The Farmington Feed

Announcer: 00:01

This is the Farmington Feed, bringing you information from the city of Farmington.

Caryn: 00:05

Hi, and welcome back to the Farmington Feed. I'm Caryn Hojnicki, the city's communications specialist, and I'm hungry for another episode of the Feed. This coming fall, there will be a familiar face from the police department moving on to the next stage of his life. Deputy chief Jim Constantineau will be retiring. So hello, and welcome to The Feed.

Jim: 00:23

Thanks, Caryn.

Caryn: 00:23

Thanks for coming. Our listeners have heard a little bit about police department in previous episodes. We did Toys For Town, and we talked about the K9 Smoke. But today's episode is gonna be a little different. You've been with the city of Farmington for most of your career, and we would like to hear about the department's history, how it came to be today. And you currently have what? An authorized strength of 27 full time?

Jim: 00:43

27. Correct.

Caryn: 00:44

And they do various auxiliary assignments as well.

Jim: 00:46

That's correct. Yep.

Caryn: 00:47

I know I should know this answer to my first question because you did tell us in our why Farmington video, but but I don't know the answer. So how long have you been with Farmington PD?

Jim: 00:55

I'm going on 25 years here.

Caryn: 00:57

Okay. Cool. Alright. So let's start with how you became interested in becoming a police officer.

Jim: 01:03

You know, a a lot of cops wanted to be a cop since they were little. There was their that was their their dream. Not me. I wanted to be an architect, you know.

Caryn: 01:12

Very different.

Jim: 01:13

Very different. Some you know, some people say that it was because I watched The Brady Bunch growing up, you know, for people that actually realize what that is. But that was also back in the day when computers didn't design buildings

Caryn: 01:24

so Oh for sure.

Jim: 01:24

I can add and subtract all day long. Algebra and I don't get along very well. So I so I realized that that wasn't in the cards so I had to figure out something else to do. My brother, my older brother was a cop in the city that we grew up in and I talked to him and looked at what he did and I thought, oh, I can do that.

Caryn: 01:41

Oh, I can do that. Yeah.

Jim: 01:43

And, that led to a 33 career in law enforcement.

Caryn: 01:46

33 years. Okay. So for those that haven't seen the Why Farmington video, Why Farmington?

Jim: 01:52

You know, for the for for the most part, Farmington's like a family. The employees have each other's backs. When one goes down or when one's down, everybody's down. Yeah. So we we we help each other out. We lift each other up. We work as a team, and we work collectively to get the job done. We do have we have had the, occasional crazy aunt or uncle, which families have too. But for the most part, it it's like a family.

Caryn: 02:15

Well, yeah. That's that's what you want. Right? Especially in your line of work. Mhmm. So as deputy chief, what are some of your responsibilities?

Jim: 02:23

You know, I joke that my job is to do everything that the chief doesn't want to do.

Caryn: 02:27

Oh, yeah.

Jim: 02:28

Yeah. But the truth is that that that chief Rutherford and I work very closely together. We each have our own different skill sets

Caryn: 02:36

Mhmm.

Jim: 02:36

And they they mesh together. My wife actually refers to us as peanut butter and jelly.

Caryn: 02:41

Okay.

Jim: 02:41

One of the things that I am responsible for is our budget and ensuring that our officers have the the tools and equipment they need to do their job while being fiscally responsible and staying under budget. And I'm proud to say that I've never gone over budget.

Caryn: 02:54

Speaking of budget, I know that you do you are involved with the squad cars.

Jim: 02:58

I am involved with the squad cars.

Caryn: 03:00

Yep. So how many are currently in the fleet?

Jim: 03:04

Well, you know, we I remember when we we built our current building, we, we'd open in 2002. We had 6 patrol cars.

Caryn: 03:10

Just 6?

Jim: 03:10

Six patrol cars. We didn't have any investigation cars. We just had 6 vehicles. So they built us a 6 car garage.

Caryn: 03:17

Okay.

