Above: Dylan Benes and Klay Brown, this year's interns with the Fairmont Police Department/Martin County Sheriff's Office.

FAIRMONT– The Fairmont Police Department has a new set of interns who are ready to gain relevant experience right in their home county. Dylan Benes and Klay Brown will be helping out both the Fairmont Police Department and Martin County Sheriff’s Office throughout the summer.

Parker Stevens, an officer with the Fairmont Police Department, currently manages the program, which has been running for a number of consecutive years.

“Chief (Mike) Hunter is really supportive of the program. The goal is to use it as a stepping stone for recruitment to show them that this can be an enjoyable department to work for. We have a very supportive community which is nice,” said Stevens.

Year after year, the program has proven to be a successful recruitment tool. Stevens himself went through the program, as did Josh Nelson, an officer with the Fairmont Police Department and Colin Meadows and Luis Figueroa, who are both currently with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

This year, four applications were turned in for the program, which is the most it’s received in several years. Stevens said they interviewed three candidates but selected two this time around.

Dylan Benes is a 2020 graduate of Granada-Huntley-East Chain. He’s currently attending South Dakota State University and majoring in Natural Resource Law Enforcement. Ideally he’d like to work as a conservation officer.

“I was interested in gaining experience in the law enforcement side of things,” Benes said about why he applied for the program.

He has just one year left of his four-year program and would like to come back to the area and seek employment after graduation.

Klay Brown is a 2022 graduate of Fairmont High School. He just completed his first year of a two-year law enforcement program at Minnesota West in Worthington. Following graduation, Brown said he’d like to make his way back to the area.

“I love the town I grew up in and knowing the people and already having that rapport built with the community,” Brown said.

The two have just completed their first week of the internship program. On Monday of this week, they assisted with the city-wide clean.

“We helped people who couldn’t physically load items,” Brown said.

Stevens said this year, at Captain Eric Tonder’s insistence, the interns will be helping more with community events. They will likely be working alongside the department’s Community Service Officers (CSO). In addition to Brad Buhmann, the department recently added Derek Hughes as a CSO as well.

“They help out with ordinance complaints and community outreach. It’s more for education,” Stevens said of the position.

This weekend Benes is also helping out with traffic control during the Fairmont triathlon.

“It’s nice because our department is kind of short staffed right now so anytime we can have assistance from these two is extremely helpful and it builds experience and knowledge for them for the future,” Stevens said.

A big focus of the internship program is ride alongs with the officer so they can witness a number of operations first hand, including traffic stops, calls for service and report writing. The interns will also spend time with the jail, dispatch, probation office and the county attorney’s office.

“They’ll also be out and engaging in community activities doing bike patrol and interacting with children to gain rapport. It goes way beyond just ride alongs and observing operations,” Stevens said.

By the end of the summer, Stevens said they’ll see how the jail books people in and that dispatch does more than just answering calls.

“The goal is at minimum 150 to 200 hours throughout the summer but we typically almost double that,” Stevens said.

However, he noted that Brown and Benes both have other jobs this summer so the department is flexible. This summer they’ve both been hired as seasonal boat and water patrol for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

“Before that whole process I met with Captain (Corey) Klanderud and it’s worked out well in the past if they get hired for boat and water, it seems like it links up with the internship. That way we can work together,” Stevens said.

The two have already had a weekend of boat and water patrol. Brown said he enjoyed being on the lakes, observing and making sure everyone was having a fun time but doing it safely.

“It was good experience because that’s something I’ll definitely have to do in the future if I become a conservation officer,” said Benes.

Stevens, who also did boat and water patrol when he was an intern, said that part of the job is checking to make sure children have and are wearing lifejackets.

“If you see the kids wearing a lifejacket, since it’s highly encouraged, we have free ice cream cone coupons to hand out. Usually after their time on the boat in the hot sun, the kids love receiving a free ice cream cone from Dairy Queen,” Stevens said.

While the internship is not paid, after successful completion of the program, the Fairmont Police Officers Association typically offers a scholarship to the interns. There is optional college credit offered for the program, though neither of these interns require any for their degrees.

“I’m really just looking for the experience of getting used to listening to the radios, figuring out communication and learning how to write reports better,” said Brown.