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Volunteer chaplains with the Minneapolis Police will now ride along with officers and appear at community gatherings, the department said Thursday.


The 13 chaplains regularly respond to shootings and other major crime scenes, but the department wants them to help build relations between citizens and police, Chief Janeé Harteau said.


"We want our chaplains to be fully engaged in the community," Harteau said. "This is about building partnerships and relationships before a crisis occurs."

In response to crime spike, officers go on foot patrol

Harteau plans to talk more about improving police-community relations at a 5:30 p.m. forum today at the Sabathani Community Center in south Minneapolis.

Since this story was published, Chief Harteau told Minneapolis City Council Member Alondra Cano that she will not participate in the forum. Cano said the chief cited concerns about protests. The event is scheduled to go on without Harteau.


"There's a fair amount of fear on the part of the immigrant community with the police — afraid to report anything," said Carl Valdez, a volunteer chaplain and deacon at Incarnation Catholic Church who ministers to predominantly Latino communities. One of his roles, he added, is to help police understand some of those fears.

Valdez and the other chaplains have been assigned to specific precincts. That's different from the previous chaplain program, said the Rev. Linda Koelman of North United Methodist.


"We covered the whole city before when we were on call," said Koelman, one of several members of the previous program. "We were on call for a 48-hour period each month. Now, we're kind of on-call all the time. And we're responsible for just one precinct."


The chaplains are volunteers but receive a monthly stipend of $400.

Crime, Law and Justice

Minnesota News

Twin Cities News

Brandt Williams

Author

Chief wants volunteer chaplains "fully engaged" in improving relations between cops, citizens.

Minneapolis police tap chaplains to build community ties

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