Please tell us how you came to work at the Metro Transit Police Department.
I started with Metro Transit back in 2012. At that time, there were 500 or more people applying for one position. I was working as a reservist for the Hastings Police Department, and I was encouraged to apply for the Metro Transit Police Department by Hastings’ chief, who has worked at MTPD for a while. He said it was a great place, so I applied. I got the job, and I just fell in love with transit. I love that every day is different, and I love the people we deal with. I am a people person. I truly love helping people, and I especially love helping people who can’t help themselves.
Back in the day, we used to have a regular named Johnny Johnson. He was probably in his 60s or 70s, and he used to set up shop on 38th and Hiawatha. I had heard a lot about him and that he was kind of hard to deal with. The first time I met him was on Christmas Eve. When I saw him on our system, I went up and introduced myself, and from there we started building a relationship. We’d talk about the Twins and things like that, and for the next five years or so I would check in on him regularly.
Unfortunately, Johnny later died on our system, likely of a heart attack. I called the medical examiner to find out what was going to happen with Johnny, and they hadn’t been able to find any next of kin. I did some digging, and I ended up finding his family in a small town in Texas. They didn’t know that he was living on our system or that he had passed away, and they didn’t have any money to transport him down to Texas. I worked with the Cremation Society of Minnesota and we had him cremated. We had a little service for Johnny here at the police department, and we paid to send his remains to Texas to be with his family. We also raised a little money to send down to them so they could have their own service for him. That’s what it’s all about for me. Everybody deserves dignity, everybody deserves respect, no matter where they’re at in life.
What do you do in your current role?
I am a patrol sergeant on the day shift. That means there’s a lot of administrative stuff, but I also go out on patrol and support my officers. I’m not one who wants to sit in an office all day, I want to be out there in the field. It’s really important to me to set a good tone. I try to be the nicest cop anyone has ever met, because if I go out there and have a positive interaction with someone, then maybe that helps things go smoother if that person has another interaction with another officer down the line.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I’m married and I have two little girls. Obviously, they have me wrapped around their little fingers. We have a family friend who has a cabin in Wisconsin, so we go there quite a bit in the summertime. But my big activity is coaching. I’ve coached football for Minneapolis North High since 2016, and that has helped my career. The head coach there actually worked for MTPD part time, and he had a coach drop out at the last minute, so he asked if I would be interested. So, I talked to our chief, and we worked out the schedule to make it work. That first year we won state, which was the first time an inner-city school had ever won the state tournament. That was amazing, but what is really special about it is how it helps me build relationships with the students at the school. I really try to be a positive influence on the kids there.
I am also a city council member for the City of Hastings. I’m not a political guy, but I felt like I needed to broaden my horizons and see things like budgeting and public safety commissions up close. I’ve learned so much in that role over the last four years, and I hope that experience can help me in my career here at MTPD.