Public Safety Officials Seek Input on Police Recruiting

Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) is trying to improve relationships between police and local communities. The DPS is making 10 stops around the state, including Maple Grove on Wednesday. The DPS is asking citizens about character traits they want to see in police officers. 

“When you think about it, there’s 5.6 million people in Minnesota, there’s only 11,000 police officers. If people didn’t trust those officers to do their jobs, we would have chaos in our society,” said Booker Hodges, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. 

Authorities said they want to ensure their values align with community values. Information gathered from these conversations will help guide law enforcement in the recruitment and hiring of officers, agents and state troopers. 

“This isn’t a typical report. What we’ll do is we’ll gather information, we’ll publish the report, a year later we’ll bring back the people that were hired as a result of what the community said,” Hodges explained. 

Participants will also get a chance to meet employees that were hired through this process.

DPS will hold upcoming 90-minute listening and information gathering sessions in the following cities:

• St. Cloud – August 16, 10 -11:30 a.m., Quarryview Education Center
• St. Paul – August 19, 10-11:30 a.m., Central High School
• Duluth- August 23, 10-11:30 a.m., Duluth East High School
• International Falls – August 23, 6-7:30 p.m., International Falls High School
• Minneapolis – TBD
• Thief River Falls -TBD
• Marshall – TBD

Maple Grove