New Minnesota State Patrol chief hails from Hayfield and is only 2nd female leader in its history

Apr. 27—ST. PAUL — Before Christina Bogojevic joined the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hayfield native tried her hand at jobs that never seemed to stick: a phlebotomist, a school paraprofessional and an administrative specialist in a real estate office.

At 27, Bogojevic made another career move after earning a two-year degree in law enforcement from Rochester Community and Technical College. It became a launching pad into a two-decade career that is now about to enter a new chapter: On May 2, Bogojevic will become only the second woman to run the Minnesota State Patrol in its 95-year history.

For Bogojevic, what made state patrol so much more fulfilling than anything she had previously tried was the "ability to do something different every day, and talk to people every day."

"I hadn't found that in any of the other jobs that I had held," she said.

The question is whether the feeling is mutual. Most people's interactions with the state patrol come from peeking in the rearview mirror and experiencing an adrenaline rush from seeing flashing red lights. It's not viewed as a pleasant thing by most drivers.

"You say it's not a positive thing," but the agency gets feedback — letters and social media posts — "thanking our troops for the work they do," she said. Just recently, a woman driver took to Facebook to thank a trooper for pulling her over twice for erratic driving "that could have ended very differently."

"It changed her driver behavior," Bogojevic said.

Bogojevic, now 48, will head a 900-person agency that includes 625 state troopers whose primary mission is enforcing traffic safety on the state's highways and interstates. She takes over at a time when those roads have become markedly more dangerous. People are driving faster and more carelessly, pushing up the fatality rate 35% higher this year than last year at this time.

Bogojevic says a number of factors have contributed to that spike in road deaths: speeding, drinking and driving, lack of seat belt use, but one big counterintuitive factor has been the state's relatively mild winter.

Snowy and ice-covered roads tend to induce more cautious driving. So even though there are more crashes during a typical Minnesota winter, they tend not to lead to serious injury or death because people drive slower. Now drivers are popping the clutch on the state's snow-free roads and paying a deadly price. It's among her priorities to reduce that number.

Bogojevic started her law enforcement career as a part-time police officer in Grand Meadow, Minnesota. Given the choice between working full time at an all-male police department or a state patrol led by the first woman colonel, Anna Beers, she chose the latter because of the agency's trailblazing role in elevating a woman to the top job.

After a brief stint in the east metro district, Bogojevic transferred to the Rochester district and rose through the ranks until being named colonel this month.

Like law enforcement nationwide, the Minnesota State Patrol is seeing

sagging numbers in terms of applications and recruitment.

But last week, she noted, the patrol graduated a new class of 35 troopers — a hopeful sign.

"Although our recruitment numbers are down, the applicants that we are getting are very qualified," she said.

She hopes her elevation will have the same effect on job seekers as Beers had on her. Bogojevic currently co-leads the state patrol 30x30 project, an initiative that seeks to have 30% of its state patrol workforce made up of women by 2030. It's an ambitious target. Only 8% of its workforce is currently made up of women.

"I'm hopeful that other females see this as an opportunity," Bogojevic said. "The people of this agency are extraordinary. So to be able to lead them is a great honor."