Police chief clears up some misinformation
While I wholeheartedly agree that the information contained in the Luger report on the Metro Gang Strike Force is alarming, I need to make sure that the public knows the facts.
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) was a part of the Metro Gang Strike Force. However, it did not comprise the majority of the personnel assigned to the Strike Force at any given time. As of April 1, 2009, we had one lieutenant, two sergeants and seven officers assigned to the task force. That is about 30 percent of the total personnel. The MPD participated in the Strike Force but the personnel assigned there were subordinate to the Strike Force and to the state of Minnesota. The MPD chain of command had no direct supervisory role in the stand-alone task force.
While an Aug. 26 letter writer is led to believe that every MPD officer assigned to the Strike Force made "$60,000 to $100,000 each year" in overtime, the reality is that only one officer assigned to the Strike Force in 2008 was in that range. The reader is also led to believe that all of that money was billed to the city of Minneapolis. In fact the MPD received $960,000 in grants to cover Strike Force expenditures over 2008 and 2009.
The citizens of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota should expect that their public officers both uphold the law in a professional manner and use funding wisely. What they should not have to be subjected to is disinformation printed in the newspaper. The salaries of all public officials including overtime is public data and is available from the MPD. Had the author or the Star Tribune taken the time to contact the MPD, we would have gladly provided accurate figures.
POLICE CHIEF TIMOTHY J. DOLAN, MINNEAPOLIS
RIP, TED KENNEDY
His actions touched her in a very profound way
I mourn the loss of Sen. Ted Kennedy for very personal reasons. I am known as a DES daughter because my mother was one of millions of women prescribed the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent miscarriage. Sadly, the drug was not only ineffective but caused serious health problems for their sons and daughters who, like me, were exposed before we were born. The fact is, in the early 1950s, published research showed DES did not work. The Food and Drug Administration was asleep at the switch.
DES has caused my two bouts with cancer (the first at 19 years old) and subsequent infertility. Kennedy was a firm believer in a stronger FDA and pushed for better regulation of the pharmaceutical industry. He was one of the first lawmakers to listen to the pleas of DES daughters and sons and pushed for mandates to fund DES research and education.
Kennedy did what legislators ought to be doing -- he looked out for the average American citizen. Today I mourn the loss of a man I never met but greatly respected.
