Bemidji residents answer chief's question of police oversight with a 'yes'

The Bemidji Police Department asked the public a simple question at a listening session in the northern Minnesota Monday night: Should they create a civilian oversight committee?

The answer, from the dozens who attended the meeting, in person and by video chat: A resounding yes. But that committee better have some teeth.

In the months since George Floyd’s death, communities across the state have been grappling with the question of police reform — whether and how and to what degree. Bemidji began its own conversation at a special City Council listening session Monday night — prompted by a request from the city’s police chief that they take up the question of an oversight board.

Very few of the residents who commented at the open session, in which police Chief Mike Mastin and City Council members said they were there to listen and not speak, saw a point to having an oversight committee if that committee does not have the authority to discipline or fire an officer for using excessive or racially biased force.

The meeting happened in the midst of simmering controversy over the way Bemidji’s police handled protests this summer — and a long-standing mistrust between Bemidji’s Native American community and law enforcement.

While the surrounding Beltrami County’s population is roughly three-quarters white, resident Salena Beasley pointed out the obvious disparities in the Beltrami County Jail.

“I went on the Bemidji jail roster,” she said. “There are currently about 76 inmates in there, and about 15 of them are white. That is incredibly disproportionate for the area. There’s something wrong there.”

Mastin, sitting alongside the City Council, listened to an hour and a half of residents answering his question — and insisting on a well-toothed oversight committee — and afterward, he said, that’s not what’s needed.

“The basis for my recommendation was a committee that builds relationships with the citizens here,” he said. “That doesn’t really require teeth. It requires a good heart and a desire to make this a better place to live.”

This whole question of starting an oversight committee was Mastin’s idea. He said he’s been mulling it over for years — long before the recent unrest.

Mastin has been police chief for a decade. He said he personally hired most of the department’s officers; vetted each one. He said his officers aren’t the problem — he thinks, instead, it’s a question of perception.

“The comments about the teeth,” he said, “those are the people that feel there’s an issue. They don’t trust the police. I think a lot of that can be addressed if we get to know each other.”

And in that belief, Mastin is not alone. Jean Skinaway-Lawrence, who also lives in Bemidji, spoke at the meeting. She said she has experience in law enforcement, is a military veteran, and is also an enrolled member of the Red Lake Nation. She said she’s seen policing up close, from all angles — and civilian oversight, she said, is vital.

“It boils down to trust,” she said. “Especially with the events of this spring and summer. I think something is needed.”

On that point, it seems, nearly all sides at Monday’s listening session agreed: If people could just look behind the scenes, they’d understand. Mastin is sure, in that case, that his department would be vindicated — and many members of the public who appeared to speak at the meeting are equally sure they’d find problems that they’d like the authority to be able to fix.

Bemidji city officials didn’t make any decisions out of the listening session. They said they plan to mull over what they heard, over the next few weeks, and decide in a month or two whether to form an oversight committee for the city’s Police Department.

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