State Grant To Help Brooklyn Center Recruit Diverse Police Officers
On Monday, the state of Minnesota announced it awarded a $4.5 million grant to help recruit and train law enforcement candidates from diverse backgrounds.
The funding will be spread amongst law enforcement agencies across the state, including the Brooklyn Center Police Department.
The effort aims to attract people who have taken career paths or education paths outside of law enforcement.
It’s called the Intensive Comprehensive Peace Officer Education and Training Program.
Students in the program come from a variety of backgrounds, like sales and engineering.
The program will pay for students to go through police training. Trainees will then join a police department or law enforcement agency when they complete their training.
State leaders say its a way to get people who feel called to law enforcement later in life, but couldn’t afford to pause work to get trained.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke about the program at a Hennepin Technical College news conference on Tuesday.
“Folks that are in maybe another part of their career, or chose to do something else, but now want to be a part of this important work — being able to recruit and retain them is critically important,” Walz said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a Dec. 10 press conference at Hennepin Technical College in Brooklyn Park.
Local Assistance
Brooklyn Center is one of the agencies benefiting from the program.
The agency expects to receive a $150,000 grant. It will fund six months of training for three future officers.
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Garett Flesland attended the conference. He said it will make a big difference in his department.
“We are going to hire them as a city of Brooklyn Center employee, and their full time job for six months is to learn how to become a police officer,” Flesland said. “They’ll get a wage, they get benefits, and they can make that transition from another career path to policing as easy as possible.”
Interested applicants can access that money by applying to one of the participating agencies.
Flesland said candidates need to act fast– Brooklyn Center’s application deadline is Friday, Dec. 13.
Maple Grove, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park police departments also received grants — 44 agencies in total are listed as recipients on the Public Safety Department’s website.
Alexandria Technical and Community College, as well as Hennepin Technical College, will offer training to these candidates.