Jim: 03:18

Right now, we currently have 12 patrol squads, 2 administrative squads, 4 investigator squads, and 4 training or special use vehicles.

Caryn: 03:26

And what's the math on that?

Jim: 03:28

22. 22.

Caryn: 03:30

Not algebra.

Jim: 03:31

Yep. Nope. You're adding and subtracting.

Caryn: 03:34

So all those cars, they have to just be in the parking lot.

Jim: 03:37

Other than the 6, and we've got 2 in a in a the jail garage. And Oh, okay. You know? So yeah.

Caryn: 03:43

Yeah. Okay. So what interests me about the squad cars is how they get their look. How does that happen?

Jim: 03:48

You know, our previous chief went to, talk to Adam Kurth at Blackfire Creative here in town and said, hey. We want a different look for our cars. We had done the black and whites and there we had them for about 10 years. And Adam came up with this new design that we've actually we've actually gone with. It it it's our look. It's our brand.

Caryn: 04:05

Yeah.

Jim: 04:05

And we order our squads black.

Caryn: 04:08

Okay.

Jim: 04:08

But they're they kinda look gray because they are fully wrapped in vinyl. Oh. Now doing that isn't cheap.

Caryn: 04:15

Right.

Jim: 04:15

But when we're done with the cars, when they get to their mileage cap and or their time cap and we're gonna get rid of them, we peel off the vinyl and the cars look brand new.

Caryn: 04:24

Oh, yeah. For sure.

Jim: 04:24

Which is really beneficial for resale.

Caryn: 04:26

Oh, yeah.

Jim: 04:27

So when you get because

Caryn: 04:28

that basically is protecting it.

Jim: 04:29

We actually we had a we had a we had a car that we sold a couple years ago. Tahoe. 2016 Tahoe running on 7 cylinders because it had a problem, and we got $16,000 for it. Yeah. You know, it's it's a little bit more upfront, but then we we get it get it back at the back end.

Caryn: 04:45

Oh, yeah. For sure. Yep. That seems like a really cool job too to be the person that wraps the cars.

Jim: 04:52

Yep. Yep. I couldn't I couldn't do it. No. I can't do algebra either.

Caryn: 04:55

So so tell me a little bit about your favorite part about Farmington PD.

Jim: 05:01

The people you know, it's it's gonna be hard to leave. Yeah. I mean, this has been this has been my my life for 25 years, even longer if you consider where I came from. It's it's the people.

Caryn: 05:13

Because you're a family and you're so close. Right.

Jim: 05:16

Right. But it's also the I will tell you, it's also the, the community.

Caryn: 05:19

Oh, yeah.

Jim: 05:19

I mean, the last few years have not been fun to be a cop.

Caryn: 05:22

Right.

Jim: 05:23

And our community showed its true colors, and they came out to support us. Yeah. And it's gonna be hard to walk away from.

Caryn: 05:31

Yeah. And I'm sure they appreciate the support that you give the community. Yep. What would you say to your younger self about being a police officer if you could go back?

Jim: 05:40

Yeah. I would say take it easy on the donuts. But truly, I I would I would say that don't take yourself so seriously.

Caryn: 05:51

Okay.

Jim: 05:52

You're not gonna save the world on your own.

Caryn: 05:54

Mhmm.

Jim: 05:55

You are but one puzzle piece of the the greater puzzle. And when you combine you put several pieces together, you start to see the big picture.

Caryn: 06:06

Right.

Jim: 06:06

And we are just we are one big team. You could say statewide, nationwide, globally

Caryn: 06:13

Mhmm.

Jim: 06:14

That our job is to our job is to help people. Our job is to protect people. Yeah. And you're not gonna change the world by yourself.

Caryn: 06:21

Right.

Jim: 06:22

So remember, there's no I in team. You work as a team.

Caryn: 06:25

I mean, that's a simple thing that you probably learned in elementary school. But Right. Realizing it is is kind of for full circle.

Jim: 06:31

Yep.

