ABOVE: Mike Beletti is Fairmont's new chief of police.

FAIRMONT– Effective today, Mike Beletti is Fairmont’s new chief of police. Beletti has been with the Fairmont Police Department for 15 years and was just in October of 2025 promoted to captain.

His career in law enforcement began in 2009 in Winnebago, though he’s originally from the metro area.

Looking back on the start of his career to now, Beletti said he never necessarily saw himself becoming chief of police.

“Maybe some people go into this saying, ‘I want to be chief of police someday,’ but I guess when I got in the profession, I just wanted to be a patrol officer. That was kind of my dream growing up,” Beletti said.

He had family in law enforcement and that drew him to the field.

“I knew it was something that I wanted to do,” Beletti said.

Throughout his time in law enforcement he’s been a patrol officer, field training officer, school resource officer, patrol sergeant and most recently, captain for a short-lived stint.

He moved into the captain role after the retirement of Eric Tonder in July. Then in November, Mike Hunter retired as chief after holding the title for nine years. Those vacancies allowed Beletti to move up and take on more responsibility, which is something he enjoys.

“I enjoy being in a leadership role and mentoring our younger officers and now our whole agency,” Beletti said.

He did say the department was aware that in 2025 both the captain and chief would be retiring and that the department likes to plan ahead to prepare officers within the department to fill vacancies.

While the hiring process for the captain position was only run internally, the chief position was opened up to outside applicants and the city of Fairmont did advertise the chief position and three of the four people who applied were interviewed with one not meeting qualifications.

Beletti prepared by completing his bachelor’s degree over the last year. Prior to that he had his associate’s degree, which was all the was required for his previous roles. However, a bachelor’s degree was required for the chief position and he just obtained that this past December.

The committee came up with the unanimous decision to promote Beletti to chief and he’s been working with the city on an offer of employment over the past week.

In his new role, Beletti is looking forward to answering questions and leading the department into the future with all of the technological and legislative changes coming down the pike.

“I’m happy to be a part of that and have a voice in the matter now,” Beletti said.

As for other changes, Beletti said there will be an immediate focus on staffing.

“This triggered a number of transitions within the police department. I was promoted to captain and that created a sergeant vacancy,” Beletti said.

That position was recently filled internally by Jason Christenson.

“Moving forward we’ll have a captain spot open. Since our last process was so fresh, we’ll be taking from that list for the captain. That will create another sergeant opening,” Beletti explained.

Other than hiring for another position, Beletti said he’s not looking at any sweeping changes.

“Once the transitions are made, we’ll take a deep look at other possible changes but on the surface we’re not going to see any major changes to the service we provide to the community,” Beletti said.

Instead, he said that the department will remain engaged with the programs that they’re operating and participating in and look forward to continuing partnerships.

“Although I wasn’t seeking this role initially, I am very honored to serve the community at this level,” Beletti said. “I’m very excited to see what the future holds.”