For the people who arn't history buffs out there, Minneapolis use to have a
residency requirement. It was repealed because (being very simplistic) the
Minneapolis employees, the police in particular, "took over" the election
process and used it to elect people who were very friendly to the employees.
It was the employees who consistently had the most to gain by electing
people friendly to their causes and they took full advantage of this. This
is the genesis of the old chestnut about cops pounding lawn signs.
Residency was reinstated several years ago because of some of the arguements
made on this list. It was repealed for several reasons. One of the major
ones is that it put an unfair burden on employees, essentially that they
could never be "off duty." No private sector jobs have the right to put
conditions on your off-duty time and residency placed an unfair burden on
public employees, one that would never be tolerated by private sector
employees.
I will say, though, that when I had the choice as an employee, I did chose
to move into Minneapolis.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
----- Original Message -----
From: Jay Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2001 3:11 PM
Subject: [Mpls] Police Residency
> 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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