Police Chief Dolan backed for new term

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak freely admits there are times he micromanages the Police Department.

It's not that he doesn't trust Chief Tim Dolan; in fact, Rybak nominated him Wednesday for another three-year term.

But when Rybak wanted more officers on the street or a plan to curb violent juvenile crime, he didn't hesitate to jump in, he said, because public safety falls mostly on the shoulders of a mayor.

Rybak said his nomination reflects his satisfaction with the general direction Dolan is taking the department, and with how Dolan is implementing Rybak's vision for a safer city.

Since Rybak first nominated Dolan for chief in 2006, violent crime has taken a dramatic decline each year. Officers have better technology to do their jobs more efficiently. And the city's efforts on juvenile crime have received national recognition.

"We can disagree on issues, but we have an unusually strong partnership that works," Rybak said.

Dolan agrees, saying: "The mayor is a task master. Certain things are very important to him. And he's never short of energy."

Rybak has backed the chief on controversies involving the department. He praised the chief's request for an inquiry into the a squad car video showing several officers kicking a man during an arrest. The mayor also supported the chief's decision to resist using force on a large crowd that wouldn't move off the streets during the 2008 Republican National Convention.

It's no surprise to some that Rybak wants to keep Dolan.

"The most important thing a mayor can do is pick a good police chief," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C., firm that has done consulting work for more than a decade. "Rybak had the big picture view, and Dolan developed a strategy to implement it. There was no political interference. This stuff just doesn't happen."

Rybak's nomination of Dolan to the city's executive committee put in motion a process that could end with a final City Council approval by the end of the year. However Council Member Cam Gordon said it might make more sense to wait until new council members fill the seats of those not running for re-election. The new members will have more of a stake in the decision, he said. The timing won't be critical; the city charter would allow Dolan to have interim status for 90 days after his term expires at the end of December.

Rybak has worked with three chiefs since his first term as mayor in 2002. Shortly after starting, he failed to get council approval to remove Chief Robert Olson, who had two years left on his contract. Rybak now admits it was a mistake that "put the department and community through too much." The next chief was Bill McManus, who had a good reputation for building relationships with communities of color. He left to become chief in San Antonio before his term expired.

Dolan was interim chief for six months when Rybak decided to forgo a national search and nominate him for chief in 2006. The council's vote was 12 to 1, with Ralph Remington the dissenter. Nothing Dolan has done in the past three years made him regret his vote, Remington said.

He was troubled by allegations of institutional racism raised by five high-ranking black officers in a lawsuit, which the city settled for $740,000. Remington said Dolan also hasn't been consistent in doling out discipline, an issue raised by the Police Federation. He criticized Dolan's record on diversifying the department, though nearly 19 percent of the department are people of color, the most ever.

"When the vote comes up again for Dolan, I won't vote for him," said Remington, who isn't running for re-election.

When Dolan became chief in 2007, violent crime had increased 17 percent from the previous year, mostly fueled by juvenile offenders. Dolan said death of high school basketball star Brian Cole in 2006 was "a last straw" for Rybak, and the two started to work toward a comprehensive juvenile crime fighting plan. Rybak quickly pulled together a large youth violence summit with mayors and police chiefs in Washington, D.C.

Over the next year, Dolan restarted the department's juvenile crime unit, adding a team to arrest the most violent offenders. The next piece opening City Hall's Juvenile Supervision Center, which works with families to assess a youth's needs. Minneapolis police also are again working as liaison officers in the middle and high schools and collaborating with the school board to patrol routes to schools in areas most challenged by crime.

In 2008, the city launched a youth violence prevention "Blueprint for Action" with goals such as intervening at the first sign that youth are at risk for violence. Since 2006, juvenile crime has declined by 42 percent, Rybak said. 

In the past three years, Minneapolis has seen double-digit decreases in violent crime while the numbers were going in the opposite direction in other cities. If the city remains at its current total of 16 homicides for the year, it would be the lowest total since 1983.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said he tries to follow advice that says don't take credit for crime going down unless you're prepared to take blame for it going up. Mayors can have influence over trends, he said, but not statistics.

City Council Member Don Samuels said incidents of police brutality have been embarrassing to him as a public official, but he noted that more potential incidents are taped due to cameras in squad cars. He added that Dolan has fired more officers for misconduct than any chief in the last 20 years.

David Chanen • 612-673-4465