Above: Officer Brian Boltjes will retire from the Vermont Police Department at the end of the month. Poltjes has been working with the department since 2001.
Vermont – Officer Brian Boltjes will retire from the Vermont Police Department at the end of the month. Poltjes has been with the Vermont Police Department since 2001, but he’s been a police officer since 1995.
Originally from Worthington, Boltjes said that after graduating from high school, he intended to go into the construction business. However, he had friends who were police officers in Worthington and his brother was an MP at the time, so he ended up taking a jaunt.
“I didn’t go back to school right away for law enforcement. It was about seven years before I went back,” she said. Boltjes said.
He built in between and worked the stockyards at what was once Montford Pork. In 1994, Boltjes started school at Range Technical College in Hibbing. He began working part-time for the Ivanhoe and Lake Benton Police Departments, and after graduating in 1996, went on to work part-time for a number of departments.
In 1998 he was hired full time as a police officer for the city of Jackson. Boltjes remained there until May 2001, when he moved on to serve as a full-time city officer for Vermont.
“When I was in Jackson, before I left, I was their K9 handler. When I came here, the city bought the dog from the city of Jackson so I was their K9 handler here,” he said. Boltjes said.
The first K9 was retired and started working with a second. He has ceased to be a K9 handler, but has held a number of different roles within the department, including patrol officer, intoxilyzer operator (now data manager) and crisis intervention officer, which he was most recently with.
Looking back on his many years in law enforcement, Boltjes cited technological advances as one of the biggest changes he had seen.
“When I started in 1995, we didn’t have a computer in our office. We wrote reports on a typewriter until now. Now our team cars have computers,” he says. Boltjes said.
He said that the equipment has become much better. While in Jackson, he was a founding member of the Regional Emergency Response Unit (HEAT) and said they don’t have much to work with but now they have robots and drones.
Interest and competitiveness for positions also changed. When he started, it was an era, Boltjes said “Clinton Cops,” Many departments had extra money to hire additional officers.
“I auditioned for a position in Lakefield City in 1996. There were two positions and over 300 applicants for both positions,” she said. Boltjes said.
Now, departments everywhere are struggling to find officers to fill positions. Boltjes said, We need police officers, and we need good police officers. It is difficult to find good people to enter this career field.”
Boltjes said it’s hard to say what his favorite part of being an officer is. He said he enjoyed being a K9 handler and also liked the versatility the job brought.
“It’s not the same thing every day. Working in a 9-to-5 office every day would get monotonous for me. We never know what we’re going to be dealing with, good, bad or otherwise,” Boltjes said.
The decision to retire is bittersweet for Boltjes. He will be 55 this fall and he said his youngest son will be 17 soon and he would like to spend more time with him.
“This is one of the drawbacks of police work. We are on the job a lot and work through nights, weekends and holidays,” Boltjes said.
Besides spending time with his family, Boltjes is looking forward to focusing on his hobbies, which include hunting and fishing.
As he retires, he doesn’t necessarily have to slow down. Boltjes has been active in Pheasants Forever, Vermont Trap Club and also helps coach the Vermont Trap Team.
“When people found out I was retiring, they were like, ‘Hey, we have more to do now.'” “Looks like I’m going to be busier.” Boltjes said with a laugh.
While he said he didn’t think he’d miss the daily grind of getting and answering calls, he’d miss the camaraderie that came with the job.
“We have a good group of people here and the city will be well taken care of in the future,” Boltjes said.
Police Chief Mike Hunter said he worked on the street with Officer Boltjes for many years of community service and was impressed by his commitment to helping the public.
We wish him all the best with his retirement. said the fisherman.
Hunter said they recently added an officer to the department and are currently working on hiring two full-time officers.