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My personal journey to the Becker County Sheriff’s Office...
★ The early years
As much as I would like to begin this narrative with “I am a hometown boy that grew up right here in Becker County…..”, I am not native to Becker County. I was born in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1975 to my parents, Kathleen and Dennis Richard. My father’s family was a farming family from the Horace/Wild Rice, ND area. Unfortunately, my father was born with a genetic heart defect and at an early age, underwent an experimental surgery to repair a hole in his heart. Before the surgery, his oxygen levels were depleted to a point that he could not enjoy physical activities with children his age, and one example I was told was that in church, he would have to sit down halfway back after receiving communion due to him having used up the little bit of oxygen in his system. The surgery was successful, however, what was unknown at the time, was that due to it being an experimental surgery, it also created a significant amount of trauma to the surgery area in and around his heart. After the surgery, my father Dennis was able to lead a full and productive life. He later became a laborer as welder at Westgo Company in West Fargo and married my mother.
My mother’s family was from the Valley City, ND area and was also a farming family. My mother worked in various jobs as an office support person. She later worked for West Fargo Insurance Agency and became an insurance agent after the company was purchased by Dawson Insurance. She is now retired and still lives in the Fargo area.
My father died at the age of 27 due to complications from the experimental surgery he had received. He was part of two groups that received the experimental surgery, and most had already passed away when he died. Much was learned from the experimental surgery he underwent, and as such has since become a fairly common procedure that is now associated with a long, healthy life. His quality of life was drastically better during those few years, which not only allowed him to live a normal, productive life, but also to obtain a career and create a family. This also allowed the medical field to later provide the same quality of life to others with his condition, but to live out a long life. At the time of my father’s passing, I was only 3 years old, my middle sister was 1, and my mother was pregnant with my youngest sister. Due to my age, my memories of my father are very limited, but my extended family didn’t allow us to grow up without knowing what the definition of family was.
I remember my young years being filled with large family gatherings with Grandpa, Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Every holiday, we would get together to celebrate the given holiday. My childhood was pretty normal, growing up in West Fargo. Those days were filled with running around the neighborhood playing football, building forts, fishing in the Sheyenne River, hanging out in the neighborhood park, etc. I graduated from West Fargo High School and didn’t know what I wanted to do with life, so I didn’t immediately go to college. I worked several jobs in the West Fargo area at local businesses.
I also spent my summers in Lake of the Woods working for a teenage camp called Laketrails Canoe Camp located on Oak Island. I believe Laketrails really helped my mother raise me as a kid. Spending summers on an island in Lake of the Woods at Laketrails kept me away from the temptations of trouble back in the “big city”. I worked as a camper worker, and later a canoe guide, going on up to seven 70 to 120-mile canoe trips a summer into the Canadian side of LOW. This included lots of paddling, camping, portaging (carrying all of our equipment over land into lakes only accessible by portaging or by float plane), going to waterfalls, exploring old logging camps from the 1800’s, bonfires, etc. This also led to the best fishing I have ever experienced, as many of those lakes that we portaged into are rarely fished. Off time on base camp was spent sailing, kayaking, fishing around the island, mowing the island’s trails, fixing cabins and boats, playing volleyball, repairing equipment, etc. It gave me an appreciation for not only hard work, but what nature has to offer in such an incredible part of our area. Over those many summers until the age of 23, I put on around 2,500 miles by canoe.
★ Two ride-alongs that set my course…
My path to Law Enforcement started at around the age of 20 when my mother asked me something like, “If you could do anything you wanted, what would you want to do with your life?”. I told her I really didn’t know, but I listed a few ideas, one of which was a Peace Officer. I really thought it was just a dream, as “special” people were Peace Officers. Not someone who grew up in a normal life like me. She told me that I had a 2nd cousin who was a Peace Officer and worked for the Fargo Police Department at that time. I have a very large family, so I didn’t even really know all my extended cousins. She got me in touch with him, and I scheduled my first ride-along….
