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Mounds View City Council February 8, 2024 <br />Regular Meeting Page 3 <br />1 <br />2 Mayor Mueller thanked Mr. Connelly for attending this meeting and for his dedicated service to <br />3 the business community. <br />4 <br />5 B. 411 Quarter/2020 MVPD Annual Report — Chief Harder Verbal Overview. <br />6 <br />7 Police Chief Harder provided the Council with a presentation on the 41h Quarter of 2020 along <br />8 with the Mounds View Police Department Annual Report. He commented on the great success <br />9 the VCET unit has had with drug arrests in Ramsey County. He discussed the grant he received <br />10 for a full-time DUI officer and noted the great work Officer Aase was doing on behalf of the <br />1 1 community. He indicated the new radar sign was assisting in slowing traffic in Mounds View. He <br />12 stated he was proud of the great work his officers completed in 2020, noting this was a difficult <br />13 year. <br />14 <br />15 Police Chief Harder described how the department got creative in order to conduct community <br />16 outreach with the public during the pandemic. He discussed the quick reaction forces that have <br />17 been created to address future civil unrest. He was pleased to report mental health calls for the <br />18 City were down which meant people were getting the assistance and resources they needed. He <br />19 commended NYFS for their assistance in the mental health calls. He thanked the SRO officers <br />20 for making the best of a difficult situation and for organizing the department's Christmas event. <br />21 He success of the K-9 unit was discussed at length. He reviewed the number of calls for service <br />22 and number of arrests noting calls for service were down in 2020. He noted there was an increase <br />23 in motor vehicle thefts and the thefts of catalytic converters. He thanked his officers for working <br />24 so diligently on behalf of the community shorthanded throughout the pandemic. <br />25 <br />26 Council Member Meehlhause thanked Police Chief Harder for his outstanding leadership and <br />27 thanked all of the Mounds View officers for their outstanding service to the community. He <br />28 stated he was glad to hear the representatives at NYFS were serving the community well. <br />29 <br />30 Council Member Cermak questioned if the City received any reimbursement for providing K-9 <br />31 mutual aid to the City of New Brighton. Police Chief Harder explained both cities provided <br />32 mutual aid to each other and no compensation is offered by either department. <br />33 <br />34 Council Member Bergeron commended the entire department on their tremendous efforts during <br />35 the pandemic. He thanked all of the officers and Police Chief Harder for their dedicated service <br />36 to the community. <br />37 <br />38 Mayor Mueller thanked Police Chief Harder for his outstanding report. She appreciated the fact <br />39 that Police Chief Harder came in under budget, especially knowing that the department was <br />40 shorthanded in 2020. She expressed frustration with the fact the department was doing great <br />41 police work, getting criminals off the street, but these individuals were being released back into <br />42 the public quickly and were then able to recommit crimes. Police Chief Harder explained the <br />43 Minnesota Freedom Fund was bonding people out of jail for offenses that don't hurt people. He <br />44 discussed how frustrating this was to the individuals that have had their cars stolen and damaged. <br />45 He stated he was against revictimizing people but explained the justice system was in a perfect <br />