Behind the Scenes with Marshall County Deputy Sheriff, Ben Kucera

The first business to be featured in the series is the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department. More specifically, a ride along with Deputy Sheriff, Ben Kucera. After explaining my intentions and being granted approval, I hopped in the squad vehicle with Deputy Kucera last weekend and we hit the road.

We had plans to meet at 9pm, but due to the nature of his job, it ended up being about 10:15pm when we got going. Deputy Kucera had already put on close to 250 miles and explained to me the reasons for his lateness. I have to admit, after hearing the details, I was nervous for what the rest of the evening had in store. 

Starting his night shift at 5pm, a call came in about a missing 4-year old in a neighboring town. By the time Deputy Kucera was on the scene, thankfully, the child had been found. Another call came in about an erratic driver and a possible stolen vehicle to watch out for. When all of that was squared away, Kucera was headed back to Grygla to pick me up, but came across a vehicle rollover in the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. The driver was uninjured, his parents were already on the scene and a tow truck had been called. The driver, however, was cited for reckless driving.

All understandable reasons to be late, right? This being my first ride along (and first time in a cop car), I have to admit, I was definitely nervous. And more so, after hearing about the busy evening Deputy Kucera had already had.

Like I was saying, we hit the road. All in all, the evening was relatively quiet, which is a good thing. With permission to share with our readers, the nightly stops went like this:

10:29pm: Traffic stop for license plate light out. Verbal to get it fixed, near Grygla.

10:50pm: 69mph in 55 zone. Verbal warning issued, near Gatzke.

11:18pm: 68mph in 55 zone. Verbal warning issued, near Middle River.

11:48pm: 61mph in 50 zone. Verbal warning issued, near Holt.

One thing I found to be really interesting was hearing what the dispatcher provided on the other end of the radio. I’ve always wondered what exactly gets said back there. Not that I’ve been pulled over that many times, but it’s happened once or twice. Anyway, it’s pretty cut and dry. Deputy Kucera reads the license information and waits. Within moments, we were told the name, who the vehicle was registered to, the make/model, tab expiration date, along with the date of their last violation. It was interesting, but also easy to see why Deputy Kucera simply issued verbal warnings to those particular folks. We seemed to be dealing with some pretty clean records, just slightly heavy on the foot that evening. It’s always a nice reminder that cops are people, too, and that verbal warnings can be just as effective, given the situation.

With a relatively quiet evening on the road, I was able to visit a lot with Kucera and ask him some questions pertaining to the job. My first one was, “Alright. I’ve got to know what’s on the belt. I think people want to know things like this.” (Well, I wanted to know, anyway, so I asked.) Turns out, the belt holds his gun with magazines, his keys, a taser gun, his radio and a flashlight. 

Deputy Kucera was hired in August of 2015. He works multiple shifts, but this particular night was a 5pm-3am, doing 6 days on and 4 days off. I was curious as to how many other deputies were patrolling out there with us that night. With the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department, there were three on duty, which included a K9 unit, along with two dispatchers.

We patrolled around Grygla, Gatzke, Middle River, Holt and Newfolden. Kucera informed me that all three deputies try to stay within close proximity to one another; they do so in case they are needed to provide backup. 

Since his date of hire, Deputy Kucera has been on three high-speed vehicle pursuits and one foot pursuit. I had to ask, out of curiosity, the fastest he’s ever driven, to which he replied, “About 140mph.” 

Attending college in Crookston, Kucera earned his Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in Natural Resources Law Enforcement. When he’s not on duty, you can find him enjoying nature. Whether it’s hunting, spending time with his family, his dog or out in a boat, he’s making the most of his time off by enjoying the great outdoors.

In addition to asking him if he ever gets any freebies or perks because of his status (sometimes he gets free coffee), I also asked him if he could share the scariest or worst part about his job. “The unpredictability. You just never know what someone will do, what’s going through their mind or if they have a weapon. The worst part are the calls that come in – the calls no one should ever have to experience. The first call I ever responded to was a suicide.”

It’s hard to imagine what life is like behind the scenes of a sheriff’s department. We don’t realize the magnitude of issues the employees have to deal with. And like Deputy Kucera said – the unpredictability. Every shift, they put their lives on the line and are faced with unpredictable days, hours and minutes.

When asked how one pushes onward in those types of situations, Kucera simply offered, “I push those thoughts to the back of my mind and just do my job... and know I’m helping out.”