-Mr. Brown wrote: >Police. How many Police Departments do we need? The University of >MN has one, >Transit has one, the Park Board has one, the City of >Minneapolis has one and we have a County Sheriff's department. >They all have a management structure. Is that cost efficient?
Well, Minneapolis has 1 department to cover the city of Minneapolis that is paid through the city of Minneapolis, The University Police covers only the campus of the University of Minnesota and is paid by the U of M, The Sheriff's department covers all cities within the county of Hennepin and is paid by the County and not the city and the Metro Transit Officers are paid by Metro Transit... If Hennepin County were to take over the duties of the Minneapolis Police department, it would put them under a great strain of Manpower and coverage. Not only that, but that would allow crime to increase since they wouldn't be just enforcing the law in Minneapolis, but in other cities as well within the Hennepin County. This would also mean that the Hennepin County Sheriff's department would have to increase their deputy staff to match that of what Minneapolis already has (which is not enough). Same goes for the U of M, however their jurisdiction doesn't go beyond enforcing laws outside of the University. The above information would be the same for U of M, Metro and Park. I'm a bit surprised though, The Island of Oahu fits within the 494/694 boundries and the Honolulu Police Department has an authorized strength of 1,300 officers with a core population approaching about a Million, however with Minneapolis and it's core population of about 300,000, the city of Minneapolis only has an authorized strength of 800 something... >Probably the worst Minneapolis unit of government at being a steward >of public >monies is the Park and Recreation Board. Do they have >their own Police Department >because they want the parking ticket >revenue? Can't the same people that write >parking tickets in Uptown >write them at Lake Calhoun? Unfortunately, those vehicles that are parked around the lake are in the jurisdiction of the Park police, which is under the direction of the Parks board... If Minneapolis were to incorporate the park, transit and University police departments, they may just be able to get the coverage, however funding them may be another story... Russell Sasaoka Coon Rapids (Formerly of Loring Park) Get your free Web-based E-mail at http://www.startribune.com/stribmail REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
