05-14-2025 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE WORKSHOP MEETING CITY COUNCIL LITTLE CANADA, MINNESOTA MAY 149 2025 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof a Workshop meeting of the City Council of Little Canada, Minnesota was convened on the 14th day of May 2025 in the Conference Room in the City Center located at 515 Little Canada Road in said City. Mayor Tom Fischer called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and the following members of the City Council were present at roll call: ROLL CALL: In attendance were Mayor Fischer and City Council Members Miller, Malone, Gutierrez and Kwapick. Absent: none. ALSO PRESENT: Acting City Administrator Laura Linehan and City Clerk/HR Manager Heidi Heller. RAMSEY COUNTY --SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT UPDATE - - - - --- - Jeff Ramacher, Undersheriff with the Ramsey County Sheriff s Department, noted that Ramsey County Sheriffs Department is the fifth largest law enforcement agency in Minnesota. He reported Minnesota has had a few high -profile incidents over the last five years that greatly lowered the numbers of people wanting to go into law enforcement. He stated the department has had several challenging years with staffing and recruitment was difficult since their pay was substandard compared to other departments, but new contracts are improving that. He noted they are now fully staffed. Ramacher reviewed the juvenile issues in Little Canada schools and traffic enforcement. He reported there is so much cell phone use and distracted driving occurring. He noted they are also finding a lot of impaired driving from alcohol and drugs. Ramacher talked about pro -active efforts that the Ramsey County Sheriffs Department is doing. He stated their CAT car jacking team has made a big difference in the amount of car thefts in Ramsey County. He explained that another effort is installing license plate reader (LPR) cameras around the county. He noted that Flock is the company that most agencies are using. He stated that this would allow less car chases since the cameras will track where vehicles are, and law enforcement can find the vehicle and box it in rather than chasing. He noted there are currently about 300 LPR cameras around the metro area and Ramsey County and the data is shared among the various agencies. He explained that these cameras are mostly used to find stolen vehicles or KOPS alerts (looking for specific people) and officers must have specific reasons to look in the system for information. He stated that only certain staff currently have access to the Flock system for information. He stated that the data is deleted after 30 days, and Flock employees do not have access to any of the information collected. Ramacher noted that the Sheriffs Department would like to continue to add additional cameras each year, but said the contract cities may not have to cover all of the costs. The Acting City Administrator explained that the Sheriff s Department is asking for additional funding to add three LPR cameras in Little Canada in 2025. She stated that the cost is for the cameras, installation and the annual maintenance fee.