ABOVE: From left, the newly promoted Captain Chad Sanow, Detective Dayton Asmus and Sergeant Parker Stevens of the Fairmont Police Department.

FAIRMONT– Continued shuffling within the Fairmont Police Department has resulted in three recent promotions. Effective Feb. 5, Chad Sanow went from sergeant to captain, Parker Stevens from officer to sergeant and Dayton Asmus from officer to detective.

Sanow has 30 years of experience in law enforcement. He started with the Fairmont Police Department in April of 2004.

“I started my career in April of 1996 working part-time for five different agencies: Tyler, Balaton, Marshall, Lyon County and Minneota. Then in October 1997 I got hired full-time in Watonwan County,” Sanow said.

Originally from Jasper, Minn., Sanow said he got interested in law enforcement as one of his father’s friends worked in a sheriff’s office.

“When I met him, that’s kind of what got me involved. Through high school I got to know the local deputies and troopers and decided to take the career path,” Sanow said.

He went to Wilmar Community College where he got a degree in criminal justice. Then he went through the law enforcement skills program at Alexandria Community and Technical College.

Throughout his three decades of experience, Sanow has held many different positions. Early on he was a K9 handler in Watonwan County. When he came to the Fairmont Police Department in 2004, he brought Chase with him and the two worked together until 2008.

“Then I worked with a second dog (Jango) here and I retired out of K9 in 2016,” Sanow said.

In 2014 Sanow was promoted to sergeant and he held that title all the way up until his recent promotion to captain.

Over those years Sanow oversaw the training program and was a field training officer (FTO). He was also involved in narcotics interdiction and helped out with investigations from 2019 to 2021.

“Through my career, I would do whatever the department needed,” Sanow said.

Back in July 2025, Eric Tonder retired as captain from the Fairmont Police Department and Mike Beletti was promoted to fill the role. However, upon Mike Hunter’s retirement as chief in November, Beleltti was promoted to chief, once again leaving the captain role vacant.

Speaking as to why Sanow was interested in becoming captain, he shared a quote from former Chief Hunter, “it isn’t about being the best, it’s about helping those around you be the best.”

“Since I was promoted in 2014 to sergeant, my goal and what I strive for is helping those below me and above me so that the entire department has success. If our department is having success, the community is having success,” Sanow said.

His promotion to captain left a sergeant role open, which is now being filled by Parker Stevens.

Originally from Truman, Stevens attended Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Worthington where he got his degree in law enforcement.

His grandfather, Gary Stevens, worked for the Fairmont Police Department and retired in 1988 as police captain.

“It’s always been my goal to follow in his footsteps. He was fortunate enough to get promoted pretty early on in his career, which has turned out for me, too,” Stevens said.

In 2019 he was an intern with the Fairmont Police Department and Martin County Sheriff’s Office. In 2020, he worked part-time in the sheriff’s office before becoming full-time with Fairmont a year later.

As for roles he’s held within the department, Stevens has been a FTO, narcotics resource officer and he coordinates with the Minnesota River Valley Task Force to work on cases. Stevens is a crisis intervention officer and he’s also currently the school resource officer at Arise Academy.

Now as sergeant, Stevens will supervise a crew of patrol officers. He said he’s looking forward to working with some of the newer hires, many of whom he helped train.

“We have a really good group of officers right now so it will be fun working alongside them, training them and also picking up some stuff they do, too,” Stevens said.

Asmus started part-time with the Fairmont Police Department in 2017 and at that time he was also part-time with the Sherburn, Welcome and Trimont police departments. By 2019 Asmus was working as a full-time officer with Fairmont.

A 2012 graduate of Fairmont High School, Asmus said, “I didn’t know any officers personally but growing up I was drawn to it for whatever reason. I was always fascinated with law enforcement and continued to pursue it.”

He finished the law enforcement program at Alexandria Community and Technical College.

Since 2017 he’s been the adopt a cop officer at St. Paul Lutheran School, where he attended as a student. While the program didn’t exist when he was a young student, he sees the benefits of it.

“It builds such good rapport. I’ve got 6th, 7th and 8th graders now that will come up to me during shop with a cop or out in public and say, ‘hey officer Dayton,’ and I don’t recognize them because it’s been seven years now but they remember the face and uniform,” Asmus said.

Through his career thus far, Asmus has done alcohol and tobacco compliance checks, along with other tasks.

“One of the things that I helped incorporate, in correlation with adopt a cop, is first responder day. Every year we’ll bring some Fairmont officers, Martin County deputies, Mayo ambulance, fire trucks, and let the kids see the equipment and ask questions. It’s something they’ve really enjoyed,” Asmus said.

As detective, Asmus’ role will focus on investigations. He’ll work closely with human services, adult and child protection offices and the county attorney’s office. He’ll also work on fraud cases and network with other agencies when cases involve other jurisdictions.

Asmus said this will be more of an office job that’s done behind the scenes, but that he enjoys that work and the challenge of getting puzzle pieces to land correctly.

“I’ve kind of been dubbed the tech guy in the department and I’m pretty good with computers and writing search warrants. I like the behind the scenes work and that was my draw to it,” Asmus said.

Before him, the most recent detective was Tonder but when Tonder was promoted to captain in 2019, the office was restructured and Sanow was handling the duties for awhile until Beletti took them over for about four years until he then briefly became captain.

Asmus now will be solely focused on investigations as the department has again restructured.

The department currently has 17 officers and is short one member right now due to all of the internal promotions, however the officer position was posted just last week and several applications have already come through.

All three are eager to continue to engage with and assist the community through their new roles.

“Everyday, wherever you stop, you always have someone thanking you for what we do for the community. We’re not perfect, but we try to do the best we can,” Sanow said. “When there’s victims involved in a crime, we try to do the best for them.”

He also extended a special thanks to the Civil Service Commission, which he said has always been supportive of the department.