Caryn: 06:32

So let's get to the reason we're here today to talk about the history of the police department

Jim: 06:36

k.

Caryn: 06:36

Since you've been here a while. I haven't been here long, but I do know that on that, throwback patch, it says, 1872. So that's when the department began. Correct?

Jim: 06:46

So 1872 was the year that the first constable was hired.

Caryn: 06:50

Okay.

Jim: 06:51

So that's we bring that to the origin of the department.

Caryn: 06:53

Okay. You

Jim: 06:54

know, they they called it the town constable but, you know, it it goes back that far.

Caryn: 06:59

Okay.

Jim: 06:59

We don't have much more information other than that from from that time frame.

Caryn: 07:03

So do you know who the first police chief was?

Jim: 07:06

Records are a little contradictory from that time frame, but as far as we can tell, the first chief was George McCluskey.

Caryn: 07:12

Okay.

Jim: 07:12

He was chief from 1938 to 1952, but he was also a constable from 1917 to 1930. When he retired at in 1952, he was 78 years old. I can't I can't imagine working.

Caryn: 07:25

You still wanna be doing this? No.

Jim: 07:27

No.

Caryn: 07:27

That's why you are retiring before that.

Jim: 07:29

Yeah. 55 is enough. An interesting story about George is that he used to hang out at Lyle's Cafe which was on the ground floor of the Exchange Bank building. That's where Homestead Community Church is now.

Caryn: 07:40

Oh yep. Yep.

Jim: 07:41

And there was a light mounted high on the corner of the Fletcher building which is where Heikkila Studios is across the street. And when somebody would call the operator and needed police assistance the operator would flip a switch and the light would go on and then George would know hey there's a problem and call into the operator and not figure out what's going on.

Caryn: 07:59

Oh.

Jim: 08:00

George didn't have a car

Caryn: 08:01

Okay.

Jim: 08:02

And he didn't drive. So he would either hoof it.

Caryn: 08:04

That's interesting.

Jim: 08:05

He would either hoof it. K. Or he would hitch a ride with somebody. Oh. And Farmington was a bit smaller.

Jim: 08:10

It was only about 1 square mile at that at that point.

Caryn: 08:12

Where people were living. Yeah. Okay. I was like, how would he get there on time?

Caryn: 08:16

Exactly.

Caryn: 08:18

And kids, today wouldn't even understand any of that because they have their cell phones and on demand TV and don't get how they can't get what they want right now.

Jim: 08:26

Right. Yeah. And not just kids.

Caryn: 08:28

True. True. So you started in 1999. So how many officers did they have at that time?

Jim: 08:34

I was the 12th officer.

Caryn: 08:36

Okay.

Jim: 08:36

And, the population we had here was about 12,000 to put that in in in perspective.

Caryn: 08:41

Is that like a normal ratio for

Jim: 08:43

It was. That was that at the time it was. Now there's a little bit little bit different. Things are a lot different than

Caryn: 08:50

Well in

Jim: 08:50

the last 25 years.

Caryn: 08:51

Well, of of course. So what type of squad car did you drive when you first started?

Jim: 08:57

We drove the good old Crown Victoria. The Ford Crown Victoria. They were a great and fun car to drive

Caryn: 09:04

Yeah.

Jim: 09:04

But only on dry pavement.

Caryn: 09:06

Only on dry pavement?

Jim: 09:07

They weren't great in the rain

Caryn: 09:08

Okay. And

Jim: 09:09

passable, but forget about the snow. I mean, it's really rear wheel drive.

Caryn: 09:12

Really?

Jim: 09:12

It was yeah. Yep. I remember times during significant snow events.

Caryn: 09:17

Mhmm.

Jim: 09:17

We would borrow the 4 wheel drive pickup trucks from the fire department so we could get around.

Caryn: 09:22

Yeah. Okay.

Jim: 09:22

Yeah. So just imagine somebody's surprise if you if they're doing something stupid like donuts and, you know, and and stuff like that in the road during a snowstorm and they get pulled over by a fire truck. I mean yeah.

