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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Township, city officials weigh future of Breitung Police Dept.

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 3/3/21

TOWER-SOUDAN— With the Breitung Police Department down to two part-time officers, city and township officials were meeting Wednesday afternoon, just as the Timberjay went to press, to discuss …

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Township, city officials weigh future of Breitung Police Dept.

Posted

TOWER-SOUDAN— With the Breitung Police Department down to two part-time officers, city and township officials were meeting Wednesday afternoon, just as the Timberjay went to press, to discuss the future of law enforcement in the two communities.
Breitung is one of only two townships in the region that continues to operate its own police department. Balancing the cost to taxpayers against the expectation to maintain an effective law enforcement agency, has been a challenge that has pushed many small townships to turn to coverage through their county sheriff.
Under state law, county sheriffs are obligated to keep the peace in all portions of their county and to pursue and apprehend all felons. In St. Louis County, uniformed deputies patrol the vast majority of the 7,000-square mile county, although much of their time is spent responding to 911 calls coming from the dozens of rural townships and some small cities that don’t have local police to respond. In most cities within the county, local police handle a wide range of other matters, such as ordinance enforcement, and typically provide a more significant patrol presence than would be the case with the sheriff’s office. In some cases, including Rice Lake Township and the city of Mt. Iron, local officials have chosen to contract with the sheriff’s office for a pre-determined level of service. That’s an approach that the city of Tower deployed for a time several years ago, before returning to contracting with Breitung Township.
But locally based services, whether provided by a local police department or a sheriff’s contract, come with a large price tag. In the case of the city of Tower, 30 percent of the $394,000 in taxes the city will levy this year on its property owners will go to pay for its police contract with Breitung Township, which currently charges the city approximately $115,000 a year for the service. In 2021, however, the city is contractually obligated to purchase a new police car, which is set to add another $40,000 or more to the city’s expenditures this year. That would push the city’s law enforcement costs this year to just over 40 percent of its local levy.
Police coverage isn’t cheap for Breitung property owners either, who pay approximately $133,000 of the $267,000 total department budget through the local levy. Tower’s contract makes up much of the difference, with the final funding gap filled by about $18,000 in annual state police aid.
Such costs and the high impact to taxpayers has prompted some small cities to do away with police coverage, saving taxpayers money and allowing cities to direct resources to other priorities.
In Orr, population 280, living without a local police department has been the reality for as long as most people can remember, and with good reason. “We couldn’t do it,” said Orr Clerk-Treasurer Sherri Carter. “You’d have to get rid of other things or you’d be taxing people out of town.”
The high cost of local police prompted Cook to disband their local department about 15 years ago and, according to city officials, there’s been little to no public clamoring to go back to the days of a local police force.
“I have heard no discussion from the citizens about it,” said longtime Cook City Council member Elizabeth Storm.
Cook Mayor Harold Johnston, in a statement on the issue, noted that city hall staff have “worked diligently to take on the tasks of blight/nuisance and dog issues previously performed by the police department.” Johnston noted that even when Cook maintained its own department, its local police worked closely with the sheriff’s office when it came to more serious crimes. “We continue to do so now in any capacity required. We have always been grateful for being able to collaborate with them.”
The data suggests that such an approach is working in Cook. “There’s not a significant call volume in the city of Cook,” said St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman.
Keeping the peace
While it’s possible that Breitung could disband its police department, recent public comments by township officials suggest that may not be in the cards. “I think people feel safer with seeing patrols,” said Breitung board chair Tim Tomsich. Board member Greg Dostert said he worried that the area would become targeted for crime if it lost its local police protection.
The township is currently taking steps to maintain the department, at least for the time being. Township officials are now in talks with Ely police sergeant George Burger about serving as chief on an interim basis. According to Tomsich, the township needs a chief law enforcement officer “on board to employ part time officers and to keep the department intact while we sort out our options.” As it is, the department part timers are being scheduled to cover shifts beyond March 5, which is Nylund’s last day as chief.
Even so, the Breitung police will be relying heavily on the county sheriff’s office to respond to emergencies. That’s actually been true for some time, as the department has not maintained 24-hour coverage. At times when no Breitung officers are on duty or on call, 911 calls go to the sheriff’s office for response. “Breitung has always done a good job of giving us their schedule,” said Litman. “When they’re not on duty or on call, we handle it.” The Breitung board, with approval from the city of Tower, had already eliminated on-call hours for February through April to cut costs, all but guaranteeing that the sheriff’s office would handle more of the calls in the two communities.
Without local police, the residents in both Cook and Orr rely, to some extent, on themselves to help keep the peace and head off potential crime. When residents in Orr faced a rash of burglaries in 2019, city officials helped organize a neighborhood watch. The eventual apprehension of the main suspected perpetrator of the crime spree and the presence of neighborhood watch signs on streets throughout the city have markedly reduced violations in the community, according to Carter.
Self-reliance works in Cook as well, according to Johnston. “Fortunately, we live in a close-knit community where people have respect for each other and truly look out for their neighbor,” he said.
Litman said he understands that decisions about police coverage are up to local officials and his office adjusts as law enforcement agencies disappear in smaller communities. Several St. Louis County townships used to maintain local police departments, but Breitung and Duluth townships are the only two in the county still remaining. If those disappear, the statutory duties of the sheriff’s office remain the same. Every year, said Litman, he assesses the needs of his office and makes the case to the county board for the staffing he believes he’ll need to carry out the mission and keep the peace.