GOODHUE, MINNESOTA: Goodhue, a city in south-eastern Minnesota, will soon be left without any cops after the entire department resigned in protest over low pay concerns.
The Goodhue City Council accepted the resignations of Chief Josh Smith, Officer Anthony Brecht and five other part-time officers during a special meeting held on Monday, August 14.
"I think we're all a little bit blindsided by it, but we're resilient and we're going to move forward," said Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck during the meeting.
Buck further noted that Smith and his deputies would remain on duty until August 24 and after that, their cases would be transferred to the Goodhue County Sheriff's Office.
"I want to reiterate that we will have police coverage in the city of Goodhue. That is not an issue," the mayor stated.
Why did the Goodhue police resign?
During the city council meeting, Buck stated that the entire Goodhue Police Department resigned because of issues with the city's low pay, according to NBC News.
The objective of the meeting was originally to negotiate departmental wage hikes with the city, but the entire team resigned before it could happen.
Smith first raisec concerns about recruitment problems during another city council meeting on July 26 when he informed the council that the present wage of $22 per hour for cops in the city was not competitive.
"So right now with our current — trying to hire at $22 an hour, you're never going to see another person again walk through those doors. That's it," Smith said, adding, "Unless you guys do a dramatic change."
Smith stressed on the urgency of the matter and said that the smaller police departments he had looked into paid at least $30 an hour. "There's zero incentive to come out here to a small town, low pay, being on call, affecting your free time and everything else," he said.
Who is the Goodhue police chief?
Josh Smith is the current chief of the Goodhue city police department and he will continue to serve in his position until August 24.
Smith previously told the city council that he had been offered a job in a city. "If you want to keep the PD … something needs to change dramatically and drastically, and it's got to happen now," he had said in July.
How many officers of the Goodhue police department have resigned?
When Smith resigned, it was a decision that prompted the town's only full-time officer, Anthony Brecht, and five part-time officers to follow suit.
Following the mass resignation, the mayor told the council that rebuilding the department would be an "uphill battle" but that it could be done.
"Since the resignations have been handed in by our police department, it has been recommended by our city attorney that at this point we need to pursue our other options. So, at this point, there's no reason to talk about pay increases, since we no longer have a police force,” the mayor said.
Residents criticized the loss of the police force, with one telling NBC News that she was "floored" by the news.
"I can probably speak for everyone when I say that they provided excellent safety and security to our community. And the small-town policing that they did, we want that back,” another resident said.
