John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight
The South Dakota Highway Patrol didn’t visit Brookings for a saturation patrol that had been announced in advance by the city’s leadership.
The Department of Public Safety sent troopers to Winner and Sturgis for the ninth set of patrols undertaken as part of Gov. Larry Rhoden’s “Operation Prairie Thunder” public safety initiative.
The city of Brookings posted a notice on Dec. 12 saying that troopers would be in the area Dec. 17-19 for a Prairie Thunder saturation patrol. The city would “not be participating” in the operation, the notice said.
Gov. Larry Rhoden, who announced the initiative in July, chastised the city for the announcement, which coincided with a press release from the Highway Patrol on previous efforts in Huron and Belle Fourche.
“It’s unfortunate that the city of Brookings would jeopardize an anti-crime operation and put the safety of our officers at risk by publishing this information,” Rhoden said in a statement to South Dakota Searchlight.
Operations in Huron had drawn concern from some members of that city’s Hispanic community when additional troopers came to town in November for the first of two saturation stops, inspiring several social media posts about what some believed to be federal immigration raids.
The Highway Patrol signed cooperation agreements with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement in advance of launching Operation Prairie Thunder, which initially targeted the city of Sioux Falls and surrounding areas. In total, troopers have questioned 81 people about their immigration status since the operation’s launch, and 57 people have been detained on behalf of federal immigration agents.
Prairie Thunder patrols have led to a total of 419 arrests, according to the Department of Public Safety, and 271 of those arrests involved drug charges.
The state never confirmed or denied plans to visit Brookings. Rhoden’s statement last week also said the state could not discuss “operational specifics” on future saturation patrols.
The state routinely announces saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints in certain areas, but news releases on such patrols only say which month they’ll take place.
Tuesday’s news release on Operation Prairie Thunder’s efforts in Sturgis and Winner said the saturation patrol resulted in 13 arrests and 25 total drug charges across the two cities, but did not mention the city of Brookings.
In response to a question from South Dakota Searchlight, Highway Patrol spokesman Brad Reiners confirmed that the Highway Patrol had not conducted a saturation patrol in Brookings.
Brookings Mayor Ope Niemeyer told South Dakota Searchlight that he was away from town on business last week, but said he hadn’t heard anything this week about extra troopers in town while he was away. He wouldn’t be able to comment on what impact, if any, the city’s announcement had on saturation patrol plans, he said.
The city had posted the notice to let residents know there could be additional officers in town, Brookings City Manager Paul Briseno told South Dakota Searchlight on Wednesday, and to clear up any confusion within the community about where those officers came from. There had been “questions in the community” about Operation Prairie Thunder, he said.
The state gave notice to Brookings that it intended to conduct its Dec. 17-19 saturation patrol, Briseno said, but did not reach out about its change of plans.
In a statement emailed to South Dakota Searchlight on Wednesday, Rhoden did not comment directly on whether the Brookings city announcement influenced last week’s saturation patrols. The statement said only that “criminals in Brookings should not rest easy.”