Walz Talks Public Safety in St. Cloud

(KNSI) — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stopped in St. Cloud Thursday for a roundtable discussion focused on his $300 million public safety plan.

Under the plan, St. Cloud would receive nearly $1.2 million per year.

During the roundtable, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis stressed the need for police officers. “Our critical need right now is retention and recruiting,” Kleis said. “We know folks are going to retire. We hire in advance so we don’t always have the same force on the street. In the last two years we could not have predicted the exodus in law enforcement.”

Walz seemed impressed by the work done by the Community Action Team. The team is made up of probation, police, judges, and officials from county Health and Human Services. St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson explained the results. “We did a test with our Community Action Team. We took our five most frequent users. In other words, five people who we had either placed in detox jail, or on a 72-hour hold. The person that uses those services most frequently had 100 contacts with us in a year. Yeah, one person,” Anderson said. “The next year after we put our community action team together, we had zero.”

In a previous public safety meeting with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Anderson explained when asked what he has done to maintain public safety, “I am that corny guy who became a police officer to make the world safe for everybody, particularly for kids. Because somebody did it for me, I’ve tried to use my platform and my position to make sure of one thing, and I don’t have a lot of rules. We do not strip human beings of their dignity ever. I don’t care what their zip code is, I don’t care how much money they make, I don’t care what package they’re wrapped in, their religious preference, any of that stuff. They’re human beings first. And so everything we do is designed to make sure that we preserve their dignity.”

According to a press release from the Governor’s Office, the budget would invest $300 million over three years to cities, counties, and tribes across the state to help meet the increasing needs of public safety.

“Today I was grateful to be in St. Cloud to discuss their communities’ most urgent public safety needs,” said Governor Walz. “Our plan recognizes that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to public safety. Whether it’s providing communities with the funding to attract and hire new officers, purchase modern technology, or invest in community-based initiatives, our budget provides local governments with the direct support they need to keep all of our neighbors safe.”

___