My name is Officer Hunter Panning, and I serve as the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Chaska Police Department. If you’ve followed our social media over the past few years, there’s a good chance you’ve already interacted with some of our work. Behind every post is a simple goal: to make policing feel more human and more connected to the people we serve.
What I love most about this community is that Chaska is more than the place I work. It’s home. I grew up here, graduated from Chaska High School and now have the privilege of serving the same community that helped shape me. In addition to my role as PIO, I currently serve as a School Resource Officer, which allows me to spend my days working directly with families and staff, and that perspective grounds everything I do. It keeps our work personal and reminds me daily that the relationships we build matter just as much as the calls we respond to.
In my role as a PIO, I get to do some media relations and communications, but I also have the unique opportunity to shape how our department shows up in the everyday virtual lives of our community. That means highlighting the serious work we do, while also making space for the lighter moments that remind us we’re all in this together. Whether it’s a major case update, a community event, crime prevention tips or a little well-timed humor during a Minnesota snow storm, our intent is always the same: earn your trust before we need it.
We’re excited to begin contributing to Carver County Local News. While social media allows us to share information quickly, this platform will give us something different. It gives us space – space to explain, to reflect and to bring you behind the scenes of what policing actually looks like in Chaska. Not just the calls we go to, but the relationships and the day-to-day moments that often go unseen.
Through these contributions, you’ll hear not only from me, but from other members of our department as well, like our Crime Prevention Officer Martin Godinez or our Chief of Police Ryan Seibert. We’ll share stories from the field, highlight trends we’re seeing in our community, offer practical crime prevention tips and occasionally bring a little humor along the way. Because while public safety is serious work, connecting with people can be fun.
At the end of the day, we’re about making our work and our staff accessible. Not everyone is on social media, and not everyone engages with us the same way. This is another avenue for us to meet you where you are, keep you informed and continue building the kind of relationship between police and community that Chaska deserves.
If you’re interested in learning more about the philosophy behind how and why we communicate the way we do, I encourage you to check out a piece I previously wrote for CCLN readers. It offers a deeper look into how we approach storytelling in policing, and why we believe it matters. https://cclocalnews.org/2025/04/22/putting-heart-and-a-little-humor-into-police-communication/
We’re looking forward to being part of your reading routine and, more importantly, part of the ongoing conversation in our community.
