I am in favor of requiring people joining the Minneapolis police force to
live in the city.
When I organized in the Jordan neighborhood, I would hear people complain
regularly how, when they reported a crime, a police officer would tell them
what do they expect, they live in north Minneapolis, or why don't they move
out to the suburbs. .
I used to live in Chicago, which has a residency requirement for police
officers and fire fighters.
I organized on the northwest side, in a predominantly Italian neighborhood.
It was also one of the neighborhoods with a disproportionate number of
police officers. About 1 out of 10 houses had either a police officer or
fire fighter. I worked with about 400 of these homes total out of a
population of about 10,000.
I never once heard a Chicago police officer badmouth the city of Chicago,
either on or off the job.
I also never heard of a police officer or family in my neighborhood be the
target of revenge for a criminal the officer had offended. Chicago avoided
this problem by always assigning the police officer to a district other
than where he\she lived.
I am sure that there were some police officers that would have preferred to
have lived in the burbs. But I never heard police officers cursing out the
neighborhood they lived in. those who detested the idea of living in
chicago probably stayed out of the Chicago police force, and I for one
think it was an effective screen for keeping out some bad apples.
Only very rarely did police officers get asked by neighbors to perform
their job off-duty. Police officers would sometimes get asked questions by
their neighbors.
residents did feel more safe for having the off-duty officers in the
neighborhood, and felt it helped strengthen house values.
For those police officers who don't like residency requirements - teach
your fellow police officers to stop badmouthing the city and the people you
get your paycheck from. If you can. This is where the support for residency
requirements comes from.
I believe that much of this public disdain shown by some police officers
towards the city they work in is because so many escape out to the likes of
Maple Grove when they are finished getting their pay checks.
I am sure that not every police officer shows this disdain, and many
officers living in the suburbs have never murmered a disrespectful word
about Minneapolis. However, these stories are endemic in north
Minneapolis, and helps drive a wedge between the police and the people they
are supposed to serve
I once asked someone working in the police department what could be done to
reduce the comments like "why don't you move out to the suburbs." She told
me that this was an urban myth, and doesn't happen. I hope the rest of the
police department takes this more seriously.
Writing one block from George Janos' first alma mater, Cooper elementary
school,
Jay Clark
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
612-625-2513
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