BROOKINGS — The decision to initiate a pursuit against a suspect is not one made lightly, commissioners learned at Tuesday’s Brookings County Commission meeting.

“When a deputy gets into a pursuit, he has dispatch call the patrol sergeant, who calls me,” Brookings County Sheriff Marty Stanwick said. “So then there’s two of us that are on the air with radios. We are monitoring the pursuit, and what we look for are speed, the conditions of the road and how much traffic there is. It’ll be our call to call the pursuit off if need be.”

He was speaking of the guidelines days after the sheriff’s office had taken part in its fifth pursuit of the year, this one involving a man from Bruce and multiple law enforcement agencies that ended near De Smet. It’s an uptick from previous years for Stanwick’s office — last year, there were zero pursuits and, in 2022, there was a single pursuit.

“When the Highway Patrol becomes involved, then they get a supervisor that comes on the air, so then there’s plenty of people on the air to monitor,” he noted. “This pursuit was speedy, it hit 109. Traffic was light, so we let him continue the pursuit because there was a Highway Patrol (officer) coming out of Huron who was able to initiate the stop sticks and deflated the tires. It ended with nobody getting hurt — and that’s the main thing.”

Stanwick said the pursuits in question occurred on March 2, April 9, April 28, May 8 and June 14. He told the Brookings Register that alcohol is oftentimes involved, as are mental health concerns.

“I don’t like pursuits — I don’t know why we’re having so many right now,” he said. “Pursuits are tough to determine if it should continue or if we should end it. There are supervisors on the radio to monitor this. If traffic becomes heavy or conditions of the road — on gravel, things like that — then we’ll call it off, too.”

He said that an additional factor that goes into determining whether a pursuit commences is the nature of the offense or offenses in each case.

Election hand count

Commissioners also heard from Finance Director Lori Schultz, who informed them of the state-required election ballot hand count next week.

“Just a reminder that Monday we will have our hand count for the election for the primary,” she said. “It is happening in every county. I’ve had some people asking me why Brookings County is doing it, but it is every county in the state is doing their hand count just to help verify that the machines are working correctly.”

Schultz said the hand count in Brookings County will take place at 9 a.m. in the commission chambers in the Brookings City & County Government Center, 520 Third St. The 375 or so ballots from the Brookings Activity Center will be reviewed, with the presidential and precinct committeeman 15 races counted. The hand count is open to the public.

She noted it was a bit of a task finding folks to take part in the effort.

“It was difficult to get people to hand count, contrary to what we were hearing that ‘Everybody would want to come hand count,’” Schultz said. “It was difficult to get some people. We do have eight that we hired to come in and hand count, and then myself” and other county staffers. “Anybody that wants to come and watch can do so.”

In other business on Tuesday morning:

• Commissioners voted, 4-0, with Commissioner Ryan Krogman absent, to approve a radio bid from Vantek Communications of Sioux Falls for $129,576. The 50 or so new radios are destined for the Brookings County Highway Department, and can communicate with other departments and agencies as well.

• Heard from Emergency Management Director Bob Hill who, among other topics, briefly touched on storm shelters — a timely issue, considering we’re in an active weather pattern at the moment.

“What sometimes the public doesn’t realize is, Brookings County itself, we do not maintain severe weather storm shelters,” he said. “Each community does. So if you live in a community and you don’t know where your particular shelter is, I recommend you contact your local fire chief; they typically know which building they consider a storm shelter.”

In Brookings, the city’s storm shelter is the basement of the City & County Government Center, 520 Third St. In other county communities:

• Aurora: Fire Department building, 101 Nicolett St.
• Bruce: Community Center basement, 409 Jefferson St.
• Bushnell: City Hall, 47821 Main St.
• Elkton: Fire Department building, 109 Elk St.
• Sinai: Lutheran Church basement, 305 First St. W.
• Volga: City Auditorium, 212 Kasan Ave.
• White: St. Paul’s Catholic Church basement, 100 W. Fifth St.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.