ABOVE: Jason Christenson of the Fairmont Police Department was recently promoted to Sergeant.

FAIRMONT– With some recent retirements and shuffling among the Fairmont Police Department, Jason Christenson was just promoted to a Sergeant role. He has been with the department since 2017, over which time he’s served in a variety of capacities.

The Fairmont Police Department has had an opening for Chief of Police since Mike Hunter’s retirement last month. Christenson’s new role was previously filled by Mike Beletti, who was promoted to Captain after Eric Tonder’s retirement earlier this fall. Beletti has been serving as interim police chief over the past month and said the department is also in the process of either promoting or hiring a detective, which will likely wrap up in early January.

Christenson grew up locally and after graduating from Martin Luther High School in Northrop, he went on to Alexandra Technical College.

Speaking of his decision to pursue law enforcement, Christenson said, “It was an interest I had and with the interest came curiosity. One of my counselors in high school was Del Ellis’ (former Fairmont PD officer) wife and with my interest in law enforcement she really got that moving for me, giving me information on the education portion of it.”

After his training was completed, Christenson got a job with the Winnebago Police Department, where he stayed for several years. Then he moved on to the Faribault County Sheriff’s office where he worked for a decade before coming to Fairmont.

“I always had a little interest in getting back to this area. Even back then, the open jobs were not as prevalent as they are now so if there was an opening you were interested in you kind of had to jump on it. I took it as an opportunity to see what would happen and it turned out that I got hired here,” he said.

One of the first special roles he had with Fairmont PD was School Resource Officer, which he held for the 2018 school year and a portion of the 2019 school year at Fairmont High School.

“I’ve also worked investigations here from 2021 to 2024,” Christenson explained. “I’ve had a hand in background investigations for hiring. Currently I’m one of the department armorers and firearm instructors.”

He spoke as to why he thinks it’s beneficial to have department members learn and work in a variety of different areas.

“There’s plenty of opportunity with this department for everyone to have their hand in some type of program. It’s great to get that experience in different areas. We’ll never know everything about this job so the more things we can be involved in, it really makes a well-rounded officer,” Christenson said.

On Dec. 11 he officially started his new role as Sergeant, which means he has a greater focus in overseeing shifts.

“There’s a high confidence in everybody that’s working here already so that part’s easy, but it’s just ensuring that everything is completed timely and orderly,” Christenson said.

He acknowledged that the department is fairly young, with several new hires in the last year.

“The newest officers that we’ve hired have an eagerness to get into some of these new things,” Christenson said.

Ultimately, he said he’s looking forward to continuing to build on the good things that are going on in the department and building up the officers with more experience.