Policing with limited staff: Tusken announces new initiatives to help

Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken announced new initiatives in a press conference Wednesday to increase Duluth officers’ capacity to respond to 911 calls.

As of right now the department says that they are short 22 officers.

And to make more time available police are encouraging the use of online reporting when the incident has no suspect information.
This would in a sense free up time for officers to be available for more pressing calls.

Chief Tusken says, "It’s important for those who have the capacity, or want to be able, to connect and do a report without having to call 911 or have a police officer talk to one of our CSOS"

These changes have been years in the making. The Police Chief says, "Some of this has been in evolution that’s been over the years. It’s in our best interest to make some changes."

And when responding to car accidents, police are using an accident information card to free up more time to respond to more calls. After an initial visit from an officer, those involved fill out a set prompts to give to their insurance. Freeing up what could typically take 45 minutes.

Chief Tusken also mentions that the hiring process is ongoing.

He says, "And so we are hopeful to out of this these next two days get 10-12 candidates to hire, last year we hired 4 people and we needed 8. So we don’t hire just to hire we fire people to fit our expectations."