Both the Pioneer Press and Thisweek report that an improper e-mail, sent by Dakota County Sheriff’s deputy was circulated around the county and, rightfully so, ruffled some feathers. While I’m glad that it was finally brought to the attention of the public, I must say that I’m a bit disturbed by the simple response from the Dakota County Sheriff that this is now a personnel issue and he’s, “very disappointed this thing was sent out.”
I queried the Dakota County Inmate data I have and found that there were 42 African-Americans, 3 Asians, and 9 Indigenous (and who knows how many Hispanics as the county doesn’t separate them from “White”) reported to be arrested by the Dakota County Sheriff’s Department since October 2009:
| MN0190000 DAKOTA CO SHERIFF | Asian | Black | Indigenous |
| 8/2009 | 1 | ||
| 9/2009 | |||
| 10/2009 | 2 | ||
| 11/2009 | 1 | 5 | |
| 12/2009 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1/2010 | 11 | 2 | |
| 2/2010 | 9 | 4 | |
| 3/2010 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 3 | 42 | 9 |
Now, I don’t know much about Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows other than he was put into place by the Dakota County Commissioners, even though they are not not known to act in the public’s best interest, but I have a feeling that these 54 individuals who were, at one time, held in the Dakota County jail may want a little more to be done. I’m sure their lawyers might want even more…
What do you think about the County Sheriff deputy’s e-mail? Do you believe the content should prompt a reexamination of the cases involving any people of color arrested by the department or is this just something that should be shrugged off with a simple, “I’m very disappointed in you young man,” with a firm finger wag? Whatever you have to say about the racism issues running through the Dakota County Sheriff’s office go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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March 25th, 2010 at 9:21 am
First, that email is really disturbing considering that it’s coming from a law enforcement official. It’s hard to see this meaning anything other than that this Dakota County law enforcement official is stuck with some pretty racist views.
Second, I don’t know what evidence exists to say that this is widespread within the department, but I don’t think that should be automatically assumed. I’ve received enough racist emails from people – most notably my grandma, who sends me at least one forward a day, many of them ranting against Obama – that if I were to be implicated on account of what I receive (and typically deleted without reading, for that matter) alone, I’d look like a racist pig.
Third, this has to prompt an investigation at some level. I don’t think we can assume that this is evidence alone to suggest that all of this deputy’s stops have been racially-motivated. However, I think we have to at least compare this deputy’s stops to the rest of the department to see how the racial breakdown of his stops compares with the stops of other deputies. If there’s a wide discrepancy, more investigation is absolutely warranted. If not, I’m not sure what additional action can be taken beyond disciplinary measures with the deputy.
Regardless, I think the public deserves to know how the sheriff handles this and what the outcome is.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Joey,
You want to know how the sheriff’s dept. handles this and what the outcome is. Why don’t you publish your latest performance review and/or any discipline actions in your personal folder? That information is private for a reason and while the email was wrong and stupid for this guy to forward. We will have to trust that those in charge will deal with their employee properly. Unless it is a criminal matter it will not be made public and it should not be. You did however make a good point, if you do not like the jokes that come on your email just delete them. Everyone has a different sense of humor and the pc police do not need to be everywhere. You do not like an email, then delete it. Don’t like a business because of their values, don’t go there. Etc.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:10 am
TDevils,
I don’t know where the e-mail originated (a personal machine on a private network) but it did end up on a public owned computer. Even if the recipients did not like it, the simple fact that a county employee was using other government accounts for personal e-mail and hateful e-mails on top of that, it could certainly be considered a crime.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:27 am
TDevils,
I don’t work for the government, therefore my email account isn’t public information. I’m not beholden to the taxpayers for my job. The Dakota County Sheriff’s Department is responsible to answer to me as a taxpayer, and therefore it’s very much in our best interest to know how it’s being handled. You’re right, this guy is responsible to answer to his employer, and his employer is us.
We’re paying this guy to keep us safe and arrest criminals. We have every right to know that he’s doing his job well.
So are you suggesting I can email you porn on the job and get away with it because it’s up to you as to whether or not you want to open it? That’s asinine.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:50 am
If he was in the private sector, this would be resolved already — he’d be gone. Very few companies will even give an employee a formal warning for this sort of thing anymore; they’ll just terminate them outright.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:51 am
While “TD” makes a point about personnel issues remaining private, its not that easy: This person is a public employee; not only that, he is a public employee charged with upholding and enforcing the laws of our state, including laws which prohibit discrimination based upon inclusion on a protected class category.
One can argue that this employee is entitled to rights associated with getting a fair hearing before he is disciplined; but one can also argue that he is subject to a higher standard regarding his conduct simply because of his status as a law enforcement officer.
When dealing with a public official such as this, its not as simple as “don’t like a business, don’t go there.” With the government and its services, particularly law enforcement, there is no “other option.”
The point isn’t that the recipients can easily delete the email; the problem is that a government employee felt comfortable enough in his racial biases, despite his law enforcement status, to distribute hate, and thought nothing of it. It stands to reason then that its distinctly possible that he might not be able to keep those racial biases from affecting his other decision making skills in his official capacity.
March 25th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I know that Dakota County has an policy regarding the proper use of email and what is and is not considered ok things to send. I think Tim is right in many private sector jobs this person would have been canned in a heart beat, and if it were up to me I’d can him too. I too have to trust that this person is going to be held to the standard of the policy in which was set forth. I would bet someone is already looking the numbers and the cases in which this person was involved with – no law enforcement and county attorney’s office wants this kind of media attention.
