The Sky’s the Limit

PICTURED ABOVE

Unique experiences and interests have led to lessons DOCJT Leadership Instructor Sanfield (Sandy) Forseth passes on to his students. (Photo by Jim Robertson)

It has been said that clothes make the man, but a far more accurate statement is that experience makes the officer; at least, that has been the case for Department of Criminal Justice Training Leadership Instructor Sanfield (Sandy) Forseth.

Despite being born among Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes and raised in Florida near the beauty of the Atlantic, it was not the water but the sky that captured Forseth’s heart. From a young age, his desired career path was aviation.

However, things don’t always go as planned. When dreams of joining the United States Airforce fell through, Forseth recalled a few of his friends being part of the Police Explorers’ Program, an avenue for young people to get a feel for the policing career.

“There was a sense of order, discipline and professionalism,” explained Forseth. “I highly respected the profession and knew I would like to be able to make a difference, be service-oriented and do things that would benefit others.”

The Policing Path

With his sights set on law enforcement, Forseth began applying to be part of a police screening pool. As agencies in the area needed people, Forseth explained, they would often pull from the pre-screened candidates. After Forseth graduated from Florida State University with a degree in criminology and had completed an internship with the local sheriff’s office, he was hired by the Pinellas Park Police Department (PPPD) in 1983.

Culture shock awaited the young officer during his first few years on patrol, as he found himself susceptible to manipulative personalities to whom he was now exposed. However, Forseth said those first years were a learning experience that he now shares with his DOCJT students.

A question he often asks them is, “How long do you need to be a police officer before you feel comfortable?”

“For me, it was about at the three-year point,” he said. “Then I felt comfortable in what I was doing in patrol and knew that no matter what call I was going to get, I had the confidence that I could take care of it.”

During his time with the Pinellas Park Police Department’s K-9 Unit, Forseth worked with one of the area’s first Belgian Malinois. (Photo provided)

As his experience and skills grew, Forseth was placed in more specialized units. After surveillance work for VICE and narcotics, he was assigned to the K-9 unit in the late 80s. According to Forseth, his new beat partner was a Belgian Malinois, one of the first to serve in Central Florida during an era when German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Dobermans were more widely used.

After five great years with his K-9 assignment, Forseth spent time as a field training officer and in research and planning to help maintain the agency’s policies before being promoted to sergeant.

Eventually, Forseth was made captain of the administrative division of the department. This meant that the records section, communication center, crime prevention, research and planning, and special services were under his supervision.

Lights, Camera, Action

Forseth’s new position also gave him another added responsibility—acting as the agency’s public information officer – a role he served in the remainder of his 30-year career at PPPD.

Soon his communication and leadership skills would be tested, coordinating responses and facing down 70 to 80 cameras at any given time as media began covering the family feud seen around the world.

Terri Schiavo’s tragic story, which pitted her husband had parents against each other, would dominate national news in the early 2000s. Celebrities, politicians, and even the United States president and the Vatican were taking sides on whether life-sustaining measures should continue for Schiavo, who had been left in a vegetative state after suffering cardiac arrest in 1990, according to NBCnews.com. PPPD found themselves ensuring the growing number of protesters remained peaceful and providing security at the hospice center housing Schiavo. As the agency’s PIO, Forseth was often in front of the microphone. Ultimately, Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed; she died on March 31, 2005.

“That was challenging,” said Forseth. “During a normal workday, I would probably have five television stations, two newspapers and a couple of radio stations that would contact me. With the Schiavo case, there were like 100 news outlets. Anytime we needed to make a statement, we had this circle we called the pit where I would go down, and all the media people would gather around. This was a major story for several weeks.”

While a city or county never knows when they might be thrust into the spotlight due to an incident in their jurisdiction, Forseth said that staying grounded in updated policies can help maintain focus when the press comes knocking. A couple of things an agency and their public information officer should consider are making accommodations to where the media can set up and what areas will be restricted. He added that it doesn’t have to be a national incident for the media for it to become necessary for plans to be developed. Having a process to follow in the event of natural disasters, such as tornadoes and flooding, is incredibly important.

Leading the Blue

After 30 years serving Pinellas Park, Forseth’s retirement and Kentucky were calling.

Seeking a change in weather, Forseth said he was eager to relocate somewhere that didn’t have hurricanes. His wife’s parents had moved to the Bluegrass, and the Forseths purchased property after visiting them.

Two years into retirement, Forseth said he began missing law enforcement. He was willing to return to patrol, but in 2016, a Lexington contact encouraged him to apply to teach in DOCJT’s Leadership Section. He was soon hired and joined in the vital role of molding Kentucky’s law enforcement leaders.

“It’s a big responsibility,” Forseth said. “We are trying to set the example for the leaders, chiefs and sheriffs for all these organizations across the state. My teaching partners and I want to ensure that the things we do and say set the example they need to follow, including how to treat their people. We hope it’s having an impact. We also spend a lot of time on confidence-building and decision-making. As they leave us, we want them to remember how important they are as leaders and to believe in themselves.”

Don’t Lose Yourself; Bring Yourself to the Beat

During leadership classes at DOCJT, Forseth said his section usually asks their students to tell everyone what they enjoy doing outside of policing.

“It’s to get to know them, but also to push them to have something (special to them) outside of work,” he explained. “So many retire and then don’t have a hobby or interest. You want them to be able to think beyond their work years.”

Besides bringing happiness and escape during stressful days, many lessons can be learned from one’s hobbies. Forseth draws a few lessons from his interests that have been useful both on the beat and in the classroom—even his love of aircraft.

As a child, Forseth recalls collecting airline flying schedules and building models. When he was a teen, a friend’s father took him into the air in a Cessna 172. And while flying didn’t become his career, Forseth said he could bring the confidence gained during flight lessons and obtaining his pilot’s license with him into his policing career. The lessons also reinforced the importance of redundancy for safety precautions, utilizing checklists, and ensuring one is fully aware of policy and procedures.

Forseth’s love for animals taught him compassion, responsibility, patience and empathy, and gave him a chance to meet his wife. After first laying eyes on each other while visiting a horse stable, the two married in 1991 and have continued to, as Forseth put it, collect animals—many are rescues.

Forseth pictured with his police horse with the Pinellas Park Police Department. (Photo provided)

While he no longer competes with show horses like he once did, Forseth said he still competes monthly in agility competitions with his dogs—specifically in a game called flyball.

What does this have to do with policing? Nothing and everything. Each little piece of a person, their interests and experiences, help to mold them into, hopefully, a better officer and a better leader, Forseth noted.

“We tell (our students) to be authentic,” he said. “Don’t try to be something you’re not because people will see right through it. The biggest thing in leadership is developing trust between yourself and the people you lead. Be authentic, and people will reward you for that.”