Colfax public safety hears complaints on law enforcement

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX — If you have a compliant about a law enforcement issue in Colfax, who should you call?

A – a former village board member; B – a current village board member; C – the Colfax police chief or D – the administrator for the village of Colfax?

The correct answers are C – the  Colfax police chief, and/or D – the administrator for the village of Colfax.

During the Colfax Village Board’s public safety committee discussion August 21 on the issue of complaints about law enforcement, Gary Stene, village president, said it is incumbent on residents of the village to make direct complaints to the village administrator’s office or to the police department.

Stene received calls about a number of complaints, and some complaints were called to the police department, regarding the Colfax police department not addressing certain issues in town, said Colfax Police Chief Bill Anderson.

Stene came to Police Chief Anderson with the list of complaints and asked that the police chief to make a written response as to how each of the complaints had been handled.

A list of complaints and information detailing how they were handled was distributed to the public safety committee and the village board members in attendance, although the list was not provided to the Colfax Messenger.

All but one village board member attended the meeting.

Stene said he had received telephone calls from Colfax resident Chris Olson, and Stene believed the best way to handle the situation was through the committee and to invite Olson to come to the meeting.

Camper

One of the complaints apparently involved a camper parked near Colfax Lutheran that had been parked there for a while.

The village’s ordinance requires vehicles to be moved after 48 hours.

The owner of the camper said no one from the church had ever come to speak to him about an issue with parking at the church, and, in fact, the camper owner allows parishioners to park in his driveway if necessary, Police Chief Anderson said.

Vehicles only need to be moved forward or backward a few feet to comply with the ordinance. The camper should have been issued an abandoned vehicle notice, Olson said.

Police Chief Anderson said he has given warning notices for parking issues.

The ordinances should be enforced fairly, and the village and police department must operate with transparency, Olson said.

The village board is supposed to enforce the ordinances, and the swimming pool ordinance also is not being enforced, he said.

The village’s ordinance requires a fence with a gate around a swimming pool. Children’s wading pools are exempt.

The village’s ordinances cover more than 600 pages and represent a tremendous amount of information for anyone to know, said Village Trustee Keith Burcham, the chair of the public safety committee.

Many calls

Olson said he receives multiple telephone calls from village residents complaining about ordinances not being enforced.

Anyone with a complaint should come to the police department to file a complaint, Police Chief Anderson said.

The Colfax Police Department will not handle issues based on anonymous complaints that come through unsigned letters, telephone calls in which the caller will not identify himself or herself, or through a third party, the police chief said.

Sheriff’s department

Olson said a number of people also have complained to him about calls to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department not being handled or the Colfax Police Department not following up on complaints made to the sheriff’s department.

Colfax does not have 24-hour police patrols, so during “off” hours, the sheriff’s department will handle complaints.

Reporting the incidents to the police chief are important so he can follow up with the sheriff’s department, said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer.

Annie Schieber, village trustee, a member of the public safety committee, and the owner of A Little Slice of Italy, said she has called the sheriff’s department several times and that the deputies have always responded.

Schieber said she was surprised to hear the sheriff’s department had not shown up on a call.

Police Chief Anderson said he was surprised as well.

Colfax will have to follow up with the sheriff’s department to make sure calls and complaints are being forwarded to the Colfax Police Department, Niggemann said.

Telephone calls

Schieber asked how many calls Olson makes to the police department in a year to complain about issues or to say that other people have complained.

Olson said he calls the police department maybe six or seven times per year.

“I would encourage people to come down and make the complaints themselves,” Police Chief Anderson said.

Olson suggested the village should publish a newsletter with information about ordinances because not everyone reads the Colfax Messenger.

Casey Rihn, village trustee and a member of the public safety committee, wondered what would compel village residents to read a village newsletter if they were not interested in reading the newspaper.

Olson also suggested putting a notice in the water bills with information on how to file complaints along with a list of contacts for making complaints.

Niggemann said it would be easy enough to send out a notice with the water bills but also told Olson not to take the complaints himself and to encourage village residents to contact the police department. Police Chief Anderson and Schieber both wondered why village residents were contacting Olson about issues in the village.

Olson served on the village board several years ago.

Many people in town will talk to a village board member, but if they do, they should be told to call the village administrator or the police department, said Mark Halpin, village trustee.

The complaints are “all coming from one person. I’m getting Chris-Chris-Chris,” Police Chief Anderson said.

Stene said he did not want complaints coming to the village “second hand” through a telephone call with a litany of complaints.

“I’m not buying that,” Stene said.

If officers are not at the police department and are around town on patrol, village residents can call 911, and Dunn County dispatch will contact the officer on duty in Colfax, Police Chief Anderson said.

The members of the public safety committee agreed information about filing complaints and the contact numbers for the police department and the village should be included with the water bills.