Dolan Leaving - Harteau Nominated

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan, who has led Minneapolis’ police force since 2006, announced April 25^th that he will not seek a third full term as chief and will retire at the end of 2012 after a 29-year career with the Minneapolis Police Department.  

Mayor Rybak first nominated Dolan to serve as interim chief in 2006.  The City Council confirmed Mayor Rybak’s nomination of Dolan to three-year terms as chief in 2007 with my support and in 2010 without it.  

Before becoming chief, Dolan served in numerous command and leadership capacities in nearly every part of the city, including as deputy chief, inspector and commander of the 4th Precinct in North Minneapolis, commander of narcotics, commander of emergency response and director of training.  

I am grateful to Chief Dolan for his years of service to the people of Minneapolis and despite some differences I have enjoyed working with him as Council Member.  He has been very helpful responding to crime concerns in Ward 2 and has been an outstanding partner in our efforts to curb domestic abuse and prevent youth violence by addressing it as a public health as well as a public safety issue.

The biggest difference I had with the Chief was on police accountability issues, especially his stance towards the Civilian Review Authority.  In my view, he consistently and significantly undermined the CRA by refusing to discipline sustained CRA complaints.  He committed to a goal of 100% discipline for sustained CRA complaints before he was first appointed in 2006.  Unfortunately, he never came close to meeting that goal, and his actual record on this in recent years was dismal.  That was why I did not support his reappointment in 2010.  The Council has received multiple reports from the CRA detailing the Chief's lack of proper participation in the CRA process, and it's been extremely disappointing.

The Mayor has nominated Assistant Chief Janee Harteau to be our next Police Chief.  I know Janee well; she served as First Precinct commander (the First Precinct covers the West Bank) during my first years in office.  I believe that she will do a good job, though I will be interested to hear from her whether she will chart Chief Dolan's course on police accountability.