Potthast wants stronger relationship with youth

FORT MADISON -  The next turn of leadership at the Fort Madison Police Department has begun.
Newly sworn-in Police Chief Cody Potthast took over following the retirement of Chief Mark Rohloff last week and was settling into the chief’s office Wednesday morning.
Rohloff reached the maximum age and time served after coming to Fort Madison in 2019 from Wisconsin.
The city’s search for a new chief was conducted internally with four candidates applying for the job. A committee interviewed all four candidates and chose Potthast of the group.
Potthast came to Fort Madison and most recently served as a captain on the department after close to 12 years of service in Nebraska.
He said the roadmap for his plans as chief hasn’t been developed.
“That is to be determined. There’s plans and obviously changes that will come in the future. Mark has done a great job, and we can do nothing but thank him for the hard work that he’s done taking the police department from what it was prior to him being here to what it is now,” he said.
“My hope is to keep pushing the Fort Madison police department in a positive direction, picking up where he’s left off.”
Potthast said one of his top priorities will be to re-engage with the youth of Fort Madison. He said that’s one way to mitigate the past imagery of police as rigid law enforcement.
“One of my passions is the youth and getting involved in the youth programs so the kids don’t just see us on the enforcement side of things. I want to develop relationships with them and hopefully establish a mentor-type process within those relationships.
“It's one thing for them to meet us at a level of enforcement, but we need to re-establish that relationship by being involved in the community more with more community events. That’s what I’m focused on.”

He said when he was in Nebraska, he started a Kickball with a Cop event where police would play kickball with kids once a quarter. He said it started with about 20 kids, but over the years, it grew to the point where two gyms were needed.
“I’m encouraging our officers to stop if they see kids playing in the playgrounds to take five minutes jump out to play tag, shoot hoops, whatever. In those little bits of time, people see us as humans. We’re not robots and that’s a big deal.”
Another focus of the new chief is to develop an officer training program within the department. He said training can be hard on budgets and scheduling, but it’s an imperative to staff growth.
“Training is hard for all law enforcement. It costs in the budget and it costs on time. So figuring a way to implement a plan where, once a month, our officers get hands on training is important,” he said.
“That may be sending them out to be instructors and masters in a field so we are staying up-to-date on the newest training available. “
With the former chief sticking around for three months, Potthast said the learning curve on the budget will be easier to manage. He said he’s still too new to talk about the budget, but said the department will have to remain creative to keep up with the changes in law enforcement.
“At this phase, I would take whatever assistance there is, and we will seek resources through grants or whatever we can get. At this point in time, I’d be lying to you if I knew everything when it comes to that.”
Potthast wants to leave politicking to the politicians, but has had opportunities to meet with State Rep. Martin Graber, and has solid relationships with Keokuk Police Chief Zeth Baum and Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber.
Potthast was also the team lead on the county’s Special Response Team and believes those relationships, including the Lee County Narcotics Task Force, are critical to area-wide crime control.
He believes illicit drugs are the root cause of the other high dollar crime in the area including vandalism. He said the police department is on solid footing, but one area he will look to get after even more fervently will be getting drugs off the streets.
“Drugs can lead to all the other crimes that we see on the streets.”