Caryn: 09:32

They'd be like, what are you doing? Oh, wait. It's a police officer.

Jim: 09:35

Yep.

Caryn: 09:36

So what do the officers drive now?

Jim: 09:38

Right now, it's, the the fleet is made up of a combination of the, the Ford Interceptor utilities, which is the Explorer

Caryn: 09:46

Okay.

Jim: 09:46

And the Chevy Tahoe.

Caryn: 09:47

Okay.

Jim: 09:48

We've got a plan in place that by 2026, the fleet will be the patrol fleet will be all Tahoes.

Caryn: 09:53

Okay.

Jim: 09:53

This is being done for two reasons. 1st, the Tahoes are more readily available.

Caryn: 09:56

Okay. Yeah. That's a big deal. I mean, they can't necessarily get certain things when you want them.

Jim: 10:01

I think I read that that the sheriff's office is still waiting on, utilities from 3 years ago.

Caryn: 10:06

Oh my gosh.

Jim: 10:07

The other difference though is that the value the residual value when we're done with them is significantly higher

Caryn: 10:13

Oh, yeah. For the Tahoe.

Jim: 10:13

So it'll offset the cost.

Caryn: 10:15

Right. Yeah. Okay. So maybe I should look into getting a Tahoe that was formerly a squad car.

Jim: 10:21

Well, maybe. But but the one thing to keep in mind is that they're not the Tahoe that you go to the the Belzer's and and and buy. You know, it's not luxury by any stretch of the imagination.

Caryn: 10:30

Oh, I don't have a luxury vehicle. Trust me. So, let's get a little serious for a minute. So, can you talk a little bit about who your mentor was, when you were first starting off or maybe now or maybe halfway through your career?

Jim: 10:44

You know, that is that's a difficult question because I have had so many, both personally and professionally. You know, my dad taught me that I could do anything I set my mind to. Yeah. My brother who lured me into law enforcement. I don't know whether to thank him or curse him, but

Caryn: 10:59

Okay. Now you're saying he he lured you.

Jim: 11:01

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. No.

Jim: 11:02

No. He also did say, yeah, you can when I said I can do this, he said, yeah, you can. Yeah. And he had a successful 34 year career himself.

Caryn: 11:10

Well, that's good to have the family support.

Jim: 11:12

Yep. Yep. I learned something from each chief and supervisor I've ever had. You know, chief Siebenaler was my first chief here, and then chief Lindquist was chief for 12 years. And now, of course, chief Rutherford, taught me a lot, and he's the one who saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself. And he's the one who promoted me to to a deputy chief.

Caryn: 11:31

Yeah.

Jim: 11:32

I I would be remiss if I didn't mention Jim Murphy. He retired as our detective sergeant just a few months ago, and he was a great mentor. And he was my go to guy to bounce ideas off of.

Caryn: 11:43

Mmh

Jim: 11:44

didn't wasn't shy about saying, yeah. Yeah. It's not a good idea. Or no. That's good.

Jim: 11:48

Yeah. So It's

Caryn: 11:48

really gonna have that.

Jim: 11:49

Yep.

Caryn: 11:50

Talking about all those mentors, it was great. But what's the most important lesson that you've learned from them?

Jim: 11:56

I think the most important lesson that I learned from them was as a leader, treat others as you would want to be treated.

Caryn: 12:03

Mhmm. Yeah. Because that's that's key. I mean, you don't want to be what you don't want.

Jim: 12:10

Right. Right. And, you know, it's cliche.

Caryn: 12:12

Yeah. It is.

Jim: 12:13

But it works. True. It's it's true. Yep.

Caryn: 12:16

I know the station you mentioned was not always where it currently is. Where was it before?

Jim: 12:21

The station was in the old city hall, and that building is the currently the Rambling River Center.

Caryn: 12:26

Oh, yeah.

Jim: 12:27

And anybody that's familiar with the Rambling River Center, the police department's 1200 square feet that we had was where the I think it's the craft room

Caryn: 12:35

Okay.

