Our View: Thumbs up, thumbs down

THUMBS UP to Carlton County and the city of Cloquet for staying competitive when it comes to pay for law enforcement officers.

Both jurisdictions saw their board and council, respectively, approve pay increases recently aimed at keeping wages comparable to those of surrounding departments and the local labor market.

Nobody likes budget increases that stress tax levies. But, the alternatives are stark — losing peace officers to better-paying outfits and leaving our communities vulnerable.

“The bigger issue is, if we can’t get qualified law enforcement in our county, that will not bode well for public safety,” Sheriff Kelly Lake told the county board prior to its vote July 8.

You can read Cloquet police chief Derek Randall’s thoughts on the matter in an adjacent column on this page. In it, he offers an insightful dose of reality.

We all know the perception of policing has been damaged by high-profile cases within the state centered around the abuse of policing authority. We don’t condone any of that.

But an embezzler in corporate America doesn’t tend to harm a company or industry’s overall perception or limit the collective pool of accountants. Yet a heinous act by a cop can affect the entire profession. It’s driven people away from the profession, and narrowed the pool of applicants to the point it has stressed all of the state’s departments. We tend to believe that leaders in law enforcement are addressing this. We trust the way FDLTCC law enforcement program coordinator Mike Tusken is leading the education of future officers.

“We pound and pound and pound the fact that if you treat people with dignity and respect, you will transform people’s opinions of law enforcement and you will build communities,” Tusken said last month at the college’s graduation ceremony.

In an increasingly chaotic and unsafe world, we need order. We need protection, and we need our decision makers to cut a path to a better future for policing. Compensating them for the traumatic things they see and the uncertainty they encounter on a daily basis is a good start.

THUMBS DOWN to the Aug. 13 primary election falling in front of the Carlton County Fair on Aug. 15-18. With the District 5 race to replace outgoing commissioner Gary Peterson featuring six candidates, it would have been nice for voters in the county’s western cities of Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River and Moose Lake to be able to meet the candidates at the fair. Instead, Neil Dickenson, Alex French, John Peura, Dan Reed, Jason Syrett and Chad Walsh are left to reach voters in a more diffuse manner. The Pine Knot News will feature candidate profiles in the days leading up to the primary election in early August.

THUMBS UP to Bruce Savage, the newly elected Reservation Business Committee chairman. We like his idea of building a safer, healthier community by recognizing community members who are leading the way on that front. Watching the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa grow in stature throughout recent decades has been heartening, and also illustrative in how to build and fortify a community. We’ve got a lot to learn from one another. And, both Savage and Earl Otis, the new District II representative, appear to be the kinds of leaders we can learn from. Indeed, it’s been a while since we’ve heard a politician say, as Savage did earlier this month, “I don’t believe I’m always right,” or “Unity, to me, looks like respect for each other.”