National COPS Evaluation of St. Paul: 2000
Policing Saint Paul in 1997
The Community and Private Sector
By all accounts, Bill Finney remains a popular figure in Saint Paul, supported by citizens as well as the business community. Citizens in various constituencies (such as the Lao Family) applaud what they see as the Chief's responsiveness to them and the visible programs that SPPD has created—FORCE, ACOP, and the storefronts. Business leaders do appear to be solidly behind Finney. Bill Buth, of BOMA, explains why:
…we have an Afro-American chief that I have seen deal with problems in an Afro-American setting that I couldn't deal with. They hurt, they listened, they understood. It wasn't some foreigner walking in there and trying to schmooze them over a little bit. By the same token, he's come down and dealt with a predominantly white central business district and he's told it the way it was. We may not have always liked what we got back but there's always that old story that you can certainly disagree without showing disrespect. And I can't think of anything that we haven't mutually agreed upon.
Business leaders know that they have continuous and direct access to the police at every level—for example, all skyway officers carry business cards and voice pagers that allow community members to have direct and immediate contact with an officer at any time. Furthermore, business is taking its views to city government, determined "that the city fathers understand the complexities of the job that they [the police] have . . . and it's going to get more complex. [We want]…to make sure that the finances, the dollars are there to be able to keep the strength of the department where it should be."
While there have been some questions raised about whether Chief Finney has concentrated too much on building ties to the business community at the expense of neighborhoods, this view is by no means universal. And community support for SPPD extends far beyond business backing the Chief: for all members of SPPD, one series of events in 1994 seemed to crystallize the esteem in which they are held by Saint Paul's citizens. When two police officers and a working SPPD dog were killed by an offender that summer, the entire City mobilized, and there was a citywide outpouring of anguish, sentiment, and emotional support. Even the crustiest of officers recalls with today the community's very genuine and positive response; perhaps the least surprised by it were those officers who had been working closely with citizens in neighborhoods—Larry McDonald, Dan Carlson, ACOP and FORCE officers.
One issue facing SPPD now in its relationship with citizens is what to do about changing crime patterns in the City. As crime shifts over to the East Side, and demographic changes there make more low-income housing available, the big question is: how can and will SPPD (and the City) respond? Will citizens be willing to allow some substations or storefronts close so that others can be opened in higher crime areas? How can SPPD move services ahead of the curve, respond to changing demographics, and prevent neighborhoods from seriously declining?
Local Government and Criminal Justice Institutions
Mayor Norm Coleman was re-elected in 1997. Although he and Finney have had their differences, the two agree on fundamental public safety issues, and Coleman has made it clear that he intends to reappoint the Chief. By most estimations, Finney has been so popular in Saint Paul that Mayor Coleman would have difficulty doing otherwise. Furthermore, the Mayor appears committed to maintaining current police strength and technological proficiency. In his 1998 Budget Address (offered in August 1997), Coleman proposed adding an additional $300,000 from the General Fund to cover salaries of police officers previously paid by state or federal grants, thus maintaining current numbers of officers. He also proposed adding an amendment to the previous year's budget to add $250,000 to upgrade computers in squad cars, as matching funds for the COPS grant which SPPD had received.
Chief Finney, ideally, would like to be able to increase the size of SPPD. In a memo prepared for the Mayor during the summer of 1996, Chief Finney and his top management assessed how far SPPD had come, and where it was heading, from 1997–2000, in terms of projected police staffing needs. Commenting upon the current state of policing, the document notes that St. Paul residents "have come to expect a certain level of police presence and response" that depends as much upon their perception of crime and police effectiveness as upon what SPPD sees as the "direct threat of crime" in their neighborhood. Residents also expect that police will respond when they are called, "in a timely manner," and take appropriate action. The dilemma set out in the document was presented clearly: "One of the primary tenets of community policing is crime prevention through partnerships and problem solving. The major problem is that community crime prevention is generally a long-term project." Yet solving short-term crime problems, according to the Chief, required enforcement by police that would displace criminals either to prison or out of the City. Chief Finney noted that both of these factors placed demands upon SPPD that in his estimation the Department had been "relatively effective" in meeting. Nevertheless, to meet the challenge of changing crime patterns, including the influx of more violent crime and criminals, and increasing problems with juveniles, the Chief suggested, most viable options would require increases in the number of sworn officers available for community policing, problem solving, and the special units.
