kind of freaky looking.
Claire:Yeah. Yeah, they're weird.
Caryn:Was that, like, not expected, like, for this job where you're like, Oh, this is something I didn't realize I'd have to deal with?
Claire:Yeah, honestly, but it's fun. Like, it's something fun to do. Like, it's a good story. If it's super dangerous, like, obviously, if this thing is trying to attack me, like, call in some reinforcements, I don't know. Like, I I don't I wouldn't have dealt with it.
Caryn:What else do you think about your job that maybe the residents don't know about that you think they should?
Claire:I just think people see the police on the side of our car and think, oh, I'm gonna get pulled over. Like, we can't we can't pull you over.
Caryn:Your car does look a little different, like the wrap on your car
Claire:Yeah, it's white. And it says community service, but you know
Caryn:Sometimes people don't read the whole thing.
Claire:Yeah. I would say, we can't, can't arrest you. We can't pull you over.
Caryn:You're here to help.
Claire:Yeah, exactly.
Claire:Another thing that is part of our duties is, like, we'll help out with, like, our investigations. So we'll bring evidence, like, to the BCA or the Electronic Crimes Unit or things like that.
Caryn:For those that don't know what BCA is.
Claire:Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. I
Caryn:cause I didn't.
Claire:Yeah. So they do, like, all of our, like, DNA stuff. So we'll bring evidence there.
Caryn:What's something that you do in your job that people might not know? I mean, we already talked about the animals again, but what else? Community engagement.
Claire:Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know what?
Caryn:I was going bring that up. Community engagement. I mean, you guys have been in a lot of our events, right?
Claire:Or the
Caryn:police events. So for example, what? Helmet heroes.
Claire:Yeah. Helmet heroes. Chill with a Cop, National Night Out, the Open House. I sometimes go to the like party in the park events, like a movie in the park, and I'll just go and like hand out some swag and stuff. Yeah, those are fun.
Claire:Those are so fun. Yeah, it's my favorite.
Caryn:You get connect with the community. Yeah. And let them know, like, you don't need to be afraid of us. Yeah. You can come to us for help.
Caryn:And I love that you guys are both women. So, you're showing those little girls like you can do it, too, right?
Claire:Yeah, tell them all the time. They're like, Oh, someone's mom is like, Oh, she wants to be a police officer. And I'm like, you can do it.
Caryn:Yay that's awesome.
Claire:You should do it.
Claire:Yes.
Christina:Yeah. I recently did Trunk and Treat with Empire. Oh, Little kids that came in cop costumes.
Claire:Oh, did they?
Caryn:Did you get pictures with them?
Christina:I didn't. I should have. But
Caryn:Okay. Rule number one, Christina. Pictures.
Christina:I'll remember that.
Caryn:I need them.
Caryn:Okay. Actually, it's funny because I got I just posted pictures of the fire department at that event too because they were there. Yeah. And as well. And I always I count Heath Walker,
Christina:the fire marshal. I'm like, where's the pictures? Where's the pictures?
Claire:Yeah.
Caryn:So always take that selfie girl.
Claire:Yeah. Okay. I remember that.
Caryn:There was like a a funny like meme or post saying like any children that are dressed as police officers are now on duty. Oh, Yeah. Whatever.
Claire:Yeah. I've seen that. Yeah.
Caryn:And so those community outreach events, do you guys ever do, like, stuff at the schools? Like, do you, like, do presentations
Claire:No, or
Claire:but that would be something that I'd be interested in. I stopped out at the school just the other day just to check on some of the kids and say hi. I think that'd be fun if we could plan something out, like a safety presentation or
Caryn:Or like if like a Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop wants something, like Yeah. They could reach out and have you guys come and do a presentation as well.
Claire:Reach out. Yeah.
Caryn:Let us know. Think it'd be email, CET@FarmingtonMM.gov. Right? Community Outreach. Mhmm.
Caryn:I know your competitors haven't been that long, but what has inspired you the most or who has inspired you the most?
Christina:I'd say plenty of people. So my instructors at Riverland, they're both retired from Faribault. They really push us as students to just get involved and we actually do a lot of scenarios with different departments. We volunteer for stuff. So them, my family has been really important.
Christina:They've all been very supportive, which I appreciate.
Caryn:That's awesome.
Christina:And then just the officers and Claire. Claire actually trained me,
Caryn:so Oh, wow. Okay.
