Law enforcement has changed during Brennan's career

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- It was a different day and a different age when Tim Brennan first put on the tan and brown uniform of the Brown County Sheriff's Department.

Now, Brennan, 51, is beginning his tenure as sheriff amid much uncertainty over the state budget in an area where more attention is being paid to law enforcement.

Brennan officially became sheriff almost one week ago, when he was sworn with the county attorney the day before everyone else to avoid any possibility of having a major disaster or crime occur without a sheriff or county attorney. He raised his right hand again one day later and took the oath with the rest of the elected county officials.

He replaces Larry Pederson, who was first elected to that office in 1982.

Since then, he's been doing a little bit of work here, a little bit of moving there to a space only a few feet away from his old office. Receiving the star-shaped badge marked BROWN COUNTY SHERIFF was the latest move in a career that began almost 30 years ago.

"It gets in your blood," said Brennan, who is father to a New Ulm police officer and a Martin County probation agent.

Now that he's sheriff, Brennan is feeling the pressure from county commissioners to run the department more efficiently so the county can save a few dollars to help get through the current crunch. He's also in the process of negotiating with them about his salary. He said he also wants to appoint a chief deputy soon, but won't do so until the salary matter is resolved.

This year is supposed to be a year of changes for the sheriff's department, as Brennan has said before that he plans to put in-car cameras in at least two squad cars and is also looking at MDTs--mobile data terminals that can help deputies with driver license checks at the scene of a vehicle stop. The cameras, he said, are supposed to help juries see things from the eyes of the investigating officers.

The job wasn't always this high-tech, though. Brennan is one of those who remembers the old 11-cell Brown County jail and the .38-caliber revolvers cops and deputies used to carry before automatic weapons became standard. He remembers chasing Pontiac GTOs in Plymouth squad cars. He even remembers his first fatal traffic accident, one that he handled while a Springfield police officer in the early 1970s.

He said he moved to Springfield -- his wife's home town -- to get some fresh air after living and working as a mechanic and service station manager in Richfield, a suburb of Minneapolis. His brother-in-law was a member of the Springfield police department's reserve unit and talked him into joining.

Back then, reserve officers did what they still do now--ride along with police officers and help them wit h arrests and accident scenes. But crime was different. Brennan said there was more alcohol-related crime then than now and high-speed chases were much more frequent.

"There was more juvenile drinking and lots of beer parties in the country. Now it's more drug-based," he said.

These days, law enforcement is much more standardized. Example: the Brown County Sheriff's Department now has a policy on how to chase a vehicle. Years ago, there was no such set of rules; you just chased until you caught them or they outran you. There are also prisoner extraction teams that handle prisoners who may be unstable. The solution in the 1970s was much different.

"It was talk or fight," said Brennan. "If you didn't like to fight, you better learn how to talk."

Brennan spent a couple years as a reserve officer until he got his peace officer's license in 1973. He still remembers taking his first fatal traffic accident call.

"i was on the west end of town working the radar, just clocking cars and this guy who we used to chase pretty regularly stopped to talk," he said. "This other guy came across the center line and the hoods flew off and there was steam everywhere. I didn't know what to do so I went out there and one man was already dead and a woman was pinned inside the car."

Larry Pederson was the Brown County deputy sheriff on duty that day. It was there and then that he and Brennan met. From then on, Pederson would come and pick Brennan and a few others up on his days off and the two would ride across the county together.

"We used to go out into the county to Evan and Hanska. I remember County Road 24 and County Road 13. I didn't even know they existed. It was a whole different atmosphere," said Brennan.

Brennan eventually joined the department as a rotating jailer-dispatcher and patrol deputy in November of 1975 -- 12 days after his birthday. C.F. "Bud" Geschwind was the sheriff in those days and Brennan reveres him as "the best friend I ever had. He forgot more than I knew."

Brennan remembers Geschwind bringing bowls of either popcorn or grapes to the dispatchers, depending on what he was eating at the time. The sheriff fed prisoners based upon what he was having for a particular meal. He would sometimes come down from his office in socks and would get angry if the night shift didn't leave him a note explaining what happened after he went off duty.

The one time Brennan cracked up a squad car was when he was taking a burning victim to the hospital and slipped on some ice and hit a wall as he was pulling into the emergency room. He remembers going into Geschwind's office, taking off his holster and apologizing, only to hear the sheriff say, "Tim, you did what you had to do. It's just metal. We'll get it fixed."

Geschwind is buried not too far away from Brennan's house in Sleepy Eye. Brennan says he sometimes goes to Home Cemetery to visit his mentor.

These days, Brennan plays the role of mentor to his son, New Ulm Police Officer Jeremy Brennan, who joined the department this summer after two years as a deputy sheriff in Sibley County.

"It's nice, I guess," said the younger Brennan when asked about what it was like to work near his father. "Growing up in law enforcement, I got used to a law enforcement family. It's a natural habit."