Audio A tale of two police departments (story audio) Photos Minneapolis chief Robert Olson Retiring St. Paul chief William Finney V.J. Smith of MADDADS View full slideshow (4 images) More from MPR Sorting through allegations of brutality (10/16/2003) Finney announces retirement as St. Paul police chief (11/06/2003) Resources Minneapolis Police Department St. Paul Police Department Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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A tale of two police departments
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
November 23, 2003

Minneapolis Police Chief Robert Olson retires at the end of the year, and city officials are hoping to find a new chief to help improve police-community relations. (MPR file photo)

Why can't Minneapolis be more like St. Paul? That's the question some are asking about police community relations. For whatever reason St. Paul appears to avoid the police abuse allegations that dog Minneapolis. Both cities are seeking new chiefs of police because of retirements. But the new Minneapolis police chief will inherit strained relations with some of the city's minority residents.

St. Paul, Minn. — Comparing police community relations between the two cities is fraught with problems. Minneapolis is one-third larger in population than St. Paul, and the cities don't collect data on excessive force charges against officers the same way.

Even so, the numbers show Minneapolis police community relations could be better.

St. Paul officials say so far this year, citizens have filed 71 excessive force cases against police. In Minneapolis the number is 153. Numbers for 2002 can't be compared because Minneapolis' police review office was being reorganized. But two years ago in St. Paul, the number was 50, while in Minneapolis the number was 114.

	Retiring St. Paul chief William Finney

Last year the amount paid by St. Paul for alleged police misbehavior settlements totaled $8,500. But the city of Minneapolis paid $426,044 in settlements during the same period. The largest settlement during that time was for $125,000.

Settlement totals for Minneapolis in years past have been lower, but some years have been much higher. St. Paul's most expensive year out of the past five for police settlements was l999 with $280,000 paid out, still a fraction of what Minneapolis has paid in years past.

Along with the numbers, many in Minneapolis have the impression -- based on day-to-day encounters -- that tensions between police and minorities are high. Former state lawmaker Gregory Gray is participating in the federally-mediated talks between police and residents in Minneapolis. He says relations could hardly be more strained.

"I think the level of distrust between communities of color is so great, that they (police) think they are under siege, that they need to watch their back, that they can't inform on what other officers are doing because they have to all stick together," Gray says. "On the other hand, I think the community feels that whenever anything happens it's because the officer is racist."

	V.J. Smith of MADDADS

Retiring St. Paul Chief William Finney, the first African-American to head his city's department, won't speculate on why police-community relations in St. Paul appear to be better than in Minneapolis. He implies it has something to do with who St. Paul recruits for its police officers. Finney says his department seeks people from all walks of life, not just law enforcement.

"When we go out and recruit we don't look for people that say, 'I want to put somebody in jail.' I'm not looking for that kind of a person. I'm looking for a person who wants to deliver service to the public first. I'm looking for people who are from other walks of life, people who have done other things where they've had the value of serving people," Finney says.

"Now, I can take people that are service-minded and make them law enforcement people. But it's difficult to take a law enforcement-minded individual and turn them into a public service person," he says.

However, St. Paul's police ranks, like Minneapolis, still don't reflect the people they serve. Eighty-five percent of the personnel in both departments are white, in cities where minorities make up more than one-third of the population.

Many agree a police force which reflects the community it serves has a better chance of getting along with citizens.

The level of distrust ... is so great, that they (police) think they are under siege, that they need to watch their back. ... The community feels that whenever anything happens it's because the officer is racist. - Greg Gray, police-community mediator

V.J. Smith heads the Minneapolis chapter of MADDADS, an organization well known on the street for helping African-American teens and men get out of crime. He says the white Minneapolis officers don't see him as a way to help reach other blacks.

"They just don't know who I am, so they don't trust me," says Smith. "They are not able for me to give them the kind of assistance I could possibly give them out in the community. So I feel like the biggest piece that we could do is to begin to build on that community trust."

Hiring more black Minneapolis police officers won't happen soon. Many of the department's recruits come from suburbs and rural areas where minority populations are small.

Minnesota requires at least two years of college to get a police officer's license, a formidable financial barrier for many minority young people.

Then there's the image. Minneapolis Urban League President Clarence Hightower says not very many African-American young people see law enforcement as a desirable job.

"There's educational requirements and some of that stuff, and we have not done the groundwork to get people of color in the pipeline," says Hightower. "We've paid lip service to it, but the results would suggest it has just not been a priority."

Then there's the view that anyone trying to understand Minneapolis' police community relations has to understand the city.

Greg Hestness, former deputy police chief in Minneapolis, says Minneapolis is different from St. Paul in size and culture. Hestness was a Minneapolis police officer for 28 years, before moving into a public safety position at the University of Minnesota. Hestness says Minneapolis' hectic downtown nightlife and more cosmopolitan environment are a sharp contrast with St. Paul.

	Urban League president Clarence Hightower

"Minneapolis is responding to over 330,000 calls for service a year, and per officer that's quite a bit higher than St. Paul," says Hestness. "I understand that even with the tremendous crime reduction, it's still about a 40 percent higher violent crime rate than in St. Paul. There are just some basic work dynamics that are different."

Many argue Minneapolis' police community relations will improve if the person who is hired to replace Chief Robert Olson is a minority group member. There's even a rumor circulating in City Hall, denied by his staff, that Mayor R.T. Rybak is committed to nominating a black chief.

But Greg Hestness says race is but one factor.

"It might be an entre'. It might buy the individual some credibility just on appearances -- but then you have to do the work," says Hestness. "It's not a negative in this regard, but it's not the entire answer. You have to have a quality person of whatever race."

Many Minneapolis police officers decline to talk publicly about what characteristics they think are important. A spokesman for the police union did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

Chief Olson steps down at the end of the year, after almost nine years in the position. The field of 26 candidates applying for his position has been narrowed to 12. Half a dozen of them will be interviewed in mid-December. The mayor will send a nominee to the City Council later that month.

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