Polk County Sheriff James Tadman gave a Citizen Partnership Award to Joe and Jamie Kresl of Mentor, MN, last week for assisting the Polk County Sheriff’s Office back in August of 2024 with an Internet Crimes Against Children Operation. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office worked alongside many other agencies throughout Polk County and the Minnesota BCA. Sheriff Tadman explained the Polk County Sheriff’s Office is part of the Minnesota BCA’s ICAC (Interstate Crimes Against Children) Initiative.
“They came in and assisted us with an operation that we had been doing investigations for many hours prior to that,” Says Sheriff Tadman. “This was kind of the final where everybody got together and concluded what they came up with, suspects in different states, also including Canada. It resulted in 53 suspects that were investigated throughout the nation and including Canada that were soliciting children for sex or child pornography.”
Sheriff Tadman says that five local men were arrested for solicitation, possession of child pornography, and sexual assault, with two suspects being referred for federal prosecution. The write-up for the Citizen Partnership Award for the Kresls was done by Investigation Sergeant Nathan Rash, who was the lead on bringing the Operation into Polk County. The overall feeling is that Citizen Partnerships are an extremely important connection in the law enforcement community. “Without people like Joe and Jamie, we need those people to do our job because they are the eyes and ears of our residents,” says Sheriff Tadman. “I was just really overwhelmed to see them step up for us and just say, whatever you need. It was very nice to see that.”
For the Kresl’s, it was a no-brainer. They were never out for recognition or a pat on the back. They were asked to help, and that is what they did. “A good friend of mine, who is on the Police Force, he is a detective, asked if we could help them on something they had going on to do with children,” explained Joe. “I talked to Jamie, and we said, absolutely. Children are very important; we have to protect them as much as we can.” Joe and Jamie are parents themselves and understand what it’s like to want to protect and keep their children safe. “They have to go through enough stuff in their life, having somebody that tries to gain their trust, and they don’t know any better, so if you can save one, I’d do it again.”
The Kresl’s said that helping in any way they could just felt like the right thing to do. “Citizens helping in things like this is very big to get some of these people off the street,” says Joe. “We did this because we knew it was right; we were not expecting anything at all, so it was quite an honor to receive this award.”
