St. Joseph Police Chief Wants to Suspend Agreement with School
ST. JOSEPH (WJON News) -- The St. Joseph Police Chief wants the city to suspend its Joint Powers Agreement with the St. Cloud Area School District.
Chief Dwight Pfannenstein will ask the city council at its meeting on Tuesday night to suspend the agreement indefinitely.
He says with recent restrictions put on School Resource Officers assigned to schools by the state legislature, there has been a movement to pull officers from schools until language regarding holds and procedures can be clarified.
The city of St. Joseph does not have a dedicated school resource officer, however, the chief says a review from legal has been to suspend the joint powers agreement because it blankets the entire department as agents of the school.
Both St. Cloud PD and Waite Park PD have the exact same language with District 742.
By suspending the joint powers agreement with the school district, officers would still respond to the school on a call for assistance and use the least amount of force reasonable, but necessary to bring the situation under control.
On Thursday Pfannenstein participated in a conference call with St. Cloud Police Chief Jeff Oxton, Waite Park Police Chief Tony Reznicek, Sauk Rapids Police Chief Perry Beise, Sartell Police Chief Brandon Silgjord, and Stearns County Sheriff Steve Soyka to discuss the issue.
On Wednesday night St. Cloud Police posted a Tweet on Twitter that they have not made a decision yet on School Resource Officers in the schools this fall.
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