New Spirit Lake chief named

SPIRIT LAKE — Patrick Lawless wants to bring Spirit Lake citizens back into the police equation.

Lawless, 34, was recently appointed the city’s police chief after Wiley Ronnenberg resigned after three years to train police recruits in Afghanistan.

“My focus right now is community-oriented policing, public relations and making sure officers are trained up to par,” said Lawless, who was Spirit Lake’s patrol sergeant for two and a half years before being promoted.

“We hadn’t gotten away from community policing, but there wasn’t much emphasis on it.”

Community policing engages citizens to work in cooperation with their police department and keep an eye out for problems.

“It will help us identify problems quicker,” he said.

Neighborhood watch programs are an integral part of the philosophy.

“There appeared to be more emphasis on traffic before,” Lawless said. “I think community policing in a small setting is better than how many tickets you can write in a shift.”

Spirit Lake’s police department has six employees. Lawless said he does not have any immediate plans to promote someone to patrol sergeant to fill his shoes because of a tight budget and the timing.

“Two officers are still in training and the other two are good patrol officers, but I think there just needs to be more time before promoting somebody,” he said.

Lawless said Spirit Lake has good police coverage with about two officers per 1,000 residents.

“But we can’t provide 24-hour coverage,” he said.

Lawless said another officer could make that a reality, but the possibility of another officer hasn’t been discussed.

Lawless was hired as an officer at Spirit Lake in January 2007 and was promoted to patrol sergeant seven months later. He has performed police work since 1996, previously working in Connecticut.

This is his first job as a chief.

“I believe I’ve been dedicated and loyal to the department and, when the job was offered to me, I didn’t hesitate to take it,” he said.

He wants citizens to feel comfortable with working with their police department.

“I have an open-door policy, and we want to do what we can to help out,” he said.