In the Beginning — 10

The Tele-Serve program was introduced in March, 1982 to expedite best use of available officers responding to calls for service. Low priority calls were taken by officers in Tele-Serve, eliminating the need for squad dispatchment. They interviewed the complainant over the telephone and prepared the appropriate report, thus freeing patrol officers for higher priority calls.

Another benefit to citizens introduced in 1982 provided a more efficient police service. The enhanced 9-1-1 emergency telephone service, initiated on December 1, allowed anyone within the seven county metropolitan area to dial the three-digit number in an emergency. The call would be automatically routed to the appropriate police, fire, or emergency medical service. The system enabled a 9-1-1 operator to receive automatically the calling party’s telephone number and address. It proved invaluable in criminal apprehension while saving lives.

Investigative capabilities increased when the Department installed a camera for videotape recording in the lineup room. People arrested for a crime were required to be either charged or released within thirty-six hours after arrest. Sometimes investigators found it difficult to contact all witnesses and have them view a lineup to identify a suspect within the allotted time. Videotaping of the lineups permitted witnesses to view the suspect at their availability and convenience.

In 1983, the Department reorganized, cutting the three deputy chief positions to two. The Patrol and Investigation Divisions were still commanded by deputy chiefs, but now Chief McCutcheon assumed direct control over the Support Services Division.

July 10, 1983 marked the beginning of a tactical Street Crimes Unit, created to attack trouble spots within the city without disrupting regular patrol assignments. It assumed responsibilities of the Vice Unit. This unit was composed of one lieutenant, two sergeants, one detective and ten patrol officers. The patrol officers volunteered for this assignment and were rotated out every six months.

One other unit change in 1983 involved the renaming of the Law Enforcement Aid Unit (L.E.A.U.) to Special Investigations Unit (S.I.U.). The unit’s functions remained the same under the new title: providing pro-active intelligence reports, conducting surveillance, assisting in V.I.P. protection details, and providing assistance to internal units, as well as outside law enforcement agencies.

In addition to the units created during 1983, a new position, Community Liaison Officer (C.L.O.), was established to coordinate the flow of public information and to provide a central access point within the organization for citizens. In the past, the Department and community lacked a coordinated information response. Several units would provide similar data or material to citizen groups without being aware of it. This duplication of effort inefficiently used Department staffing.

After forty-two years of service, Deputy Chief James Griffin retired from the Department in 1983. Deputy Chief Griffin witnessed several new beginnings for the Department and helped to clear many of the barriers that prohibited minority involvement in law enforcement. His achievements have not only benefited minorities in policing, but they assisted the Department in becoming more reflective of the community it serves.

A change for the Department was achieved on January 18, 1983, when Officer Lisa Millar became Sergeant Millar with all the rights and responsibilities of a patrol supervisor. Although Millar was not the Department’s first woman supervisor, she was the first female police officer to be promoted to sergeant. Earlier female supervisors had achieved their promotions during a reorganization in the 1970s. Initially, these individuals had been hired to work in traditional female police areas, such as juvenile, sex or homicide investigation. They never worked in the traditional police officer position, nor did they normally supervise police officers in their investigative roles.

January, 1984 marked a change in the process of becoming a police officer in the Department, as a result of the licensing procedure adopted by the Minnesota Peace Officers Standards and Training Board (P.O.S.T.). The traditional twenty-one week academy was eliminated and a six-week orientation course was introduced. Graduates were commonly referred to as the “six-week wonders.” The Department quickly realized that a new officer required more time to become acclimated to Saint Paul procedures. All future classes reverted to the academy philosophy and ran between ten and sixteen weeks.

Reorganization in 1984 reinstated team policing to four sites. Budgets yet constrained, the Department looked for ways to do more with less. Hiring non-sworn personnel in the Emergency Communication Center (E.C.C.) promised one solution. Prior to this, police officers answered emergency calls and dispatched squad cars. This new civilian telecommunicator position allowed the Department to put more police officers on the street.

The city of Saint Paul had a strong downtown business community that desired increased police visibility with officers out of their squad cars and on the “beat.” Using the beat officer is a time-honored method of policing, proactive in scope. The downtown area was the perfect place to reestablish this proven police approach. The Department assigned officers to the Downtown Beat Patrol to walk the streets, alleys and the 3.5 miles of the skyway system.

Authorized by the city council and the Saint Paul Civil Service Commission in 1984, a significant amendment permitted the chief of police to appoint deputy chiefs. Prior to this, these positions were filled by civil service appointments, based on test scores. The last civil service appointed deputy chief was Robert LaBathe, who, with his retirement in July 1986, closed a thirty-eight year career with the Department. His twenty-two year tenure as a deputy chief, from 1964 to 1986, was the longest held by any individual of that rank.

In 1984, the Saint Paul Police Department published its third book on the history of the Saint Paul Police Department. That document, titled The Long Blue Line, was a comprehensive history of the Department with photos of all sworn personnel. Other departmental histories had been published in 1904, 1912, 1919, and 1923.

The Saint Paul Police Department long recognized a need for quality continuing-education in law enforcement. The Department established the Professional Development Institute (P.D.I.) in 1984 to provide training and continuing-education for police officers and executives throughout greater Minnesota. Records indicate that out-of-state participants have utilized this program, as well.

Patrol officers in the Northwest Team of the Saint Paul Police Department began using an innovative communication link in their squad cars in 1985 when twelve mobile data terminals (M.D.T.) were installed in their vehicles for evaluation. It allowed an officer to make inquiries to local, state, and national crime information computers and state motor vehicle registries. Non-verbal messages could now be sent to and from the dispatcher and mobile data terminals in other squads. Today, the M.D.T. is standard equipment in most of the Department’s squads.

The False Alarm Ordinance was enacted by the city council in 1985, at the urging of the Police Department. The ordinance required permits for alarm systems and the monitoring of habitual false alarms reported to police. During 1984, police responded to over 10,000 alarm calls at a cost of approximately $25.00 per call. About ninety-eight percent of the calls received were false alarms, an enormous waste of police resources and tax dollars. The permit allowed only two false alarms a year. Subsequent false alarms could result in fines and/or loss of the permit.

With the addition of women police officers onto the Saint Paul Police Department, updated badges were needed. From 1940 to 1985, patrol officer’s badges read “Patrolman.” The new badges replaced that term with “Police Officer.” This was the fourth change of the badge design in the history of the Department.