RF Police Sgt. Jeff Sather retires after 25 years, passes badge to son

RIVER FALLS – Police Sergeant Jeff Sather is retiring from the River Falls Police Department after 25 years of service. Sather has served on the police force in River Falls for most of his career. His last day with the department is July 16.

Sather is originally from Centuria, Wis. and served as a police officer for one summer in his hometown. He has always had connections to River Falls, having family here. He started in law enforcement in 1995 and became a River Falls police officer in 1996.

The UW-River Falls alumnus originally planned to be a history teacher; however, he chose a path in law enforcement instead and has enjoyed his time serving on the force ever since.

“When I first went to school, I thought I would teach history and coach basketball and then I took some time away from school and found police work interesting and started taking classes pertaining to that,” he said.

River Falls has changed over the 25 years that he has worked as police sergeant, especially the college life at UWRF.

“River Falls has calmed down quite a bit; there aren’t as many bar fights downtown or house parties and it has definitely changed over

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Photo courtesy of Jeff Sather PASSING THE BADGE

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time,” he said.

Sather said one of the more memorable funny moments of his career was a specific night that he was supposed to be writing parking tickets.

“Someone was driving through stop signs and stop lights and it wasn’t really a chase because he was only really going about 35 miles per hour in a 25, but we finally caught up to him and we got him to stop and put the handcuffs on him. And we write parking tickets at night and this is at about 2 a.m. and I looked at the person I was working with and just said ‘does this mean I don’t have to write parking tickets tonight’ and just laughed to lighten to mood,” he said.

Sather has turned over his badge number to his son Alex Sather who was recently hired at the River Falls Police Department. Alex Sather will be carrying on his father’s legacy in River Falls after recently graduating from UW-Eau Claire.

“It was emotional giving him my badge and I was excited to see that happen for him,” Jeff Sather said. “I didn’t even know he was interested in law enforcement until a couple years ago.”

His plans for retirement are to currently relax and start a new full-time position he has taken in a few weeks as a warehouse manager. After 25 years in law enforcement, he felt it was time for a new officer to take his place and it’s fitting that it is his son.

“I’m excited to try something new, it’ll be weird not knowing the day to day of what is happening in the city,” he said.

Sather expressed his gratitude toward the River Falls community. He said, “In River Falls the community has been really good to us and there is a really good relationship between law enforcement and the community.”

With the challenges the community has faced the past year he is appreciative of everything the community does.

“Within the last year or two with COVID and everything going on we have gotten more thank you notes and treats then we ever have. It’s a good community and there are a lot of good relationships there. Police officers in River Falls do a lot of unseen things in the community and they really care and become invested in the lives of community members,” he said.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Sather

Retiring River Falls Police Sgt. Jeff Sather handing his badge over to his son and new River Falls police officer Alex Sather. It was an emotional day for both.