Enhanced technology, officer recruitment among police priorities for 2025

In public safety, homicides grab headlines.

The rest of the story in Sioux Falls crime is more nuanced but represents the broader reality, Police Chief Jon Thum said.

The city’s record 16 murders — versus two in 2023 — appear more indicative of “the ebb and flow” of the most violent crime, he said, adding none were what he’d consider “random.”

From the chief’s perspective, it’s trends in crime that matter most — and the proactive approaches police can take to reducing them.

“Violent crime and other crime go hand in hand,” Thum said. “Why are stolen cars down? Part of it is an ad campaign, but the other part is we have officers proactively searching out violent offenders who also are engaging in this behavior. It’s part of the package that goes along with the criminal nexus we’ve seen.”

Untangling or puncturing the web of crime created in a growing city will be bolstered by multiple efforts in 2025, he continued.

The Sioux Falls Police Department is utilizing an emerging real-time information center — think of it like a control center — to funnel data to officers as it’s being collected.

“We want to access and leverage technology that exists already through timely updates and knowledge,” Thum said.

Already, the approach has shown results, he said.

“We were able to solve a bank robbery in 30 minutes — literally caught the suspect red-handed with the cash on his bed,” he said. “And on a very micro day-to-day level, we’re able to get information from traffic cameras, play back accidents and provide it to officers in the field on conflicting witness statements, which provides greater service to our citizens.”

The plan also is to make it easier and faster for citizens to provide photos and video footage to police, he said.

“That creates a safer neighborhood,” Thum said. “Information is key, and that may come from a Ring camera.”

In 2023, violent crime per capita dropped to its lowest level since 2019. A midyear update this October found it was tracking behind last year, despite the homicide increase. Aggravated assaults and robberies were trending down, for example.

Thum credits the department’s violent crimes unit as part of the approach. It was formed in 2022 to combine the resources of the department’s narcotics crimes and street crimes units, with a focus on the most concerning offenders.

In addition to building on the success of that unit, the chief points to increased efforts to address issues downtown as a continued focus in 2025 — “looking proactively at how we’re going to police this expansive downtown, with the addition of The Steel District and Jacobson Plaza and looking ahead to the Falls Park master plan,” he said. “It’s quite the concentration of people and visitors, and we need to have a comprehensive plan as to how we’re going to police that.”

Staffing up

It all takes manpower, which Thum identifies as a priority for the year ahead.

“At the end of the day, people want to see more cops,” he said. “It still comes back to recruitment and retention.”

The department is authorized for 295 officers and is at 290 currently. Between 30 and 40 are in training or in an early probationary hiring period.

In reality, though, the number continually fluctuates because of everything from parental leave to occasional workplace injuries, he said.

“While the number is there, we need to work on building the functional number and looking on the horizon, knowing the next four to five years we have 40 to 50 retirements,” Thum said. “At a time we need to be growing our department, we’re facing a lot of retirements, which is why recruitment and retention becomes very clear.”

The department consistently tries new tactics, he added. That has included a signing bonus and a new marketing campaign designed to convince more nontraditional applicants to try public safety.

“We look at expanding our applicant pool by finding people who have distinguished themselves within different fields with either leadership roles or responsibilities or a customer service-based decision-making capacity,” Thum said.

“What does that look like? For me, it’s a Smithfield foreman or foreman on a roofing crew, the regional manager of a retail store. All have unique traits and abilities that translate very well to law enforcement, and we can create a pathway for them and communicate we see them as viable, good candidates for this profession.”

This coming year will be one to prepare for that recruitment push, with an even more aggressive effort in 2026 “because 2027 is when our retirement numbers really start to grow,” Thum continued.

“We have to keep our foot on the gas in that regard, hiring and retaining but pushing technology to make our officers’ lives easier so they can perform more proactive policing. And as our violent crimes unit has shown, that has impact.”