Honestly at first glance those numbers looked quite disturbing. However after thinking about it for bit, I really don’t think it matters much. I don’t know who made those arrests or if the person who sent the email out made a single one of them. I don’t know if those arrests were actually charged out or if any of these people plead guilty. Being that there are larger numbers I wonder if they group arrests for some of the drug busts. I recall reading about a big one in January. (I could be wrong.) But if those bigger numbers are from a large drug bust – they aren’t being singled out because of their color its cause they were caught with blow. I guess what I mean to say is that numbers can be very misleading or very telling and in this case – I really don’t know what they are.
March 25th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Oh, here we go with the double standard talk again. First you expect journalists to understand copyright issues and now you expect law enforcement officers to be impartial law upholders. Geez, there is no pleasing some of you people. (for those of you that are new, that was sarcasm).
Whit is entirely right (as usual), a person should be held to a higher ethical standard in effort in their chosen occupation. As citizens, we don’t (or shouldn’t, but they are slimy and sometimes slip through the legal hoops set up to prevent it from happening) allow pedophiles to be teachers, we don’t allow Minneapolis police officers to rob banks in Apple Valley and then work their afternoon shift in Minneapolis, we don’t allow newspapers to steal intellectual property and/or images because of “fuzzy” laws, and we should not allow the very people in charge of upholding laws and protecting citizens to have a bias against any section of our society.
I know, crazy!
March 25th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I don’t know about people getting readily fired for such things. I get a fair number of forwarded joke emails that have passed through business, government (local, state & Federal) and military email addresses. And I even know a few of the people when I look back through all of the previous email addresses that people haven’t cleared between clicking forward and send. They’re still working…
Personally I think people have gotten far too sensitive and are all to ready to label something as hate just because they don’t like it.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
GJB,
Honestly, I don’t know the specifics of this e-mail but if the e-mail was sent from the *.co.dakota.mn.us address space then as a taxpayer I want the dumbass fired. I don’t pay for county employees to send inappropriate e-mails or use the county’s network (including the e-mail servers) as their own personal accounts.
March 26th, 2010 at 10:22 am
I have to echo what GJB said. And, while I am at that, I am fairly sure many of us are posting on here from work.
Anyway, I dont know the guy. Maybe it was a bad joke, and maybe it was racism. I hope they look at his actions, which are supposed to speak louder than words, and determine if this was simply a bad decision or evidence that he is a racist or bigot.
Personally, I know lots of people, several of other races, who read the article and laughed, so there may be some truth to GJB saying people are being far to sensitive. I am not a minority, so I cant say how offensive I would/should find this.
There is also the issue that while several posts above have made the point that this was so awful that the guy should be fired, but the Pioneer Press news story actually printed the joke in the article.
March 26th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Bill,
Most people I know tend to use their work email for personal stuff at times. Especially when some places block sites like Gmail, Yahoo, and many others. Just like many make and receive personal calls at work.
From what’s reported about the email in the two links you have, I’d say that the guy deserves a talking to, but I couldn’t see that rising to the level of losing your job. Unless there’s more to it than what they’re reporting.
Basically, it should boil down to whether or not it affected ‘work’ at the office. And the punishment should fit the damage.
March 26th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Most people I know speed. Doesn’t mean it’s not a punishable offense especially when done on company time in a company vehicle.
You’re 100% wrong on this one and no matter how you try to justify it, he should be terminated if he did indeed use a county computer and/or email account to send the email.
March 26th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
I can easily see him being punished. But not terminated. The punishment should fit the crime. After all, speeding just generates a fine (unless you’re excessively speeding). Maybe the guy just needs two weeks off with pay. After all, in the long run, that’ll cost the county less than hiring a replacement.
Although, this could be a way to terminate lots of public employees…
March 27th, 2010 at 9:21 am
You need to look at the nature of what he did too, not just that he used government property to do it. It’s the content that really makes this an issue.
Think about it — now, anytime he arrests a non-Caucasian and they’re charged with a crime, their defense attorney or public defender is going to be able to put him on the stand and rip him (and by extension, the department) apart. And like Bill noted in the OP, I’m sure attorneys are already paying very close attention to what’s going on in order to mount challenges regarding past arrests. His indiscretion could have a very real impact on crime prevention and policing in Dakota County.
And that’s not even getting into the internal ramifications of it. Hello, hostile work environment lawsuit, how are you? *That* is why he would be gone already from a lot of companies — they don’t want to mess with the possibility of getting sued when it is revealed that they didn’t take sufficient action. Any employment law or HR manager worth anything will tell you that. And of course, guess who would get to pay the costs of defending against such a lawsuit?
March 27th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
A county commissioner, a county roadway engineer, a library worker. Those I can all give a pass to. But an individual entrusted with making Dakota County a safe place for me and my family needs to have a level of common sense that this officer obviously does not have. To my mind, that officer needs to be asked to leave the Dakota County sheriff’s office as I have no trust in his ability to do his job protecting me, my family, or my friends. to put it bluntly… he’s an idiot, and made the mistake of letting the public know. most idiots in police work keep it more hidden.
March 28th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Tim, great point — this officer has instantly become less effective, and potentially a liability in the criminal justice process.