St. Paul Police Land Sizeable Bremer Grant for Community Outreach Programs

(Pioneer Press)

St. Paul Assistant Police Chief Todd Axtell started a summer program a decade ago to introduce kids in St. Paul to the daily work of being a police officer. On the first day, he asked the several dozen young people ice breaker questions.

“I asked: What do the police do?” Axtell recalled. “And, a little boy raises his hand excitedly, and he says, ‘shoot people.’ ”

Axtell tells the story to explain why he’s excited that the St. Paul Police Department is receiving a $500,000 two-year grant from the Otto Bremer Trust to increase community engagement. The sizable grant, which was announced Thursday, will flow through the nonprofit St. Paul Police Foundation. It’s a rare example of private dollars supporting police work and will allow the department to create new ways for officers to interact with young people as mentors, coaches and community leaders.

“Every positive contact we have with our youth is another deposit in the bank of trust,” said Axtell. “We want our young people to understand there is a person behind the uniform, and that we care about the community. We want our youth to be able to approach our officers without fear. And we want our officers to get to know our youth, so when they’re driving down the street answering a call for service, they can now put a name to the face.”

The grant comes at a time when police and community relations across the country and in the Twin Cities have been strained by high-profile police shootings of unarmed civilians, many of whom are black.

“It was a ripe opportunity,” said Daniel Reardon, one of three CEOs of the Otto Bremer Trust in St. Paul, which in 2014 gave away more than $40 million in grants. “Because of the dollar amount, they’re going to be able to reach a lot more people. You’re going to see police viewed as a resource and an asset rather than a liability.”

The money will bolster existing programs, such as the St. Paul Junior Police Academy, a one-week summer camp run with the YWCA to introduce children and teens to police work through field trips to the finger print lab and visits with the K-9 units. Over nine years, 500 young people have participated, 95 percent African American and other children of color, said Axtell.

The police department started a separate youth academy for East and West African students in 2014. The Bremer grant could be used to pay for transportation and halal meals, which until now the department had scrambled to cover through its regular budget. One of the young women involved the program was hired last year as the department’s first Somali community liaison officer.

“We need to build community wherever we can, given the tensions there have been between the African American community and the police,” said Gaye Adams Massey, who started last year as CEO at YWCA St. Paul. “And this is a great way to build relationships between young people and the officers.”

Until now, the police department has funded outreach through its budget, said Axtell. But that’s becoming harder to do with annual 15 percent increases in 911 calls and the subsequent need for additional policing, he said. One of his dreams is to use the Bremer grant to staff a community engagement team to organize and increase the various outreach programs. The police also facilitate a regular all-female swim night at the downtown YMCA to teach Somali girls and women how to swim.

And, officers work with St. Paul Public School students through the college and career preparation program AVID. Through partnerships with St. Paul Parks and Recreation and nonprofit organizations, officers take kids ice fishing and on summer bicycle rides. They hold baseball and basketball clinics. Funds could pay for buying basketballs or renting time on a soccer field for a weekly cop-coached soccer program, he said.

The department also hopes to raise an additional $250,000 through donations to the St. Paul Police Foundation, Axtell said.

Sgt. Jeff Stiff volunteered for the first time last year along with other St. Paul officers with a free weekly hockey program called Rink Rats, funded through the Herb Brooks Foundation.

“It’s something I enjoyed doing,” said Stiff, a former college hockey player. “And I think it’s an opportunity for these kids to see police officers in a different light.” He developed a friendship with a second-grader named Antonio, whose mother, April Naastad, said Stiff still texts or calls a couple times a week to see how her son is doing.

“Antonio’s dad isn’t around, so it’s basically just me raising him,” Naastad said. “He’s helped Antonio with his school work and attitude. It’s amazing. It helps me out a lot.”

Imagine someone asking Antonio: What does a police officer do? He might just answer “plays hockey.”