The entire police force in Goodhue, Minnesota, recently resigned, to the shock and dismay of the mayor and city council. Even worse, no one is lining up to replace them.
FOX News reports:
Entire police department resigns in Minnesota city, leaves mayor ‘blindsided’: ‘Zero applicants’Goodhue, Minnesota, a small city in the southeastern part of the state, lost its entire police force after the chief and other members of the department handed in their resignation.”I think we’re all a little bit blindsided by it, but we’re resilient, and we’re going to move forward,” Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck told Fox 9.”I want to reiterate that we will have police coverage in the city of Goodhue,” Buck said. “That is not an issue.”Police Chief Josh Smith, who will continue to serve in his position until Aug. 24, told city officials that he could not find anyone to sign up to join the police force.”This has been three weeks now, we have zero applicants, and I have zero prospects,” Smith said on July 26. “I’ve called every PD around for the youngest guys out there, getting into the game. There’s nobody getting into the game.””If you want to keep the PD and this is something we want to continue going with, something needs to change dramatically and drastically, and it’s got to happen now.”
This video report from KARE News frames the story as a pay dispute, but given that Goodhue is only an hour from Minneapolis, I suspect there are bigger issues at play here.
Just last week, KSTP News reported that Minneapolis is losing police faster than they can hire them:
Minneapolis losing police officers faster than they can hire, chief calls it ‘unsustainable’5 EYEWITNESS NEWS looked at city payroll records and found between 2020 and 2022, the Minneapolis Police Department had 273 officers leave their jobs.During that same three-year time period, the city hired 117 new officers, which equates to a net loss of 156 officers and an average net loss of 52 officers over the last three years.If that trend were to continue, MPD would have fewer than 400 sworn officers. As recent as 2019, MPD had about 900 sworn officers on its payroll.MPD Chief, Brian O’Hara, told KSTP he’s organized a recruiting team to aggressively reverse the current trend of officers leaving the department in high numbers.“Well, I see the situation as not sustainable the way it is,” said O’Hara. “And, it’s difficult because the cops who are here, together with all our law enforcement partners, are making incredible progress.”
I sure hope the people of Goodhue are prepared to defend themselves and their homes if necessary.
Featured image via YouTube.
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