Jim: 12:36

And the train room.

Caryn: 12:36

Well, that's so confusing. I don't even know where I'm going in that room. Right.

Jim: 12:40

I don't even I don't need anymore either. And, you know in a year it's gonna be totally different again. But, yeah, we had 1200 square feet and we thought we were in heaven when we moved into our current facility Right. In 2002 because we had 15,000 square feet.

Caryn: 12:53

Yeah. That's a really nice building.

Jim: 12:54

We used to have one computer for all the officers to do work on and then we moved it to a building. Everybody had their own cube in it in their own computer.

Caryn: 13:01

Oh, yeah. That's a big change.

Jim: 13:02

That is a big change, but we're bursting at the seams now because we're you know, the plan was for the building to be adequate for 20 years And I guess that worked. But

Caryn: 13:10

Oh, yeah. Because it's 2024 now.

Jim: 13:12

Yep. Yep.

Caryn: 13:13

So you're, at a the strength of 27, you said.

Jim: 13:16

Yep.

Caryn: 13:17

Right? And so that building was not necessarily built for 27.

Jim: 13:20

Correct.

Caryn: 13:21

Okay.

Jim: 13:21

Plus we have 3 civilians and we're hiring 2 community service officers.

Caryn: 13:25

Oh, yeah. The 2 of those.

Jim: 13:26

We'll be at 32 employees here soon.

Caryn: 13:29

Okay. Speaking of changes, what has changed the most during your time?

Jim: 13:33

I would say the the way that we work. When we when I started, we didn't have computers in our squads. We had notepads.

Caryn: 13:40

Okay.

Jim: 13:41

And we had one computer as I mentioned for the officers to use. We dictated all of our reports.

Caryn: 13:46

Oh, wow.

Jim: 13:47

And the record staff would then type them for us. Mhmm. Now everything is computer based and integrated. And you type in a name once, and you never have to type it in again. Right.

Jim: 13:56

Reports get routed wherever they need to go. And, you know, if we tow a vehicle, we do that on the computer and hit send, and it goes to Dick's. And and if we have to take somebody to jail, we do it on the computer and hit send and it goes to right into the jail system. And so it everything is much more efficient.

Caryn: 14:13

Oh, for sure. Yeah. Computers are good good for that sort of thing. And but they also can be

Jim: 14:20

Right. When they go down when they go down, it's

Caryn: 14:22

like Same.

Jim: 14:23

The people that people that have always had computers in their cars are like, I I can't work now. I'm like, really?

Caryn: 14:27

Take a notepad. Write

Jim: 14:28

it down.

Caryn: 14:30

Yeah. Probably not in cursive.

Jim: 14:33

Probably not. Yeah. No.

Caryn: 14:35

Tell me about other fun facts that you know about Farmington PD that, you know, either were passed down from other officers or just during your time here.

Jim: 14:43

Well, I'm gonna tell this story at my own expense. Oh. Back when we were at the old PD, we didn't have a bathroom within the PD.

Caryn: 14:53

Wait. What?

Jim: 14:53

We didn't have a bathroom in the PD itself.

Caryn: 14:55

Oh.

Jim: 14:56

We were in city hall, so we'd have to go out into the lobby of city hall and use the restroom.

Caryn: 14:59

You had to use the lobby restroom?

Jim: 15:01

We had to use a lobby restroom. Okay. We we did have 2 jail cells with toilets in them. Oh. And one night I was working by myself and I needed to use the restroom.

Caryn: 15:10

It was

Jim: 15:10

the middle of the night. And, what do you do when you go into a bathroom? You close the door. Right. So I went in the cell and closed the door.

Jim: 15:18

Now in our new building, the doors you have to literally turn a key to lock the doors.

Caryn: 15:22

Okay.

Jim: 15:23

Not so much in the old cells. They automatically locked.

Caryn: 15:25

Okay.

Jim: 15:26

So here I was in a jail cell working alone by myself with no way to get out. Our radios because the the I mean, everything is concrete. Our radios didn't transmit out of the jail cell.

