POLICE AT WORK

Accidents, misconduct, but much improvement

I concur with almost everything in the Aug. 19 editorial entitled "The troubling arrest of Derryl Jenkins." I share the concerns regarding Minneapolis police training and reporting on this incident, and I have taken recent actions in those areas. However, there is one statistic I need to correct. The city of Minneapolis has not paid over $14 million in police misconduct claims since 2000. The amount for police misconduct claims is actually much lower.

The city owns the responsibility for the reporting error. A graph on the city's website entitled "Police -- Total Liability Payouts" shows that some major settlements, such as the $4.5 million for Duy Ngo, were labeled "Police Misconduct." The reality is that some of these cases were terrible accidents not due to any misconduct by police officers. I know, just off the top of my head, of over $7 million in settlements in the last five years for unfortunate accidents. There are likely more.

In the realities of police work, accidents do happen. Police are driving vehicles, sometimes at high rates of speed to respond to emergencies and calls. We are dealing with dangerous situations in which officers have only an instant to make decisions. We also have incidents of misconduct. I think we have been making great strides to reduce liabilities and injuries in both categories, and I know our liability payments for misconduct have gone down steadily during my tenure as chief.

We will make sure the city corrects the website, and the Minneapolis Police Department will continue to work hard to "Protect with Courage and Serve with Compassion."

POLICE CHIEF TIMOTHY J. DOLAN,

MINNEAPOLIS

Health care in America

Look around -- it's possible to do a lot better

An Aug. 15 letter writer appears to be a doctor without the ability to see the cure in front of him. He states it is mathematically impossible to do more for people at less cost. Yet he ignores these facts: Every other industrialized country in the world is doing more at a lower cost. The United States ranks 37th in a World Health Organization ranking of overall health care (just behind Costa Rica and just ahead of Slovenia). The United States ranks dead last among industrialized countries in the treatment of preventable diseases.

By improving the treatment of preventable diseases we can lower our costs by helping people before they end up in the emergency room with advanced stages of sickness and disease. Our neighbors to the north, who spend just over half of what we do for health care (per capita), have overwhelmingly declared in a recent survey that they would not be willing to trade their health care for the system (or lack thereof) we have in the United States.

WARREN BLECHERT, EXCELSIOR

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Get to know them, and get past the fears

As CEO for Arc Greater Twin Cities, a nonprofit serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, I cannot express my sadness as I read "Neighbors turn group home away" (Aug. 15).

Arc has worked for over 60 years for laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities. But attitudes cannot be legislated -- and we know there are those who harbor fears about people with disabilities, whether they perceive a threat to their safety or their property values.

If you do not have the gift of someone with a disability in your life, let us at Arc introduce you to some stellar community citizens who may change your attitudes and your lives!

KIM KEPRIOS, ST. PAUL

JENKINS' ARREST

The officer should have explained himself

In response to the Aug. 19 letter about "complying with cops": Either the officer should have announced immediately why he pulled Derryl Jenkins over, then asked for his license, or answered the question when asked. Had he done so, Jenkins would have handed his license over and the resulting beating would not have taken place. This I know for sure because I know Derryl.

I am so disgusted and tired of hearing about people in authority taking advantage of and abusing everyday people.

MARY HUSAK, EAGAN

TOWN HALL MEETINGS

What's next? A patriot taking a pot shot?

Now come Obama haters brandishing firearms under the guise of the Second Amendment, true patriotic Americans indeed. Armed health care reform opponents is like pouring gasoline on an already violent -- even hateful -- protest movement.

Chances are, some wild-eyed patriot will take a shot at the president, and just could show the world that killing our presidents is how we Americans settle our disputes. What a country!

JOHN HELGERSON, VICTORIA

Correction An Aug. 20 editorial on the southwest light-rail line should have said that Kenilworth Trail is on the east side of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis.