An entire police department in Minnesota has quit over a $22-an-hour pay… Learn More!
Which mean the small Minnesotan town may soon be without any local law enforcement after its entire police force handed in their resignation in protest of low wages.
Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith submitted his resignation last week at a city council meeting in Goodhue, Minnesota, citing the city’s $22 an hour pay for officers… Continue Reading
Presumably it’s a small town with a small population, so it wouldn’t need a huge police department. Just enough to have someone on shift when needed.
My small town had a 2 man police department when I was growing up.
Most of their time was spent dealing with drunk drivers. It was a small town and there wasn’t mush else to do other than drink…
But why not pool resources and have one for a larger area (county, region, state, whatever)?
See the second part of my response, above.
The rural US is often very empty with long distances of pretty much nothing between towns. If those towns want a reliable, responsive police presence, they have to provide it themselves. Keep in mind that average population density is the US is about 1/4th of that in Europe… and it’s far lower than that when you get away from the North-East.
I’m interested whether it works better that way or how WA does it, with the largest non-federated area of jurisdiction and significantly lower population density for the most part - lower than every US state except Alaska.
I have no idea if either is more effective.
I’m just used to every little town having a handful of local cops to handle local matters because that’s how it was in the very rural area where I grew up. Neighboring towns and counties did coordinate with each other for assistance when needed, and meet daily to discuss ongoing matters (they tended to each have somebody gather at the same place for lunch), so I expect the overall effectiveness is pretty similar… it’s just independent departments working together while primarily covering their own local areas rather than one giant department directing them all across a large area.
Typically American law enforcement is structured like this
Municipal: Police officers County: Sheriffs State: State troopers Federal: Agents
Most law enforcement officers in the US are municipal they typically deal with everyday law enforcement challenges. Sherrifs often act as supplementary law enforcement in towns with no or small municipal departments. Troopers tend to regulate interstate traffic and cases that occur across town lines. Then federal agents typically handle matters that occur across state lines.
Generally the US government is structured in a manner to ensure power isn’t consolidated.