Safety First Newsletter
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Current issue: Vol. 3, Issue 7, April 15
OPS: Why safe digging matters: Beverly’s story
It’s been nearly four decades since Bob Jacobson ran headlong into an inferno — not because he was told to, but because someone needed help. What he found amid the flames still remains vivid in his memories — a woman so badly burned she could no longer see, her voice cracking with pain, her body failing with every breath. That woman was Beverly Spano.
Thirty-nine years later, Jacobson is the commissioner of the department that houses the Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), which was created as a result of the pipeline explosion that killed Spano and her 6-year-old daughter Jennifer.
Jacobson shared his memories of Beverly in our DPS blog. While tragic, the story reinforces the importance of the work done by first responders and pipeline safety officials across the state.
OTS: Program aims to reduce impaired driving
People were nervous when Chisago City’s Scooters Bar began hosting Sgt. Kyle Puelston’s Learn Your Limits program, but now it’s become an underground hit. Puelston, a Chisago County Sheriff’s deputy, goes to the bar to educate everyone on the dangers of driving while intoxicated and to help them learn just how much is too much to drink.
A Chisago veteran deputy sheriff of 19 years, Puelston also feels the high cost of impaired driving personally. He was hit by a drunk driver in 2020 while looking for impaired drivers himself, and, when he was in school for law enforcement, three of Puelston’s friends were killed by a drunk driver in a single incident. His recovery and his loss are now what drives him to catch every impaired driver he can.
Commissioner's Corner: State Patrol marks Public Safety Telecommunicators Week
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, Department of Public Safety (DPS) Commissioner Bob Jacobson and DPS Deputy Commissioner Cassandra O'Hern visited the Minnesota State Patrol public safety answering point in Roseville on Monday, the first day of Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
Last year alone, Minnesota State Patrol dispatchers answered nearly 190,000 calls at the two main dispatch centers in Roseville and Rochester. Statewide, the number of 911 calls handled by dispatchers in 2024 was 2.8 million.
Dispatchers go through extensive training to help people during some of their worst moments. The most important thing to remember when dialing 911 is to remain calm once the dispatcher answers. Answer their questions and don’t hang up until the call-taker instructs you to do so.
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"As Indigenous people, our definition of family doesn't start or end with where or who we were born to. Those who love and care for us collectively extends our family,” said Ana Negrete, interim director of our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office. "When one of us is called upon to support, we do our best to show up and help in whatever way we can.”
Negrete spent the weekend working alongside several dozen volunteers from surrounding communities to search for Renzo Bull Head, a 20-year-old student from Bismarck, N.D., who has been missing since March 18. Surveillance footage captured Bull Head walking onto the railroad bridge near Mandan, N.D. His family, with help from the Spirit Lake Tribe, has been coordinating search efforts in the area.
Bull Head's family has put out a call for assistance to tribes and police departments across North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota. They are requesting donations, volunteers and specialized search assistance like drone operators, sonar-equipped boats, horse units and search dogs.