I remember that night vividly. It was an action-packed Saturday night in Fargo. He worked the downtown area of Fargo, and we went from call to call to call, including a large bar fight at Rick’s Bar, where there were at least 7 squads that showed up, and they were pulling person after person out of the bar. Unfortunately, I was not 21 years old yet, and had told me before arriving that I wasn’t able to go in (he was probably also keeping me safe, looking back….), but seeing the line of squads arriving with officer after officer running into the bar was imprinted into my brain. Later that night, we got into a pursuit with a vehicle that nearly ran over another Fargo Officer. We also arrested a person for DWI and had several other calls. It was an action-packed night that hooked me early on in that ride-along that night. I knew this was what I had been waiting for in my life, and knew my path was set within the first 20 minutes that night. I remember not being able to sleep afterwards, even though it was 4 in the morning when I got done. I remember thinking that I couldn’t believe people actually get paid to do this.
I did one more ride-along with my cousin before I committed to the career, which I was glad I did. That night was completely different. That night exposed me to the sadness, trauma, and dark side of law enforcement that most people don’t know or understand. That night, we responded to a domestic assault at a downtown bar, in which a female had been severely beaten by her boyfriend and had fled the scene. I again have vivid memories of that night. I remember the female’s brown or black hair being so blood-filled that it looked like mud stuck to her face. What could be seen of her face showed severe swelling, and her one eye was swelling shut. After getting her to the ER for medical assistance and “cleaned up”, we were able to get a statement from her about the incident and went to bring her back to her apartment, as she wasn’t able to drive. When we arrived at her apartment, we found her assaultive boyfriend didn’t stop there. Afterwards while we were at the hospital, he had gone to her apartment and kicked in her door, destroyed everything in her apartment, and left her no safe place to hide from him. I remember her refusing to stay anywhere else, and my cousin pleading with her to allow us to find her somewhere else to stay that night. She insisted this was her home and she was going to stay there. I remember feeling so frustrated that we couldn’t make her leave, but she insisted she did not want any further help and was staying in her apartment that night with her door broken off the hinges. I didn’t understand how, after how severely she was assaulted, she wouldn’t leave her apartment to seek somewhere safe. Leaving that building, I remember a sinking feeling inside, because there was nothing more we could do as it was ultimately her choice. We went to some other vehicle break-ins where people felt victimized and spent time taking reports of stolen items and searching the area for the offenders, but were unable to locate who had committed the crimes.
The night slowed down, and very early Sunday morning, just before shift end, a call came in of a deceased person in north Fargo. We responded with two other officers. A sweet elderly lady had woken up in bed next to her husband of many years and found him deceased. The family had begun to gather in the home, and everyone was crying. I remember seeing the look of emptiness in the wife’s face and the family looking lost. Part of “the job” is that all deaths need to be investigated to make sure there are no signs of foul play or suspicious or questionable circumstances. I remember being in the bedroom with the officers who were looking over, moving, and searching the husband for any signs that would indicate it was anything other than natural causes. That was the first time I had seen a dead person, and I remember how I’d felt awkward being so close to him. After they determined nothing was suspicious, we went out again with the family and collected necessary information, but sat with them until the funeral home and a pastor arrived. I remember the compassion the officers provided to the family during such a terrible time of loss and how there were no words that could stop the grief they were experiencing, but the words and actions by the officers seemed to help in some small way. We cleared from the residence, and the shift ended.
This time, there was not the “high” I had experienced on the first ride-along. I remember thinking how differently I felt after this ride-along. It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t action-packed, it wasn’t like a movie that everyone wanted to see on the big screen. It was sad. It exposed me to a different side of Peace Officers and Law Enforcement. Everyone thinks about the “COPS” episodes they grew up watching as a kid, and remembers the exciting episodes. No one really talks about or remembers the sad episodes. They typically don’t show the dead bodies, the suicides, the trauma, and the pain and suffering. I remember taking some time after this night to decide if this was something I could handle and deal with over a 30-year career. Sure, the car chase, foot chases, bar fights, driving fast to crashes, etc., were exciting and fun, but you don’t just get to do the fun stuff. Someone has to do the sad stuff. If you want this job, YOU have to do the sad stuff. I remember looking internally to make sure I could handle the sad stuff, and could I handle the sad stuff for 30 years? I remember thinking that I believed that I dealt with bad stuff in life pretty well, even though no one really wants to. Not that I would enjoy it, but when something bad happens, someone has to take the report, someone has to take the photos, someone has to call the funeral home, someone has to get people's information, someone has to touch the dead bodies, someone has to do it. If I don’t, someone else has to. In the words of Isaiah 6:8, “Here I am, God. Send me.” So I decided that my path was now chosen, I wanted it to be me.
