City to commission new police study

The Cloquet City Council didn't meet this week, but that doesn't mean city business ground to a halt.

In fact, Mayor Roger Maki said he and Cloquet city administrator Aaron Reeves are taking steps toward a new study of the Cloquet police department. As with the study done in 2014, the idea is to have experts and people from outside the department analyze its strengths and weaknesses, internal structure and more.

"It's been five years and with everything that's been going on, we agreed it's a good idea," Maki said, adding that Reeves was not surprised when he brought it up and said he'd expected it to come up at the council retreat that was canceled last month.

Maki said all of the Cloquet City Council members and Cloquet police chief Jeff Palmer are aware of the plans for a new study. Palmer told the Pine Knot News that he supports any review of the department "that will help us continue to improve our services to the citizens of Cloquet."

The company that did the last study, Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute, has dissolved since 2014, but Reeves said he is already reaching out to other companies that specialize in such studies. Reeves and Maki hope to have a list of proposals by the end of March so the Cloquet City Council can make a selection in April, they said.

"They (consultants hired by the city council) will look at options, how things are going - what is going well, or not so well - and make some recommendations," Maki said.

Following are a few of the suggestions made after the 2014 study and updates:

• Changing work schedules (shorter shifts and different times) to maximize manpower during peak days and times. Shift times did change, but the length of the shift has essentially remained the same.

• Changing the organizational structure from a chief and assistant chief to help with succession planning and efficiency. Since then, the department went to two commanders and a police chief.

• Assigning a K-9 to a patrol officer rather than a detective to increase availability and lower overtime costs. For a time the K-9 and its detective handler did change to a patrol shift, but then K-9 and its handler went back to the detective division and its schedule. The department did purchase a second dog recently, which works in the patrol division with its handler.

The city of Duluth also recently announced that it would be doing an analysis of its own police department.

As for Tuesday's meeting - the same thing happened last February, Maki said. That meeting was also canceled due to a lack of agenda items.

"It's not unprecedented," he said.

The city council will meet next on March 19. The formal meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Cloquet City Hall. Work sessions usually begin at 5:30 p.m. Check the city's website at https://www.cloquetmn.gov or the bulletin board at City Hall for updates and an agenda, which are usually posted the Friday before.