PIERRE, S.D. (John Hult / South Dakota Searchlight) – The South Dakota Department of Public Safety says a saturation patrol initiative has had a minimal impact on the Highway Patrol’s budget.

Operation Prairie Thunder, announced in July by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden, has put additional state troopers in cities across South Dakota on eight occasions.

Last week, the state said it had jailed 75 people on drug charges during two sets of patrols in the cities of Yankton, Huron and Belle Fourche. Earlier patrols had focused on the city of Sioux Falls.

Brad Reiners, spokesman for the Highway Patrol, told South Dakota Searchlight the state logged $43,000 worth of overtime hours for troopers during the days the patrols took place.

“There are minimal lodging, travel, and fuel costs as well,” Reiners wrote in an email, adding that those expenses were covered by the Highway Patrol’s operational budget.

He also said troopers would have logged some overtime hours during the saturation patrol time frames even if those patrols had not taken place.

He declined to say how many additional troopers were involved in each patrol, or to offer the total annual overtime budget for the agency. He wrote that the overtime budget is “complex,” because “there are several accounts from which overtime may be drawn.” The Highway Patrol’s total budget for the current fiscal year is about $45 million.

The budget impact of saturation patrols extends beyond the Highway Patrol.

Minnehaha County Public Defender Traci Smith told South Dakota Searchlight she has not broken down the exact number of additional cases her office now has as a result of the patrols, but that “the increase we felt was anecdotally due to the higher number of arrests during those times.”

Smith also wrote that she had recently asked the Minnehaha County Commission for a $190,000 budget supplement. The commission approved her request on Tuesday.

The Nov. 21 letter requesting that money did not mention Operation Prairie Thunder, but pointed more generally to “unanticipated operational needs and workload-driven expenses” and a “sustained increase in felony, drug, and violent-offense cases.”

Immigration connection

During the saturation patrols, state troopers are questioning people they suspect of being in the U.S. without documentation, facilitated in part by a cooperation agreement inked between the agency and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this year.

Such questioning, some of which results in detainment for ICE, takes place during regular traffic stops.

The mayor and a state representative from Huron, one of South Dakota’s most diverse cities per capita, told Searchlight that the troopers’ presence in town sparked fears of ICE immigration crackdowns.

The state does not publicly announce the dates for its patrols in advance, but the city of Brookings posted a press release late last week announcing that Operation Prairie Thunder patrols would take place in the city from Wednesday through Friday, and that “the city of Brookings will not be participating in these operations.”

Brookings Mayor Ope Neimeyer told The Dakota Scout newspaper that the release was meant to “inform our citizens.”

Josie Harms, a spokeswoman for Rhoden, declined to say on Tuesday if anything had changed in terms of the Highway Patrol’s plans for Brookings.

“For security reasons, we are not going to comment on operational specifics,” she wrote in a statement. “It’s unfortunate that the city of Brookings would jeopardize an anti-crime operation and put the safety of our officers at risk by publishing this information. In South Dakota, we enforce the rule of law.”