Imagine a town without a police department. A small city situated in the south-eastern region of Minnesota finds itself devoid of local law enforcement due to the complete resignation of its police force prompted by inadequate compensation and low salaries.
In a small Minnesota town, the entire police force has chosen to flagging issue of low pay. Southern Minnesota Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck announced during a recent city council meeting that all seven members of the police staff in the City of Goodhue would be stepping down.
Mayor Anderson Buck expressed her surprise and shock at the collective decision made by the police staff. The situation became apparent in July when Chief Smith shared his dissatisfaction with the current salary structure during a council meeting. He highlighted that other police departments offered more attractive compensation packages, including better pay and additional benefits such as sign-on bonuses.
"I was under the impression it would be just one person; I didn't realize it would involve all of them. We were aware that our salaries were on the lower side, and we were making significant efforts to improve those numbers." Mayor Anderson Buck said as per NBC News.
The City Council held a meeting to talk on alternatives for maintaining police services following the resignation of the department. Originally, the meeting was scheduled to address potential salary raises for the department; however, the entire team resigned before the meeting took place.
According to Mayor Anderson Buck, the entire police department received a 5 percent raise earlier in the year, raising the hourly wage to $22. Furthermore, Chief Smith was granted a yearly raise of $13,000 before the city officials' upcoming budget discussions later this year. Reportedly, Smith is departing from Goodhue to take up a position with the Lake City police.
However, Chief Smith expressed the lack of incentives for officers to work in a small town with comparatively low pay, on-call responsibilities, and disruptions to personal time. Chief Smith's own reasons for leaving were tied to the immense workload he was shouldering, working long hours, being on call 24/7, and having minimal time for his family. He had warned about this situation in the previous month and officially submitted his resignation on August 9th. Subsequently, five part-time employees and a full-time officer decided to leave their positions three days later after learning about Chief Smith's departure.