Rescheduled Center of the American Experiment event draws crowd in Rochester

ROCHESTER - The delayed and once controversial forum hosted by a conservative think tank took place Tuesday night — and got a much larger audience courtesy of the controversy surrounding it.

The Center of the American Experiment (CAE)'s "Crime Crisis" event highlighted how public distrust in policing affects departments across Minnesota.

Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin told the crowd he had seen plenty of evidence over the past month the public is often misinformed and uneducated on community policing.

"They don't understand the complexity, the fluid dynamics, the difficulty of dealing with people in trauma," Franklin said after the forum.

The event was originally to take place at the Rochester Golf & Country Club last month, but the club board canceled the event a few days prior. CAE sued the club, as well as a Rochester restaurant owner behind a petition among club members who opposed the event.

Almost 200 people attended the rescheduled event, about four times as many who signed up to go to the initial forum. Fran Bradley, a former state representative and president of the CAE's Rochester chapter, said the increased turnout showed a need for more CAE events in the area.

"We will not let our opinions be oppressed by a really small majority of people," he said.

Area law enforcement officials say they're willing to speak to any group that will have them to educate residents on public safety.

Franklin and Olmsted County Sheriff Kevin Torgerson said local law enforcement is dedicated to a more community-oriented approach to policing, and potential hires are often judged more on character than technical knowledge. Franklin also pointed to Rochester's emphasis on building community connections and cultural competency through a variety of outreach efforts, including mandated volunteer time for rookie officers so they can interact with folks outside of their jobs.

Though certain types of crimes were slightly up in Rochester last year — police responded to more calls for assaults, criminal sexual conduct and property crimes including stolen motor vehicle parts — Franklin said the city isn't experiencing heavy carjacking rates like in the Twin Cities.

"Man, there's some horror stories up there," he said.

Increased outcry and a spike in crime rates after police-related shootings in the U.S. — what some experts dub "the Ferguson effect" after the increase in violence when police shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 — are causing other issues for police departments.

Jeff Van Nest, a policy fellow with CAE, said police are more often reluctant to work proactively to stop crime because of the public distrust. The scrutiny has also led to workforce issues for police departments — more officers are retiring or leaving, while fewer people are interested in law enforcement careers.

Franklin said the Rochester Police Department needs to fill about 10 positions after dropping to 17 vacancies in 2020. Torgerson said the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office is fully staffed at the moment, but it's harder to find quality candidates when other departments are competing for officers.

Torgerson told the crowd he still remembers the driver he pulled over in Rochester who asked whether Torgerson would beat him like Rodney King in the early '90s, shortly after Los Angeles officers beat King during an arrest.

Torgerson said that outcry continues even after George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, and it continues to affect law enforcement relationships in the community.

"Those four officers did things that were not in our policies. We don't do things that way. We've never done things that way in the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office," he said. "What they did was horrible, and I don't want to go that way, but what happened was the blanket was thrown over everybody in uniform."