Agenda - Council - 04/09/1979 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City of Ramsey 15153 Nowlhen Boulevard N.W., Anoka, Minnesola 55303 · [612) 427-1410 3-28-79 POLICE DEPARTMENT Lloyd, Because Z am unable to attend the meeting this afternoon I will set down here my comments on the two areas in question. Overtime Two thirds of the overtime 'paid out in Februaz~y and ~arch to Officer Anderson was the result of a special assignment ~£?~0:~ he is working' on. Because it is of a cr~fidential nature I will not go further in to it, ~ut, rather, depend on the council to trust me to do the job for which I was hired. In April the project .;L ~hould be completed and the council will be made aware of w~at took place. This- ~:-'. is not meant to .imply some earth-shattering event Rs going on but is simply a routine procedure in law enforcement. As to Officer Anderson's other overtime I offer the fo//owing explanation. Tom iS a very d~icated officer who, probably because of his young age and his personal philosopBy~lives his job.' He puts in many more hours for free than he does for o+er- ~ime and the city is c/early the recipient. Recently he and I spent 8 hours re- pairing the Dodge squad which was damaged in an accident on Hwy. #10. We had re- ceived an insurance cheek for approximately ~50 do]_lars and decided, in order to save money for other vehicle expenses, to do the repair ourselves. The to~al cost for partw was just under $100 and Tom's labor was free (I was there as a regular-work~? day). He had worked the night before and was' ~heduled to work again that night He ~lso assisted me, for about 5 hours~ in wiring the new Olds when the person wh~..~ was going to get it done, got tied up with personal problems. Again, no charge. ~om is very active with traffic work, especially drunk drivers, and these t)qoes do~ not come out on the road until about 1:30 AM at the earliest and usually around ~00 ~3~.. A minimum of two hours is required to compl, ete an arrest on a drunk driver so he will often run over his off-duty time. I don't belie'~e anyone wou~d advocate that he ignore a drunk ~.er simply because to arrest him would create overtime. Also, as a result of this heavy traffic work he more frequently ends up go~ng to court~: attending Implied Consent hearings or signing complaints. I might add that an unintended but nevertheless real consequence of his arrests is one-half of the fine monies which is usually several hundred dollars a month. ¥~nat I have s'aid is certainly not meant to detract from the capabilities of theother officers as they each have their own "specializations" (Crimewatch interest, investigative ability, etc.)in which they exce]_l and which consgquentty add to our law enforcement/public service efforts. Whatever the case~ I do check each overtime s]_ip that is submitted and in my opinion they have all been justified. If they weren't they would never be paid. R e ~erve s We have Advertised in this issue of the Ramsey Newsletter forapplicants to become r~servists with the police. This w~]] be a slow process however as I want to be sure the persons who join are doing so fully understanding they are there to assist the community, not as cadets for future police jobs with this or another department. Our original force of 12 reserves dwindled to three, principally because over half of th~ were looking for careers in law enforcement and we couldn't provide that vehicle. I want to be assurred, {brough a careful'selection procedure weighed