Those who find fault with Olson have apparently not read Minneapolis
police history. Given the long pull of my memory, I would have to rank
Olson as either the first or second best chiefs that MPD has ever had.
Anyone remember Charlie Stenvig, for example. Olson has worked to bring
innovation to MPD - CODEFOR, for example. It will be interesting to see
how McDonald's opposition will play out at the upcoming Minneapolis DFL
city endorsing convention.
>Council member McDonald stopped by our Kingfield neighborhood board meeting
>on Wednesday and announced she would vote against Chief Olson's upcoming
>reappointment. She cited the ISAG conference spending as one factor, and
>also went into some detail about the police department's failure to produce
>a policy to deal with "critical events" such confronting those with mental
>health problems.
>
>I suspect - and I'm only guessing - that McDonald will be in the minority
>when the council votes. Does anyone have a reading on the tea leaves - which
>council members are and are not supporting Olson?
>
>If the chief is reappointed, he should become an election issue because
>McDonald is running for mayor. I wonder if the pro-ISAG-protester votes
>McDonald will pick up will be offset by the conservative law-and-order votes
>she might lose by making the Top Cop an issue. (Yes, it's 2001 and time for
>political analysis!) Then again, McDonald mentioned that the rank-and-file
>cops were upset the administration had not produced the critical events
>policy.
>
>Perhaps she, and others with inside connections to the police department,
>could give us more details about the evolution - or lack thereof - of the
>critical events policy.
>
>David Brauer
>Kingfield - Ward 10
>
>
Jack Ferman
Minneapolis, MN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
