Former Cloquet police chief promoted in Duluth

Former Cloquet police chief Steve Stracek will be the new deputy chief of the Duluth Police Department effective May 22.

Stracek left Duluth to lead the Cloquet department in August 2014. He retired in June 2017 after being placed on paid administrative leave that March based on complaints from police union members. After being investigated by a third-party investigator and exonerated, he was reinstated and retired.

Prior to returning to the Duluth Police Department in 2019 as a patrol officer in the westernmost part of the city, Stracek worked as a police officer with the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police.

But Duluth was home for the longtime Carlton County resident. He started there in 1993 as a patrol officer and worked his way up through investigator, sergeant, and lieutenant, also serving as the commander of the Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, according to a press release from the Duluth PD. In total, including the last two years on patrol, he has spent 23 years with the DPD.

"Steve is admired by those he works among and serves for his talent, compassion, kindness, professionalism, and commitment to service. Steve's work and life experience offer us the unique opportunity to have a deputy police chief who's ready on Day One," Duluth police

chief Mike Tusken said in a press release.

Stracek told the Pine Knot News that everything he's done in his career has been a learning experience.

"I try to move forward and use those experiences to get better every day," he said. "In the Cities I worked around some great leaders who were retired command staff. On patrol I've gotten to know the officers again and built relationships. It's nice to have the opportunity to work in that capacity and connect with the community, do the work I started in. It reminds me how important it really is."

Duluth is restructuring its department for the first time in 29 years, and will have three deputy chiefs to serve under the police chief "to meet the needs of modern-day policing in the 21st century," Tusken said, adding that a lieutenant position was eliminated through attrition to create the new position. The three deputy chiefs will have the responsibility of executive oversight and innovation for the three separate divisions: administration, investigations, and patrol. Currently, one deputy chief oversees the responsibilities of both administration and investigations.

Stracek will serve as deputy chief of patrol. Deputy chief Laura Marquardt will lead administration and deputy chief Nick Lukovsky will lead Investigations.

"While working patrol over the past two years, Stracek has had an opportunity to see up close and personal the challenges and opportunities in our neighborhoods while building the relationships and rapport necessary to be an effective leader in our community and to our talented staff," Tusken said. "I have known and worked with Stracek during much of my career and have always known him to have the courage to do what's right, not easy - the qualities we expect our staff to exemplify."

Stracek said he will be transitioning into a more stressful role again, but he's worked with Tusken a long time.

"I think we have a lot of the same ideas about how things should work," Stracek said. "He's a great leader and I'm going to help."