Jeff Nelson heads M State’s criminal justice program, which has prepared officers now serving in police and sheriff departments as well as private security throughout the region. (Photos/Nancy Hanson.)
M State criminal justice coordinator (at center) stands with former MPD colleague Scott Kostorhyz, now an adjunct in his program, and Officer Beth Meier, a graduate who wears Badge 332, his old number.
Criminal justice instructor Jeff Nelson has begin to collect patches from alumni’s current posts. Among many he’s still lacking: Moorhead, Fargo and West Fargo.
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Jeff Nelson was going to be a teacher. But after a close friend died by suicide, the farm boy from Oklee, Minnesota, swerved in a different direction:
“I thought, ‘There should be people who could help,” he says. “That’s when I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement. I wanted to help make sure that this wouldn’t happen.”
Today Nelson does help make that difference … by sharing his vision of officers who combine professionalism with compassion, and competence with empathy. As the coordinator of M State’s criminal justice program, he heads a department that has supplied law enforcement agencies here and throughout the area with a steady stream of candidates to fill their ranks.
“The best quality we look for in applicants is communication,” he says. “We want our students to know how to talk to people. If they don’t come to us with that ability, I make them talk.”
That skill has served Nelson well in a career that’s combined both hands-on policing experience with years in the classroom. At Northland Community College in Thief River Falls, the criminal justice classes he took as electives closed the deal. “I really liked criminal justice. I knew it was the path I’d take,” he remembers. “I hear the same thing from my students today – ‘I feel called to this. This is what I want to do with my life.’”
After completing his associate’s degree in 1989, he headed to Mayville State University to major in education. Nevertheless, he interviewed with the Thief River Falls Police Department when an opening came up, “mostly to experience the process,” he explains. “Then, one day, I got a call: Was I interested in a job? My fiance Shari was from there. It was perfect.”
In June 1990 he put on the uniform, He served there until 1994. Then, former college roommate mentioned during a drive that Moorhead had an opening. “He stopped and handed me an application, and that was that,” Nelson remembers.
Twenty-one years ago, the Thief River department had 17 officers, while Moorhead had 50. That opened the door to assignments ranging from patrolling the city – often by bicycle – to working in the schools. He worked with youngster through both DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training) programs, and also served as a school resource officer at Robert Asp Elementary.
Nelson isn’t the first M State instructor drawn from the Moorhead Police Department. In 2010, another veteran officer, criminal justice coordinator Dave Anderson – another former office, who’d hired him for the MPD – invited him to consider becoming an adjunct instructor on the campus. He jumped at the chance. While continuing in law enforcement, he taught several courses. When Anderson moved to Texas in 2015, Nelson was named his successor.
“Our numbers were bigger in those days,” he reflects. The program typically drew 75 to 80 men and women.
What changed? “COVID and George Floyd,” he explains. “Both impacted our numbers. COVID made it difficult to teach in person, as we’d always done. Floyd, with all the negative media attention to his death, cut our enrollment in half.”
Those numbers are recovering now, Nelson observes, with current enrollment near 60.
M State’s criminal justice graduates today fill positions in an extended list of regional departments. “That was my platform when I interviewed for this job,” he points out. “We should be a feeder system for here and around the area.”
He estimates that at least 10 Moorhead peace officers are M State graduates. Fargo and West Fargo have many alumni in their departments, as do the sheriffs in Clay and Cass counties plus many neighbors, including Becker, Atkins and Roberts, as well as the White Earth Reservation. They serve with police departments in St. Paul, Dilworth, Ada, Fergus Falls, Alexandria, Candy and more. Others work for the DNR, the Minnesota State Patrol and Sanford Health security. And the list goes on and on.
M State’s criminal justice students fall into three categories, he says. Some are fresh high school graduates. Others are coming out of the military. The third – somewhat older – are career changers. “They’re often balancing school with the needs of family and work life,” the educator says. “They may take a little longer to complete, but they’re usually excellent students.”
Classes include what one would expect: policing practices, juvenile justice and delinquency, criminal law, investigations and police report writing. Students study corrections, probation and physical control tactics. After graduation, they also complete a course in skills training, often at Alexandria Tech, to master the hands-on skills training necessary to qualify for licensure in Minnesota.
But, says Nelson, there’s no practical way to prepare them for some of the challenges they’ll face in the field. “There’s no way to prepare these young women and men to go into a home, for instance, and pick up the dead body of a child,” he muses. “It’s not something they will do often in their careers – but often enough.
“We teach that it’s normal to not feel normal. It’s okay to not be okay. Most of all, it’s all right to ask for, and get, help.
“We can prepare them with the basic knowledge they’ll need, but they’ll learn much more on the job,” the teacher says, looking back on his own experience. “You’ve got to learn to trust your training and your partners. You have to have the confidence to walk into a situation, knowing you can handle whatever you find in there … without being arrogant or cold.
“You need to know, ‘I’m competent. I know what I’m doing. I’m here to help you.”