Caryn: 15:38

Okay.

Jim: 15:38

So I couldn't call dispatch.

Caryn: 15:40

Mhmm.

Jim: 15:40

And cell phones weren't common then, but I had one.

Caryn: 15:43

So I

Jim: 15:44

had one in my pocket. So I called dispatch and told her I was locked in the in the in the cell. And at first, she thought that somebody had locked me in there and she started freaking out.

Caryn: 15:53

Oh, yeah. That could be very bad.

Jim: 15:56

When I explained what had happened.

Caryn: 15:58

Like, I was just going to the bathroom.

Jim: 15:59

Just yep. And 5 minutes later when she finally stopped laughing, she said she would send an officer to come let me out. So, Lakeville officer came and and and let me out. The dispatcher name was Debbie. Of course, word spread like wildfire.

Caryn: 16:12

Of course. Happened.

Jim: 16:14

And honestly, with stuff like that, cops can be ruthless. Uh-huh. So I expected incessant ribbing.

Caryn: 16:20

Uh-huh. For sure.

Jim: 16:21

But that didn't materialize.

Caryn: 16:23

Oh. All

Jim: 16:23

I got was photocopies of the, get out of jail free card.

Caryn: 16:27

From monopoly?

Jim: 16:28

From monopoly. From monopoly. And they were everywhere. But it turns out I wasn't the first one to have done that.

Caryn: 16:34

Oh, okay. Well And I

Jim: 16:35

don't know

Caryn: 16:35

that I don't know

Jim: 16:36

that I was the last one either.

Caryn: 16:37

Right. And so they don't feel bad. Yep. Oh, that's awesome. I do usually ask the question, what's the funniest thing that has happened?

Caryn: 16:43

And some people have really good answers, and some people don't have any. But I like yours.

Jim: 16:47

That's pretty good.

Caryn: 16:48

You don't even have to ask it. Yeah. Let's switch topics for a minute and, finish up kinda with resources available to police officers. So, you know, there's obviously a lot more available now than there was then. I've you know, you only had 6 squad cars and Right.

Caryn: 17:04

One computer at one point. So now there's way more. What is available for your staff and officers and and and even in terms of, like, mental health or well-being? Because that's so important right now.

Jim: 17:14

You know, you're very right. Back when I started my career, mental health, there was a there was a stigma with that. Right. Nobody would nobody, you know, you weren't strong if you admitted that you had you have some stuff going on. That has changed.

Caryn: 17:26

And that's so great that it's changed.

Jim: 17:29

It's huge. It's huge. And, I tell a story that I'm not gonna get into that, you know, my grandmother was killed in an accident while I was on my honeymoon and that it that affected me. And I actually talked to somebody about it and it made it so much better. And I told that story when I was working the road. I told that story to people that were in crisis a lot. Yeah. And how, there should be no stigma. It's no different than going to a doctor to get blood pressure medication. It's just and so we have embraced it with with the help of the the administration in the city. We have embraced mental health and mental wellness. Yeah, we require each employee. It's not just the officers. It's our civilian employees as well. We require them to do a confidential check-in with our mental health provider once a year.

Caryn: 18:15

Okay.

Jim: 18:16

And if the mental health provider feels that there are more visits would be beneficial.

Caryn: 18:21

Mhmm.

Jim: 18:21

We provide that.

Caryn: 18:22

Oh, that's good

Jim: 18:23

for them.

Caryn: 18:24

Because that's a big thing is cost to

Jim: 18:25

it is cost and it's

Caryn: 18:27

And availability. It's hard to get appointments.

Jim: 18:29

It is not not where we go.

Caryn: 18:31

That's great.

Jim: 18:31

And all we find out is that a person has done x number of visits.

Caryn: 18:35

So confidential.

Jim: 18:36

So we don't know who's gone there. We don't know, and that makes it much more palatable for people.

Caryn: 18:41

Right. They don't want people to know about it too. Correct.

