Candidates For Stearns County Sheriff: Dave Bentrud

ST. CLOUD -- We are continuing to hear from the candidates running for Stearns County Sheriff. Today WJON news is talking with Waite Park Police Chief Dave Bentrud.

He says one of his top issues is to find more ways for local departments to collaborate.

The theme for my campaign is 'working together' and I think that just from my experience historically things have gotten better with Sheriff Gudmundson for sure but I think that we need to be more collaborative in providing public safety services.  I think that there have been times where I've felt like my organization where I'm at in Waite Park has been held back.

He says law enforcement is much more complex these days, for example when it comes to dealing with mental health issues.

We don't want individuals incarcerated if they could be better served through some other referral network.  So I'm on the board for the Central Minnesota Health Center, in meetings regularly with human services, and trying to figure out ways to more effectively deal with individuals that we in law enforcement have regular contact with.

Bentrud says, since he launched his campaign, he has visited every township in the county and he wants to have better communication with local communities.

Bentrud has had 26 years of professional law enforcement experience in Stearns County, he's been the police chief of Waite Park for 10 years and before that he worked for the St. Cloud police department.

The field of four candidates for Stearns County Sheriff will be reduced down to two during the August 14th primary election.

Candidates for Stearns County Sheriff:
Tuesday - Bob Dickhaus
Wednesday - Steve Soyka
Thursday - Dave Bentrud
Friday - Dwight Pfannenstein