Jesse Jahner Cass County Sheriff
48 Years of Age
I am excited to announce that I am seeking reelection for Cass County Sheriff in 2023. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office employs approximately 235 employees, maintains a county jail with a 348-bed capacity and has an annual budget of around twenty million dollars. I have served as your Cass County Sheriff over the past three years and want to thank our citizens, the men and women of the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, and our local media for their support. I look forward in continuing our mission of building strong community partnerships, transparency, providing a high level of public safety and being forward thinking. Over these first three years of my first term my staff and I have accomplished much but we still have work to do. When we ran my campaign in 2018 our focus was on building stronger community & department relations, looked to increase transparency & education, and finally continued to work towards providing a high level of public safety & emergency preparedness. I feel the work we have demonstrated over the past three years shows that I will keep my promise to the citizens of Cass County as your elected Sheriff.
The last three years have tested our leadership as an organization. My leadership staff and I have led through a flood, through times of civil unrest, continue to work through a pandemic and a shortage of law enforcement applicants nationwide. Although challenging at times these situations have provided us opportunity, an opportunity to be forward thinking and to get better as we work to serve our citizens. I continually remind my staff that through adversity there is opportunity. We will continue to thrive in this environment and will not shy away from challenges and the opportunity to get better and to better serve our citizens.
I would like to take this opportunity to expand on some of our agency’s accomplishments over the past three years.
-Implementation of new mission, vision, and value statement.
-Worked in partnership with the North Dakota Autism Center to create the SafeTY Jacket program to foster a safer response to calls for service to those with Autism.
-Increased our winter response capabilities during adverse weather conditions.
-Established protocols and procedures for Jail Intake processes during a pandemic.
-Expansion of Jail Booking area to increase Mental Health Intake, Detox Intake and will look to increase the efficiency of the booking process to get officers back on the street quicker.
-Have increased our agencies Less Lethal program and capabilities and implemented the BOLA Wrap system in hopes of making safer interactions between citizens and law enforcement in arrest situations.
-Implemented the following Crime Preventions Programs.
-Protech DNA to better locate and Identify suspects of burglaries and thefts.
-Neighbors App utilization to help identify and locate suspects.
-TIP 411- anonymous text tip crime information system.
-Have added crime mapping and crime trend identification to better utilize resource in crime prevention and suspect apprehension.
-Lead grant agency for Human Trafficking Trauma Grant.
-Addition of a Detective to serve on the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) and Human Trafficking Task Force.
-Implemented a Body Camera Program.
-Established a Vehicle Operations Board.
-Implementation of work performance improvement plans for employees.
-Implementation of an Incident Improvement plan for employees.
-Worked to get employees better pay and benefits.
-Establishment of an employee recruiting and retention team.
-Testified at the legislative level to move reserve training under the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board.
-Testified at the legislative level on civil asset forfeiture, against getting rid of our bail system.
-Re establishment of a K-9 program.
-Increased our Unmanned Ariel System response.
--Trained with our rural first responders on Active Shooter Situations.
-Trained with our rural schools and helped to implement Active Shooter/Active Threat School Response.
-Worked with Essentia to secure a grant to train several businesses and their employees on Active Shooter Response.
-Increased training and added additional equipment to respond to civil unrest situations.
-Maintained our staff certifications on Emergency Medical Responder to increase medical response capabilities.
-Implementation of youth ATV and Snowmobile Safety Courses.
-Maintained roughly the same budget over the first three years with a slight increase this year because of the added booking expansion.
-Re formed our Agencies Citizen Academy for department transparency and citizen education.
-Continued implementation of our Adopt-A-Community Program.
Finally, I have continued to prepare my staff and myself by continuing to provide and participate with providing education and training. Staff continue to average more than sixty hours of continued education every three years and I have attended national leadership courses which have included the Department of Homeland Security leadership Academy, Dale Carnegie Skills For Success Course, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Preparing our Community for a Complex Coordinated Attack, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Supervisor Leadership Institute, FBI Command Leadership Institute, FBI Executive Leadership Institute, and the National Command and Staff College in 2021. During my time as Sheriff, I have continued with my State Law Enforcement Teaching Certifications and have become a Nationally Certified Instructor through the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST). I also continue to represent the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the citizens of Cass County by serving on the Crime Victim Services Board, Red River Regional Dispatch Center (RRRDC) Board, Chair the RRDC Emergency Communications Board, Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board, and am Second Vice Chair of the Dakota Territories Sheriff’s Association.
Considering these many accomplishments we still have more work to do. We are continuing to look at ways to find a solution to our staffing shortages. We continue to look for ways to provide public safety during our current pandemic. I am currently working with Cass County Commissioners to look for ways to expand our jail capacities and abilities to house those who need to be incarcerated. Continually looking for ways to increase services for those with mental health issues and those with addiction issues.
In closing I am asking for your continued support as we move forward over the next five years and look for ways to increase safety in our community.
Respectfully,
Jesse Jahner
Cass County Sheriff