Jim: 18:43

And it's really really, unless it's affecting their work, it's none of our business.

Caryn: 18:47

Exactly. Yeah. That's great. That's a good benefit. How has policing changed over the years? You know, maybe just dealing with mental health issues or just community support, etcetera. I mean, we you touched on it a little bit earlier, but

Jim: 19:00

Things have changed a lot when I think about the training that I received early in my career like in the early nineties compared to now I think wow we really weren't trained well at all. But part of that is that we didn't need to be the calls weren't as complicated as they are today. We had mental health calls back then but they were few and far between.

Caryn: 19:18

Right.

Jim: 19:19

And now they're all the time. So our training has evolved. I remember when I was in college I had to take 3 separate psychology classes. And the sentiment amongst us students were like, why on earth do we need these? Well, now it's pretty obvious.

Caryn: 19:33

I think everybody needs them.

Jim: 19:35

Absolutely. It did. Yeah. Absolutely.

Caryn: 19:37

I mean, I I took it for fun when I was in college, but I mean, it's important.

Jim: 19:41

Right. Took it for fun.

Caryn: 19:42

I did.

Jim: 19:43

I suppose you took algebra too.

Caryn: 19:45

Actually, I didn't. But but, yeah, like, I think just people knowing knowing the the background and and whether it happens to them or not or someone in their family, like, just having the knowledge about

Jim: 19:57

it. Absolutely.

Caryn: 19:58

And and the courage to talk about it and and have people talk about it with them.

Jim: 20:02

Right? Absolutely.

Caryn: 20:03

Well, is there anything else that you wanted to mention about the history of Farmington PD or what you wanna leave your, your community with before you retire?

Jim: 20:13

You know, this community is amazing. And from, you know, from Toys for Town, which you talked about in a in a in a separate, episode. Yeah. This community just comes together and they just they just explode and they are so supportive of us.

Caryn: 20:26

For sure.

Jim: 20:27

During the civil unrest from a few years ago, I think I probably gained 5 lbs because of all the treats that people brought in. Yeah. And they didn't know what to do and they just wanted to show their support. And they I think they realized I think most people realize that you know 98% of the cops out there today are good people. Every profession has has bad people in it.

Caryn: 20:46

For sure.

Jim: 20:46

And we're not immune from that. Yeah and we've been doing a better job of trying to weed out the bad apples and the communities know that we've been pretty lucky here in farmington that we we haven't had any issues but the residents get it and they they support us and that has kept me going

Caryn: 21:04

yeah Well, yeah, you need support. You can't just again, can't do it on your own.

Jim: 21:08

Yep. Exactly.

Caryn: 21:09

And if they want to show your support, they can bring treats that are healthy as well. Right?

Jim: 21:12

Absolutely. We've gotten lots of fruit. We've gotten lots of fruit.

Caryn: 21:16

So I know our safety and wellness committee brought some. Yep. By one one of the days, and they're like, oh, wow. It's not donuts or cookies.

Jim: 21:22

Right. Right.

Caryn: 21:23

Sometimes you don't want that. Right? But Yep. But you always do like a treat.

Jim: 21:26

Sometimes you do. Yep.

Caryn: 21:27

Yeah. So, I do wanna thank you for coming today and talking a little bit about yourself and your and the history of the department. And I hope that you thoroughly enjoy your retirement, and I'm sure the chief will miss your half of the peanut butter and jelly.

Jim: 21:39

Yep. Not sure which one I am. Let him decide.

Caryn: 21:43

I don't know either. So, but before I wrap up today's episode, I want to remind listeners about some upcoming police department outreach events. The Pink Patch Project starts October 1st, and you can get your pink swag at the police station during their lobby hours, Monday through Friday, 8 to 4:30 until October 31st. And save the date for toys for town wrapping day. It will be Saturday, December 14th starting at 9 AM, and just show up ready to wrap at Farmington High School.

Caryn: 22:08

Well, 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 Farmington Feed wherever you like to get your podcasts.