Good morning all

I have a personal experience that I can share on this topic.

Previously to living in Mpls the city I lived in required officers to live in the 
city, or move within a certain time frame (I am unsure of the specifics) to keep their 
jobs.  The officers were given beats in areas of town other than where they lived to 
cut down on recognition by miscreants.

I had the privilege of living right next to one of these officers.  He was a very nice 
person, but never participated in our neighborhood events or block club meetings.  He 
didn't want to become the go to guy for his block.  His presence had no affect upon 
the crime rate we experienced, in fact he was burglarized once himself.

Personally I would prefer that the officers in my city live in my city, or at least 
close to it.

Ron Leurquin
Nokomis East

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
Dennis Plante
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2003 9:05 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Mpls] Police Chief Search


Dennis Plante Responds:

Maybe the answer is not to require officers to live within the City limits, 
but to incentivize their pay for doing so.  A long time ago, I lived in a 
remote town in South Central AK (Cordova).  No roads in, no roads out.  If 
you wanted to go elsewhere (even for the day), you had to either fly, or 
take a boat.  I worked for a large PNP hatchery Corporation as its 
purchasing & logistics director.  The Corporation I worked for was smart 
enough to realize that it was important to the citizens of the community to 
have the corporate staff living in Cordova, although for many of the 
positions, it wasn't required (we also had offices in Anchorage).  Their 
answer - a housing stipend.

There's no doubt in my mind that having a MPD officer living on my block 
would probably increase the livability.  However, they'd probably never have 
any time for themselves, even when they weren't working.  However, if one 
were willing to do so, it would probably be a wise investment (on the oart 
of the City) for a few hundred dollars a month, as I'm sure the drug 
dealing, gambling and other various and assorted activities would cease.

Dennis Plante
Jordan


Jim Writes:

I had a similar experience with a Minneapolis police officer at a social 
occasion earlier this summer.  He told me that several years ago he bought 
land and built a house "almost halfway up to (Lake) MilleLac to get away 
from all "that city crap".  When I asked him why he lives so far away from 
the city he works in he said that he "hated" Minneapolis but he loved being 
a police officer and that Minneapolis is where "all the action is" and that 
he would be bored as a rural, suburban or small town police officer.  He 
also said that "you couldn't pay me enough to live in Minneapolis or St. 
Paul".  I found his attitude very demeaning.  I don't think it is possible 
or necessarily important to have officers living inside city limits; I 
certainly don't begrudge Minneapolis police officers of firefighters from 
living in Richfield, or St. Louis Park or Robbinsdale or any other "close in 
suburb".  I do question the motives of one who decides to pick up an move 
away from the metro area however.

Jim Bernstein
Fulton

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