By Bruce Karnick

Tuesday evening, August 11th, the Hastings THRIVE team held a community discussion with 6 members of local law enforcement around implicit bias and systemic racism in policing the community of Hastings and Dakota County. The panel consisted of two minority officers, Dawanna Witt, a female officer, formerly of the Dakota County Sheriff’s office, now a Major with Hennepin County and Leondo Henry a male deputy of the DCSO. The other four panelists were DCSO Sheriff Tim Leslie, Hastings Police Chief Bryan Schafer, Deputy Chief David Wilske and Sergeant Ryan Klein. All six panelists seemed to have extensive knowledge of each other and were very much in tune with what each had to say.

The event started with introductions by Moderators Dozier Hunter and Mark Zuzek then each of the panelists. After introductions, they went into a moderator-led discussion around current topics related to race relations and the organizations tasked with serving and protecting them. Later, the audience had an opportunity to ask questions and the panel was happy to answer them. Some of the topics covered were around recruiting, especially recruiting minorities. Sheriff Leslie explained that Dakota County is one of the best in the state for diversity at 22% of the staff being minorities. Finding a female officer is tough, finding a minority female officer is like finding that “unicorn” as Leslie put it. Major Witt seemed to “steal the show” with not only the content and intelligence of what she said, but her personality, often drawing laughs from the crowd and panel. When the discussion moved to mental health experts being available to assist officers, both with the public and the officer’s needs, Chief Schafer explained the efforts in the area for helping with the public. It is being looked at in a few communities but there are logistical and cost concerns. Regarding the mental health of officers, every department handles things differently.

See THRIVE, Page 3

Hastings area community members engaged in discussing how local law enforcement duties are constantly changing and adapting with the needs of the community, including how law enforcement officers strive to ensure racial equality. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Left to right THRIVE moderators Dozier Hunter and Mark Zuzek. Panel members Major Dawanna Witt HCSO, Deputy Leondo Henry DCSO, Sheriff Tim Leslie DCSO, Police Chief Bryan Schafer HPD, Deputy Chief David Wilske HPD and Sergeant Ryan Klein HPD. Photo by Bruce Karnick Thrive

From Page 1

Hastings does track officer activities for red flags to ensure the officers mental health and there are evaluations done. There are also programs available for officers to receive help either for peer support or with experts. Dakota County has a program they call “a check up from the neck up” where they are evaluated once a year. Witt added, “For a long time where law enforcement didn’t feel like it was ok to say ‘hey that really bothered me’ and the platform is out there now, the avenues are out there now for people to seek help and it’s more accepted. That’s huge.”

The whole night presented a lot of great information regarding how our local law enforcement agencies expect their officers to perform and how they are held accountable to that expectation. They want the people of Hastings to trust them, they want everyone in Hastings to feel safe, regardless of skin color. Currently, HPD is rolling out an updated policy manual that is 550+ pages long. Think about that, 550+ pages of a policy manual. Could you actively remember the company policy manual for where you work right now?

The whole event officially lasted an hour and a half, but people stayed after and had their own mini group discussions. There were roughly 60 people in the audience on a lovely Tuesday night, including several local officials.

Hastings Community television was there to cover the event and has the video on their Facebook page and YouTube Channel. The “Thrive in Hastings MN” Facebook page also has links to the video as well as additional photos contributed by the Hastings Journal as well as those in attendance.