From her desk, investigator nabs criminals

The Eden Prairie police investigator has her biggest case in 26 years, fingering a woman accused of stealing identities to take out mortgages.

That was Star Tribune reporter Anthony Lonetree’s front page photo and headline from yesterday’s “Twin Cities + Region” section of the paper. The story was all about Eden Prairie Police Department investigative aide Pauline Sager. You can click on this link to read it: Star Tribune story about Pauline.

It’s a great story about Pauline. It describes her unique position in our Police Department as a non-sworn investigator. Being sworn or non-sworn is an important distinction in a police department. Being “sworn” means that a Police Department employee may carry a weapon, make arrests, conduct searches, preserve evidence, etc. Typical “non-sworn” employees in a police department are the 911 dispatchers, records technicians, administrative assistants and so on. They do the important support work for police officers, investigators and school liaison officers.

In most police departments, the work that Pauline does is done by sworn police officers. We don’t do it like that here because Pauline has been doing this kind of work here for 20+ years, and doing it well. There’s just never been an operational reason to change it.

This sworn v. non-sworn distinction should not be construed as “important vs. non-important”. Not at all. Crime could not be fought, and justice could not be served, without the sworn and non-sworn employees working together as a team. They do that very well here in Eden Prairie. Pauline is a good example of that. Read her story. It’s a good one.