Erickson named new police chief

19-year BPD veteran starts in new post immediately

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BROOKINGS – Dave Erickson has been named Brookings police chief.

“Very honored and humbled to be given the opportunity and excited about being a part of moving the police department into the future. I want to thank everybody that was involved in the process,” Erickson said, adding he was grateful for the confidence placed in him. “I promise to not let them down.”

City Manager Jeff Weldon made the announcement Monday.

Erickson has been serving as acting police chief for four months, following the retirement of former Police Chief Jeff Miller in August. Erickson, a 19-year veteran of the Brookings Police Department, was promoted to assistant chief in 2012, according to a press release from the City of Brookings.

Erickson has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Bellevue University, is a graduate of the FBI National Academy for Law Enforcement Executives, and is a veteran of the United States Army. He and wife, Julie, have three children.

“This was quite a process that he went through, pretty grueling and rigorous for him,” Weldon said.

Erickson was one of 50 applicants for the position.

“We had a wide-open range,” Weldon admitted. The field was narrowed based on the vision for the department.

The eight semi-finalists filled out questionnaires so their writing and communication skills could be assessed, as well as aspects about their personalities, Weldon said. They also underwent two evaluation tests to gauge their suitability.

Weldon had a lot of help in assessing the candidates: three different panels, various department heads, some city council members, and reference and background checks. Weldon and three others conducted the final interviews.

“I had upwards of 40 to 50 people providing me input through the entire process,” Weldon said of making his final decision.

Over the past 10 years, Weldon said he’s hired some internally and some externally – there’s advantages and disadvantages to both – but what’s more important is which candidate he and the others thought was going to make a long-term commitment to the community. 

“We also looked at the challenges we’re facing in the department right now and what it’s gonna take to address those issues  … We want to make sure we have the tools in place to meet the future,” Weldon said.

Four candidates made the final cut, but Brett Quilter was disqualified after the city was alerted to questionable content on his Facebook page.

“The information I saw on the Facebook page was not suitable for a person to be a police chief in the city of Brookings,” Weldon said.

Anthony Morgan was “an excellent candidate” but took a job in South Carolina. His dropping out left Erickson and Michael Burgeson from Yankton as finalists.

Burgeson was “extremely well qualified. I was impressed with what he could bring to the community and to the position,” Weldon said.

“I have an obligation to hire the best and brightest I possibly can. I’m confident the person we found that in was right here,” Weldon said. “At the end of the day, Dave Erickson turned out to be the better fit.”

Erickson started his duties immediately and already has an idea of where he wants the department to go. In the short term, he wants to look at technology, which is always changing, and different trends in policing.

“I think a good leader always needs to be re-assessing where they’re at, staying up-to-date with information that’s out there regarding trends and technology,” Erickson said, adding that’s been something he’s always practiced.

He plans to get a lot of input from his staff.

“We’ve already had some opportunity to get some feedback from officers and dispatch and were able to set some goals,” he noted. “Some things that will be good for our community and good for our department.”

He will continue to work with Weldon, as they have done for the past four months, to steer the department into the future.

“Mr. Weldon did give me a lot of latitude when I was acting chief to get some things started. Now, it’s just continuing with the things that we started already,” Erickson said, adding he’s glad he will continue to be involved in what he sees as a long-term process.

“There are some challenges in the department, and he knows what he’s facing,” Weldon said.

A high priority he mentioned was retaining officers, specifically helping them deal with the stress of the job on multiple levels. 

“This is a position where burnout and stress is very high,” Weldon acknowledged. “We need more creative and innovative things to support police officers and help them become better in their positions. We will continue to be very aggressive in training and development, and we need to do things to improve retention.”

“We need to do more in terms of community oriented policing … and what is the best way to respond to the needs of public safety in the community,” Weldon said.  

“I’m going to be talking to him … let him know what my expectations are for improvements to the department, and I think we’ll find a decisively different style in police leadership than we’ve had in the past, so I’m looking forward to those changes,” Weldon said.

Erickson has his own expectations.

“I just look forward to having that close working relationship with the members of the department and members of the city government, the area law enforcement agencies and the community. I think there’s a great deal of professionalism and hard work being done here already, and I’m real excited to continue working with everybody,” Erickson said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.