In spite of any divergence in priorities between the City and Chief Finney over the appropriate size of SPPD, relations remain essentially positive between the City and the Police Department. As one city official relates,
There have been few incidents of police brutality or even acting out, and virtually none of these have occurred at an arrest scene. Everybody has allegations, occasionally, but there has been little of this. There's been a good strong sense of discipline in this department, of controlling its behavior and its arrest situations. And that makes a tremendous difference, because the people who you're looking for to communicate with you are the neighbor of, the cousin of, the friend of, the associate of, or some kind of relationship to people who become offenders. In campaigns and mayoral races, the issues become contracts, salaries, benefit plans…but no one runs on the bad behaviors of the police department.
These comments were made during the same week in September, 1997, that the City Council approved a $225,000 settlement with a plaintiff who alleged police brutality after a chase scene in which SPPD was involved. This was the first major use of force suit in many years. Nevertheless, city attorneys as well as City officials reported that the process was not acrimonious, but characterized by cooperation—from the Chief, litigators, internal investigators, and Internal Affairs—and resulted in the best possible result for the City.
By all accounts, Saint Paul is a city in which innovation and new initiatives in criminal justice and public safety are being pursued, and led, by many actors—the City Attorney, County Attorney, the Mayor, the Probation Department, and SPPD. As one assistant county attorney explained,
…we have to look at what the community needs are as far as how we are going to structure and services we are going to provide, and depending upon what the particular issue is, certain agencies will take the leadership role. And secondarily, it depends on who is running that agency as well…. People are leaders, systems are not…. A lot of police initiatives in Ramsey County may not have taken place under the former police chief but they are now.
Within the City and County, SPPD is continuing to play a leading role in devising new collaborative efforts. It is not only Chief Finney himself, but several in SPPD top management who are taking the initiative. During 1997, SPPD's three district commanders not only led their districts, but were serving as representatives of SPPD city-wide, and undertaking projects in line with their own experience and interests. Commander Richard Gardell was trying to initiate a joint effort with the Sheriff's Department, County Attorney's Office, and state and social service offices, to create an intervention program for female offenders (women charged with drug possession) and their children—the idea was to move the family into a controlled, safe environment, provide counseling, treatment, and other services, and help "turn the family around." Commander John Sturner was working with the state on developing helicopter patrol for the metropolitan area. Commander Don Winger was taking the lead in a domestic abuse pilot project, working with the City Attorney and Mayor's Offices to create a domestic abuse unit in Eastern District and train officers to work with it.
SPPD is also participating in Minnesota Heals, a collaborative that began in Minneapolis with the goal of addressing the high homicide rate in that City, motivated in large part by Honeywell and other corporations that were considering moving their corporate headquarters. Honeywell was joined by representatives of other businesses, the faith community, schools, both Minneapolis and Saint Paul Police Departments, the U.S. Attorney, county attorneys, federal criminal justice agencies, and local activist groups. With assistance from PERF (the Police Executive Research Forum) in setting an agenda and taking initial steps in a problem solving effort on the order of Boston's gun project and Operation Ceasefire, the collaborative brought in David Kennedy, of the Program in Criminal Justice at the Kennedy School of Government, who was asked to do a study of homicides in the City. Following the study and implementation of new tactics in Minneapolis, homicides declined 42% in 1997 over 1996. The focus of the collaborative is now shifting to narcotics.41
41 See "A round table on crime in Minneapolis," Saint Paul Star Tribune, Opinion, September 21, 1997, p. A25.
