Falcon Heights will continue policing contract with Ramsey County Sheriff

Both Falcon Heights and the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office have sought to end an agreement to have the Sheriff’s Office police the city.

But the arrangement will continue — at least temporarily — under a contract approved Tuesday by the Ramsey County Board. Meanwhile, the city will continue to look for alternatives, including the possibility of restarting a relationship with St. Anthony, a city it cut policing ties with after a St. Anthony officer killed Black motorist Philando Castile in Falcon Heights in 2016.

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office has been policing Falcon Heights since 2018. But in 2020, Sheriff Bob Fletcher began suggesting Falcon Heights look for alternatives.

The issue is geographic, Fletcher said: The Sheriff’s Office can have one deputy in Falcon Heights, but these days, he said, there are more calls for things like shots fired and domestic violence that require a second officer to respond. When a second officer is needed, they’re typically coming from a noncontiguous jurisdiction such as Little Canada, Shoreview or Vadnais Heights.

“It’s typically 2 miles-plus at high speeds in order to get there,” Fletcher said. He has suggested Falcon Heights contract with a nearby jurisdiction, form its own police force or find a hybrid delivery model.

“It really comes down to safety for the officers, and not just the officers, but the citizens, to have adequate response there in a timely fashion. The first two minutes of a call are always a critical time,” he said.

Falcon Heights has been exploring alternatives since 2021, City Administrator Jack Linehan said.

Aside from pressure from the Sheriff’s Office to find another partner, Linehan said the city has heard from residents who want a more community-based policing model.

He said the city is thankful to the Sheriff’s Office and its deputies who have served the city. “It’s not dissatisfaction by any means. It’s just finding a best fit for the next many years to come,” he said.

In March, Falcon Heights notified the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office it did not intend to renew its contract. In November, the city asked the office to continue providing services after negotiations with the city of St. Paul fell through over staffing and liability issues, Linehan said. St. Paul provides fire and EMS services to Falcon Heights.

The new contract, approved by the Falcon Heights City Council last month, is substantively similar to the old one, with some changes in liability. But Linehan told council members at a January meeting the contract highlights that both parties don’t want the agreement to go past the end of 2024 unless obligated. If Falcon Heights can find an alternative, it can request to terminate the contract early.

The new contract will cost the city about 25% more in the first quarter and go up slightly after that. The increased cost stems from the need to use overtime deputies to cover Falcon Heights. Fletcher has said that because Falcon Heights notified his office it sought to terminate the agreement, staffing to cover the city wasn’t included in the Sheriff’s Office budget.

For Falcon Heights, the annual cost is $1.64 million, billed monthly, through March, with a 5% increase kicking in April 1.

On Thursday, the Falcon Heights and St. Anthony city councils will hold a joint workshop to discuss a potential renewal of their policing partnership, which started in 1994 and ended in 2017 following Castile’s traffic-stop killing by then-St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez.

Falcon Heights highlighted St. Anthony as a potential fit because of service level, proximity, logistics and finances, according to a city news release.

“Obviously there’s a lot of history there,” Linehan told the Star Tribune. “It’s a challenging process [that’s] opened up a lot of old wounds for both communities” and will require buy-in on both sides and time for community input.

He said St. Anthony police have gone through a rigorous rebuilding and reimagining, working with the Department of Justice through a community policing grant.

“Through that work, they were able to adopt a lot of new policies, new procedures that really align with the vision of our community,” he said.