2020 St. Anthony PD Annual Report

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2020 Annual Report • Police Department • St. Anthony Village, Minnesota 1 | Page I. Message from the Chief HONORABLE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, CITY MANAGER AND CITIZENS OF ST. ANTHONY: Each year has its defining moments, but how could we have predicted what the year 2020 brought to our attention. From global health pandemic, to civil unrest, to calls for political change and calls for reform and defunding the police, we have all had to weather countless challenges. We began the 2020 calendar year focused on city wide goal setting, along with furthering goals and objectives housed on our police department strategic plan. As a public safety agency, the St. Anthony Police Department (SAPD) sought to continue to work closely with other city service providers, and our community, to provide a safe place to live, work and play. However, we were soon alerted to an unheard of threat to the well-being of our residents, as communities across the nation, and the world, began efforts in addressing the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Since then, our front line workers and city services providers have been in an evolving state of adjusting practices and procedures to ensure the safety of our staff and members of the public in accordance with recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). This, in addition to remaining focused on the delivery of all day to day city services. I want to express that the SAPD has and will remain committed to community building and increasing both public trust and department transparency. I remain encouraged by the positive effects that a body-worn camera policy and implementation program has had on community relations, and specifically as it relates to a reduction in use-of-force interactions and officer complaints. We consider a body worn camera program as a great tool to more effectively resolve citizen complaints when they are received. As stated on numerous occasions, our officer’s wanted Body Worn Camera’s (BWC) and they are willing to wear BWC’s. Our department provides all police officers with annual training in the use-of-force, which involves a thorough review of Federal and State law, local ordinances, case law, and department policy. Similar reviews take place periodically, throughout the calendar year, at the discretion of patrol supervisors. Additionally, the Minnesota P.O.S.T. Board mandates yearly training for each active peace officer and