Small Minnesota Town’s Entire Police Force Resigns
The entire police department in a small city about 65 miles south of Minneapolis, Minnesota, resigned on Monday, according to multiplereports.
The Goodhue Police Department’s seven officers, including the police chief, were demanding better pay. The City Council was set to discuss pay for the officers on Monday, but the department’s officers resigned before the meeting.
“Since the resignations have been handed in by our police department, it has been recommended by our city attorney that at this point we need to pursue our other options,” Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck said during Monday’s meeting. “So, at this point, there’s no reason to really talk about pay increases since we no longer have a police force.”
The officers are set to leave the department on Aug. 24. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 23.
Goodhue has a population of roughly 1,200 people.
“I think we could do OK with three [officers] and feel protected,” one resident, Roxanne Fischer, told Minneapolis’ KARE-TV. “Our town is pretty quiet.”
Mass police resignations are not uncommon, especially since the 2020 protests in response to the May 25, 2020, police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other incidents of police brutality.
In 2021, a five-person police department in the small town of Kimberling City, Missouri, resigned, citing poor pay and a lack of resources. By January, the department had begun rebuilding.
Similarly, in 2022, the police department in Kenly, North Carolina, did the same, claiming their working environment was “hostile.” Months later, the town had a new police chief and began to restaff its department.
The Goodhue Police Department, Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck and members of the Goodhue City Council did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
