Police Department

https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/mn_operator_report.pdf

The Oak Park Heights Police Department uses body worn cameras.  Our officers generally have these cameras while on duty.  The cameras are not active unless specifically started by the officers.  These cameras provide us with a resource to document incidents, collect evidence, and respond to or review incidents if needed.  A copy of the department policy explaining the intent and use of the cameras is attached to this web site also. State statute 13.82 directs the release of data captured by body cameras.  At this time data is considered private and not releasable for reasons other than evidence or to the person on the video.  There are other restrictions on release and those can be found in MSS 13.82.  Click the headline of this post to be brought to the current department policy.  A copy of the MN IPAD interpretation of rules is also posted to help add some simplification to the rules.  IPAD is the MN agency that interprets the data laws.

Organization

The Police Department provides overall public safety response in the city.  The police department is the first response to all public safety incidents within the city to include; medicals, fire, criminal complaints, citizen assists, traffic accidents, ordinance violations, and emergency management.   The department conducts many other preventative details and provides assistance to citizens in the community including: crime prevention, citizen education & community outreach, traffic enforcement & deterrence, animal control, and civil assists.

The department has a staff of 12 persons consisting of 11 sworn licensed officers and 1 clerical non-sworn position.  We provide 24 hour protection with patrol and investigation for all criminal activity within the city.  We have a Chief of Police, Sergeant Investigator, Investigator / School Resource Officer, 7 Officers assigned to patrol, and records receptionist.

We provide an investigator school resource officer at the Stillwater Area High School.  This position is a full time assignment for the officer during the school year with the cost being reimbursed to the city.   This investigator assists with general patrol and investigations during the busy summer months.

Core Services

We respond to over 6,000 calls for service per year.  Each day we handle many administrative and other details or assistance to citizens that are not recorded as calls for service.  We do routine patrol of our residential neighborhoods, checks of business areas, walk through our multifamily housing buildings, and checking our parks when not responding to calls for service from the community.   Our calls for service continue to increase every year.   Some incidents we handled during 2019 include:

• 260+ traffic accident investigations.
• 900+ medical responses.  Police officers are the first response and provide initial patient evaluation and treatment as needed.  Officers are trained and equipped to provide CPR or use of electronic defibrillator, oxygen therapy, and basic life support until Lakeview Hospital Paramedics arrive to provide advanced treatment and transport.  
• 12 Death investigations of suicide or persons suffering unattended deaths.
• We respond to and investigate all part 1 and part 2 crimes.  These incidents include sexual assaults, stolen vehicles, burglaries, narcotics violations, incidents involving weapons, physical assaults, fraud, forgery, theft and others. We had 900+ part 1 & 2 crimes combined.
• 200+ alarms and incidents in which officers provided crime prevention notices to homeowners or found businesses with unsecured locations after hours.
• 13 vehicle thefts or recovered stolen vehicles
• Traffic enforcement resulted in 68 DWI arrests, 1,200+ citations and warnings for various traffic violations. Citation vs. warning is about 50%.  Complaints about traffic are our #1 received complaint from citizens.
• 4 illegal firearms arrests
• 71 Drug related arrests
• 10 missing persons - all found.
• 34+ persons in crisis threatening suicide
• 22 Charged Domestic Assualt incidents with many more incidents not resulting in charges.

Secondary Services

We provide other services to the community in addition to essential public safety response.

• We do numerous community outreach events during the year in which we provide education and materials to citizen groups, schools, and civic events.
• Alcohol and Tobacco compliance checks of all businesses selling these products are completed several times a year.
• Registered Predatory Offender compliance for those living or working in the city.  They are checked for compliance and registrations updated.  In 2019 we had 25 offenders of level 1 & 2 status living or working in the city.
• 1 officer is assigned along with their normal patrol duties to the multiagency county wide SWAT team. This officer trains 1 day per month and responds as part of the team county wide.  This provides the city with SWAT services without charge.
• 1 officer is assigned along with their normal patrol duties to the county wide civil defense response team.  This team provides crowd control and other services in the event of protests or other civil unrest. This officer trains 1 time per quarter with the team.
• Civil assists to persons for child custody exchanges, property retrieval, welfare checks of persons and property.
• The Chief of Police is the Certified Emergency Manager for Oak Park Heights and oversees training compliance, mitigation coordination, and response coordination.  In the event of a disaster or other significant emergency the Police Chief provides for overall management and coordination of city operations and the assisting services including fire, paramedics, public works, and civilian agencies such as Red Cross.
• Animal control and licensing.
• Investigation and issuance of firearms permits to purchase.
• State mandated data reporting.
• Processing 1,000 or more public data requests annually.
• Support to other agencies; neighboring law enforcement agencies, probations, social services, and the courts.

Future

The department will continue to provide professional and responsive services to the community balancing the challenges of judicious budgetary constraints and the need to provide the continued high level services the community has grown to expect.  Provide professional equipment and training for officer safety and efficiency, continued community outreach education programs, all in a diverse growing and changing community.