In nearly two years, Harteau spent 66 days away

Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau has attended at least 22 out-of-state conferences and meetings while on city time in the less than two years she has held the job.

That's roughly twice the rate of travel claimed by her predecessor. The chief has traveled to conferences in Arizona, New Orleans and once to Scotland, costing taxpayers $18,602 in the last 22 months, according to city records.

"I'm gone for one of two reasons," Harteau said in an interview Friday. "Either I'm learning and working with colleagues to understand best practices or I myself am teaching and training on the best practices in the city of Minneapolis."

Harteau's travel has pulled her away from the city for 66 workdays, according to city records. It has also given rise to concerns that the chief is spending too much time away when violent crime is on the uptick and police face renewed scrutiny for uneasy community relations.

"Given the magnitude and scope of the problems within the department and the deteriorating relations between the police and the community, it's difficult to justify having the chief away so often," said Nekima Levy-Pounds, a law professor at University of St. Thomas.

The time away, Levy-Pounds said, raises questions about "what is a reasonable travel schedule in terms of managing a police department."

The city's first female police chief has cut a more high-profile path than her predecessors. She's regularly at community events with the mayor, gets weekly requests for interviews from national media organizations and has been featured in local celebrity news columns.

At the University of Louisville's Southern Police Institute, considered one of the top law enforcement schools in the country, Harteau gave a speech on April 14 titled, "My career and road to the chief."

Former Chief Tim Dolan said that Harteau likely gets more invitations to speak than he did, given her history-making appointment.

He said he would typically travel six to seven times a year for law enforcement conferences, so he didn't find her number of trips alarming.

"People want to see her and want to talk to her, so that's a thing that she's got to manage," Dolan said.

The chief has had to rapidly define her role during a challenging time for the police force.

Sometimes the chief has been away during difficult times for the department.

When nine people were shot and injured in August at the 400 Soundbar, Harteau was at a conference in Arizona, according to city records. One of her deputies became the public face for the department in the immediate aftermath.

Harteau said she envisions less need for some event-specific trips in the future. For instance, she traveled to prepare to host Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in July, which won't be returning to the city in the immediate future.

Harteau took her first conference trip about a month into the job, and some months she has had a packed travel itinerary.

Starting on Feb. 3, Harteau claimed five business days for a conference in Houston.

The following week Harteau was in Chicago for a two-day trip to plan a gun summit in Milwaukee.

Three weeks later, Harteau was in New Orleans for the Midsize Cities Chiefs Conference and meeting with the New Orleans Police Department.

The conference itself lasted four days, but Harteau filed six business days for that trip, according to her expense sheet.

Three more trips in April took Harteau to the University of Louisville, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

Then in May, she attended the Major Cities Chiefs and Police Executive Research Forum summer conference in San Francisco, a four-day event. Harteau took four business days and two "nonbusiness" days for the six-day trip, according to expense forms filed with the city.

Reports of shootings were up, 911 response times had slowed by about a minute for top-priority calls and Harteau faced growing pressure to honor her pledge to raise the department's sworn roster to 860 by the end of the year.

Harteau said even when she is away she is closely connected to police business back home. And the information gained at the conferences help her improve the police department.

"That's part of the conversations I have in conferences. … We are actually all having the same struggle with diversity, with response times, with personnel," she said. "I'm never not thinking about those issues, and I'm never not focused on my job at hand."

Some of the travel has taken Harteau out of the country. During a trip to Scotland, organized and largely paid for by the Police Executive Research Forum, the schedule was primarily sightseeing for the first two days, followed by a third day of discussions. Harteau, who serves as an at-large board member, filed for four business days and one nonbusiness day for that trip, according to city records.

Harteau said she is selective on the trips she takes and ensures that every trip benefits Minneapolis.

City Council President Barb Johnson said she doesn't see a problem with Harteau's travel schedule.

"If it's something that she thought was valuable, I'm not going to question her judgment," Johnson said.