★ Starting a journey on my chosen path…
Shortly thereafter, I applied for Alexandria Technical College, which was then one of the premier Law Enforcement Schools in the nation. There were times when they had more applicants than openings for students and would place students on a one-year waiting list. I remember thinking that if I were put on a waiting list, I would enlist in the military for a few years, then return to get my schooling through the GI bill, but continue on the path of Law Enforcement. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was accepted into Alexandria Technical College and began schooling in 1996. I look back and now believe that if I had enlisted in the military, I may have stayed and made a career there, but this was the path my life took. I completed my schooling in Alexandria in the spring of 1998 and passed my POST (Peace Officer’s Standards and Training) test shortly thereafter. That summer, I worked for the Detroit Lakes Police Department as a cadet (not a licensed officer) over the 4th of July weekend, which I absolutely loved. I rode with Officer Chris Bragelman and got to meet many of the Detroit Lakes cops, one of whom was then Officer Todd Glander, amongst many others. That was just a week-long employment for the July 4th celebration. In December of 1998, I got my first actual Peace Officer job that activated my MN Peace Officer license when I was hired part-time with the Dilworth Police Department. I loved working for Dilworth, but unfortunately, it was very part-time, and there were no guaranteed hours, and due to being a small Police Department at that time, there weren’t any opportunities for advancement to a full-time position. I remember my Chief at the time, Dave Miller, telling me that he wanted to bring me on full-time, but just didn’t have a spot available for me. He told me that I needed to start applying for other agencies because I was meant for better things than working a couple of shifts a month here and there.
I started putting out applications around the state at that time, and shortly thereafter, two agencies had me filling out background packets: the Minneapolis Police Department and the Becker County Sheriff’s Office. My background progressed faster with the Becker County Sheriff’s Office, and Sheriff Tom Hunt and Chief Deputy Warren Rethwisch offered me the position first. I humbly and immediately accepted the position and started with the Becker County Sheriff’s Office in November of 1999. I truly thought the Becker County Sheriff’s Office was just going to be a stepping stone to going somewhere more “action-packed” like one of the metro Police Departments. I remember classmates from school talking about going to the metro area for where the action is and that was where most of them were going.
I began my training with my field training officer on the night shift. I remember not knowing A THING about Becker County and looking diligently at the map as we left the city of Detroit Lakes and headed east on Highway 34. We made a loop and went to Osage, Ponsford/Pine Point, White Earth, and back to Detroit Lakes, stopping a few cars and taking a few calls along the way. I was so turned around, I didn’t even know if we were still in Minnesota! It took a little time, but in those next weeks, I pored over the maps and started to get my feet under me with the geography. I remember I was only a few weeks into my field training when I fell in love with Becker County. The people, the Sheriff’s Office staff, the Officers on the Police Departments, the scenery, the lakes, the action in this county, the action at WE Fest, the lakes, the farmland, the forests, and on and on. I realized this county had EVERYTHING I could ever want and knew I was so lucky to have been given a chance to be a Deputy here, and was here to stay. I wanted to give my heart and soul to the people of Becker County and to the Sheriff’s Office for taking a chance on a green, young and dumb, out-of-town kid with only a few months of part-time experience. This is where I wanted to go to the bar fights, get in the chases, go to crashes, go to the fires, go to all the exciting calls, but to also be there when people were experiencing their worst. Be there when they have that look of emptiness in their face. Be there when they are crying. Be there when they need someone. Be there when they need anyone. Becker County is where I wanted that person to be me. I want to thank you for letting that person be me…….