The Crookston City Council met on Monday and approved all the items on their consent agenda, including the non-bargaining employee agreement. The agreement sets salaries and benefits for the city’s department heads and other city leaders for the next three years and includes a 2.5 percent annual raise for those positions. The full agreement is at the bottom of the story.
The other items on the consent agenda were approving past meeting minutes, approving bills and disbursements totaling $213,782.21, approving a fireworks license renewal for Walmart, and approving reimbursement for the Valley Technology Park building improvement.
During the staff reports, Crookston Police Chief Paul Biermaier gave the City Council a short overview of the Crookston Police Department’s (CPD) use of force policies. Biermaier said the goal for the CPD is to come to a peaceful result in all situations and that tonight was about answering questions before they come up and sharing information in a challenging climate. “I think it was good to get out in front of a story, so to speak and be informative to the council and the people that were here tonight,” said Biermaier. “It is a difficult climate, but as a police department we do training, we do things that are good for the public, that helps keep everybody safe, including our officers. That’s what I wanted to do tonight. Get that to the council and answer questions they may have had or brought some information to them that they weren’t aware of.”
Biermaier said verbal communication is huge for officers and that the focus of the department’s training is for crisis intervention. “In tonight’s topic, a lot of the things I mentioned have a lot to do with crisis intervention and helping the people that are in a difficult situation,” said Biermaier. “De-escalation for us and also our training on what happens during our use of force. I tried to explain the different levels and how we have to constantly assess and reassess and adjust. It’s all about doing the best job we can but the safest too, for us and the public.”
Biermaier also said that specific techniques that have come under scrutiny recently in the light of the George Floyd tragedy, such as the chokehold and stranglehold, are prohibited in the CPD’s policies. He also added that all officers are trained for first aid and basic medical response and call in the ambulance or often take people to ER before going to corrections to be cleared. He also said that all the squad cars include non-lethal options if force is necessary, such as shotguns with beanbag rounds. KROX will also be sitting down with Chief Biermaier for more on the topic of CPD’s policies and strategies for the use of force later this week.
Crookston Fire Chief Tim Froeber also urged caution during the coming days on the Red Lake River as the water level was expected to rise swiftly due to the rain the past few days. “With the recent rains we’ve had, we’re expecting a rapid increase in our river level in the City of Crookston,” said Froeber. “We’re looking at probably about 15.5 feet sometime Wednesday or Thursday. With that, Central Park should not flood at that level, and our levy system is protected well above that. But with all the fishermen, the kayakers, and boaters out there, we just want to get a warning to them to be watching out for a rapid rise in the river. The City of Crookston will be keeping an eye on it and if anything changes, we’ll let you know.”
The river model as of 9:45 p.m. Monday has the river cresting at 15 feet late Wednesday, which would not threaten Central Park or the levy system, but will increase the flow of water through the city.
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