Retired chief files new complaint

Former Cloquet police chief Wade Lamirande has filed a new complaint against the department he used to oversee.

On Friday, March 22 Lamirande emailed a complaint to Cloquet city councilors, city administrator Aaron Reeves, and local newspapers, along with a photograph of four uniformed Cloquet police officers posing for a photo with former Cloquet mayor Dave Hallback (also a retired Cloquet policeman), who is holding a “Re-elect Dave Hallback for Mayor” sign.

Lamirande filed complaints against all four officers, requesting an investigation be conducted to determine if they had violated any department rules or policies.

The photo was posted on the Cloquet Citizens United Facebook page on Sept. 7, 2018, but was taken on Sept. 3, 2018. In response to a query from the Pine Knot, administrators for the page said they don’t know where the original photo came from.

When contacted, Hallback said the photo was his, but he doesn’t know how it got onto Facebook.

“It’s me at the end of the Labor Day parade. I asked the guys if they wanted to take a picture with me,” Hallback said. “I didn’t use it in my campaign. I don’t have Facebook and I don’t do Citizens United. Heck, I worked with two of those guys for years. We’re friends. If I would have known this would get any of these guys in trouble, I never would have asked for a photo.”

In his complaint, Lamirande included copies of the state’s “Professional Conduct of Peace Officers Model Policy,” which the state required the Peace Officers Standards and Training Board to develop by 1996, and which was subsequently adopted by law enforcement agencies around the state.

Lamirande said that the standards are part of police officer training.

The policy is five pages long, and the prohibition against endorsing a candidate comes under Principle Six, which states that peace officers should not compromise their integrity by accepting, giving or soliciting any gratuity and also that they should not use “their status as a peace officer for personal, commercial or political gain.”

The model policy specifically states that officers shall “not make endorsements of political candidates while on duty or while wearing the agency’s official uniform.”

Lamirande said he originally tried to contact police chief Jeff Palmer to show him the photo and hoped he would take the initiative to look into the possible rule violations. But Palmer did not respond to phone calls and was unavailable when Lamirande stopped at the police station.

Hallback dismissed the complaint as an example of Lamirande being “vindictive,” a claim the former mayor made during the Feb. 19 Cloquet City Council meeting after councilors discussed and made the decision to investigate two city employees — Reeves and human resources director James Barclay — and to “follow appropriate policies and procedures,” possibly including investigation of a police complaint. They did not name the police officer, but Lamirande had also filed complaints about Palmer and his handling of a 2017 complaint Lamirande had filed with the department.

The city has since hired attorney Michelle Soldo to investigate Lamirande’s complaints against Reeves, Barclay and Ward 5 councilor Steve Langley.

While Reeves acknowledged receipt of Lamirande’s most recent complaint via email, the council hasn’t met since it was sent. Their next meeting is Tuesday, April 2, with a work session at 5:30 p.m. and the formal meeting at 7 p.m.