Can you confirm that for me, please?

By now, everyone who cares has found out that Cloquet police officer Scott Beckman has lost his job, something that could have happened two years ago. Instead, in a council meeting in August 2016, Mayor Dave Hallback and councilors Jeff Rock and Steve Langley voted not to fire Beckman after he falsified a search warrant application.

Imagine how many hours were spent investigating the criminal cases that now have been dismissed by the county attorney’s office because of Beckman’s involvement, and how much taxpayer money has been wasted now because of that council decision.

To add insult to injury, the outgoing Cloquet City Council — a faction of which has been extremely cozy with the police department for the past 2-3 years — gave Officer Beckman a “small” severance package: nine months of pay.

We find the timing of the city’s decision to take action fascinating, since most of the 18 county cases that Beckman was involved in were dismissed in August, two in July. Why wait until the last meeting of the year to deal with a police officer who jeopardizes every case he touches, by virtue of his past history?

Here’s what we think.

It was only after Pine Knot News editor Jana Peterson got an official answer to her public data request and was obviously about to break the news of the cases that were dismissed because of Beckman’s behavior, that the city of Cloquet decided to be proactive and do something about its troublesome officer, rather than react to the story that was about to be published. Peterson researched the issues, obtained the data from Carlton County and from the City of Cloquet, and confirmed every aspect of the story.

Likely as a result of the Pine Knot News’ work, a press release was sent out by the Carlton County Attorney’s Office. The nearby TV stations and daily newspaper duly read and reprinted the press release, with little to no new reporting. The other “local” paper didn’t print a word about the separation and release agreement leading to Beckman’s departure from the police department in its Thursday issue. And no one thanked the Pine Knot News.

But that’s OK. We’ll still take the lead on many other local stories, and, in the end, we got the correct result: justice was served, and our community is better off.

It’s also a reminder that a local newspaper, with local owners, a local office, and lots of local news is a very valuable asset to our community.

We welcome your input to the Pine Knot News community newspaper. Send your thoughts, letters, or news to [email protected].