Candidates for Stearns County Sheriff: Bob Dickhaus

ST. CLOUD -- Four men are running to be the next Stearns County Sheriff. This week WJON news will be introducing you to each of them.

Tuesday we are hearing from Lieutenant Bob Dickhaus. He says, if he is elected, one of his main initiatives is to assign officers to each township so they have time to attend township board meetings and other events.

Not just the squad cars driving through town but actually have them stop and engage with citizens, show up at different events, whether it's a bazaar or a parade or whatever it may be.  But that's really what it is, they just like to see that the officers are around, and know them personally.

He says one of the main challenges facing law enforcement right now is staffing.

Having the public view us in a negative way has an impact on how many people apply for this position or want to get into the profession. So that's tough to make sure we get enough applicants and high-quality applicants to make sure we can fill all of our positions.  We have a number of openings right now that we're struggling to fill.

Dickhaus says other challenges facing the Stearns County Sheriff's Office in the next four years include an aging infrastructure, jail overcrowding and updating their facilities.

Dickhaus says, because he has worked for the Stearns County Sheriff's Office for 25 years, he has a good working knowledge of how the office works and can hit the ground running.

Dickhaus lives in Melrose with his wife and family.

A primary election will be held on Tuesday, August 14th when the four candidates will be trimmed down to two who will advance to the general election in November.

Rest of this week: 
Wednesday - Steve Soyka
Thursday - Dave Bentrud
Friday - Dwight Pfannenstein