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New police chief is happy to have relocated in Caledonia
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Caledonia’s new police chief Kurt Zehnder grew up in a family where his parents and siblings all liked to help others. Be it a long time member of the local fire department, the emergency services or public safety, members of the Zehnder family were there to help.
“I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for a career when I was growing up, but I knew I wanted to help others,” noted Zehnder, who grew up in Truman, located in south central Minnesota. “I knew I wanted to serve my country. So I joined the Army.”
Zehnder spent two years in the Army in the late 1980s and was activated for the First Gulf War in 1990. Just a few weeks before he and his unit was to be shipped overseas, the war was over. Zehnder finished up his two-year hitch with Uncle Sam and then joined the National Guard.
He enrolled at what was then called Mankato State University where he signed up for the ROTC program. It didn’t take him long to realize officer’s training just wasn’t for him. So he switched majors and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
He met his soon-to-be wife Emily during his senior year. They were married in 1995 and Zehnder took a job at Springfield, Minn., where he served as a police officer for three and one-half years. Next stop was Austin, where he as an officer for six and one-half years.
Following a nine-month stint in Big Sandy, Mont., the Zehnders moved back to southern Minnesota, where Kurt worked part-time for both the Wells and Good Thunder police departments. In 2008 Zehnder was promoted to chief of the Good Thunder Police Department.
“If someone would have told me five years ago I was going to be a police chief, I would have said ‘no way’. At that point in my life, I really didn’t have any desire to be chief.”
But Zehnder saw an opportunity to improve a bad situation. He took over a department that had been at odds with the community and the city council. Folks in Good Thunder just didn’t have a lot of respect for their police department. It wasn’t a positive part of their community. Zehnder changed all that. He opened up as many channels of communications as he could with the 560 residents and began fostering a much better relationship.
“The biggest thing was communication,” Zehnder said. “I got to know the residents of Good Thunder and got the point across that the police department was there to serve them…to help them.”
And it worked. When the person conducting the background checks on the various finalists for the chief of police job in Caledonia, a number of residents of Good Thunder told that person, “No, you can’t have our police chief.”
“I left a lot of good friends in Good Thunder. That was a great experience for me. I felt I accomplished something there,” Zehnder stated.
“I want to have a very open police department that communicates with the residents of Caledonia. I plan to visit every business in town and talk to the owners and managers. I want to know what their needs, wants and concerns are. I don’t just want a good police department, I want a great police department. I want officers from other communities wanting to come here, to be part of Caledonia’s police department. And the best way to accomplish that is to communicate with the community and serve its residents as well as we possibly can.”
One of the first things Zehnder plans to do is bring back the DARE program at the middle school.
“DARE is a great program. It was one of the best ways for me to get to know the kids. I could walk through the halls of the school or in the community and get high fives or even hugs from my former students. It is a very effective tool for helping kids stay away from destructive things that come their way. And it’s also an excellent program to bring police officers and young students together.”
Zehnder knows a little bit about kids. He and Emily have three girls and one boy. Cody, age 13, plans to play football this fall. Daughters Madison, 10, and Jadah, 6, will also be attending Caledonia schools, while PJ, 3, will have to wait a year or two.
Emily, who is an LPN, has taken a job at the Caledonia Care and Rehab. She has also signed up as a back-up school nurse.
The Zehnders and their seven horses have found a home in the Caledonia area.
“Caledonia and the surrounding area is so beautiful. I’m so happy to have found a job here. This is a community that I can see myself spending the rest of my career at,” Zehnder said. “I’m a big outdoorsman. I love to hunt, especially whitetail deer. And I know there’s no better place to find them than right here.”
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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