Claire:I would, I would agree. The officers for sure and just everybody at the department as a whole, we have a really good team of people. I would say all of them, especially our captains and sergeants and Yeah. Chief. Yeah.
Claire:Chief Siem has been great to us. My family. A lot of people ask
Christina:me like, Oh, what do
Claire:your parents think? And they just been great. If you want to do it, you should do it.
Caryn:Yeah. So you guys probably have crazy schedules. Is there any, like, regulars, like your day shift, your night shift? Like, does that work for you guys?
Claire:We're kind of all over the place.
Christina:Yeah. With school, it's kind of hard to Yeah.
Claire:And just, like, our schedules, too, like, making sure because we don't want to work the same shift because we just don't need two of us usually. We only have one CSO squad, so Yeah, it's different. Like, so I go into work, I'm like, I wonder who's working the day, but we kind of split it in half. So we're with the day and the night. Like, it's like twelve to nine or Yeah, typically.
Caryn:Yeah. Well, because, yeah, you have to go to class and stuff.
Claire:Yeah. Yeah.
Caryn:How intense is your class schedule? Do you guys have, like, certain number of hours that you're doing or?
Christina:My schoolwork is pretty intense right now. I have like six classes.
Caryn:Wow.
Christina:Yeah. On top of work. So it can be
Caryn:pretty So right or no?
Claire:No, time.
Caryn:Oh, yeah. Part time. Okay. Well, that makes it little easier. Yeah.
Claire:Yeah. And they're really, like, they're really helpful with adjusting to our schedules and stuff. Yeah, for sure. My skills is like three days a week. So it's kind of weird.
Claire:It's like Wednesday nights till like ten, like six to ten. And then Friday nights, six to ten and then Saturday morning throughout the whole day. Okay. So we can work around it. It's just
Christina:But they're pretty good. Like, our sergeants and captains are like, school comes first. Like, that's the priority. Yeah.
Caryn:Right. Because that's what you're Yeah. Going to school for. You need to you need to be in class.
Claire:Uh-huh.
Caryn:Be a good student. Okay. Anything else you can think of that you guys want people to know about what you guys are doing and how CSOs can help them?
Claire:If you see us, come say hi.
Christina:Yeah, don't usually have
Claire:stickers and we got a box of swag in the back. Don't Is know if you saw
Caryn:it always in there?
Claire:I just put it in there. It's running out, though. I give out too many toys and But yeah, I would just say, come say hi. If you recognize us, I love when people be like, oh, I saw you at safety camp or I saw you at Chill with the Cop. I'm like, oh my gosh, you remember me.
Claire:Yeah. I love it.
Caryn:Yeah, that's awesome.
Claire:Yeah, would just say, come say hi. We're here to help.
Christina:Yeah.
Christina:For
Caryn:sure. Alright. Well, I guess before, I wrap up, I'll I'm gonna thank you guys for coming on today, and hopefully I'll have you back on again another day. We can talk about some more stuff. But any of that information on the community outreach for the police department, it will be on our website.
Caryn:It's at FarmingtonMN.gov/CET, and it is the end of toys for town season. I know we got away with not really talking about it yet, but it ends with a fabulous community event wrapping day. Now have either of you been there? Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
Caryn:So I've been a couple times, and it is awesome. It will be Saturday, December 13, starting at 9AM at Farmington High School. People just need to show up ready to wrap. You know, bringing your family, making a whole event. Like, I know there's this one family that comes every year.
Caryn:I think they've been doing it for over twenty years.
Claire:Oh my gosh.
Caryn:They wrap the craziest things. Like, one year they wrapped a bicycle. Like, another year they wrap the biggest stuffed animal, like one of those big ones.
Claire:Oh my gosh.
Caryn:But they come every year, and they make it a family event like that's on their calendar, and they deliver gifts. Now everybody doesn't have to deliver gifts because you guys will and fire and SWAT and all them will deliver too. But it does make a difference. So if you have any last minute donations, you can stop by the police department during their lobby hours, which are Monday through Thursday from eight to four. Otherwise, we hope to see everyone on Saturday.
Caryn:Right?
Claire:Yes.
Caryn:That concludes this month's episode of The Farmington Feed. Thank you for listening. We look forward to connecting with residents with this podcast. If you have any feedback, guest requests, or ideas, email me at Communications@FarmingtonMN.gov. Don't forget to subscribe to the Farmington Feed wherever you like to get your podcasts.
