Roseville Police Department to undergo comprehensive evaluation

City Council approves contracting with The Axtell Group

Roseville City Council approved a request from the Roseville Police Department (RPD) on Dec. 2, 2024 to enter a professional services agreement with The Axtell Group to conduct an comprehensive evaluation of the department’s resource allocation and operational efficiency.

“This was an opportunity we think is really important to take a holistic look at the entire department,” Chief Erika Sheider said to the Council. The goal isn’t just to consider whether they need more police officers, but also, “How do we run more efficiently, especially given the challenges the profession is facing,” she said.

In the Request for Council Action (RCA) from the Roseville Police Department, the challenges were described as related to recruitment, retention, and “the increasing complexity of calls for service.”

In her remarks to the Council, Sheider said that an external, comprehensive evaluation of the Roseville Police Department has never been conducted in her twenty-five years with the RPD or ever in the history of the department, as far as she is aware.

“This evaluation will help RPD to optimize its resources, ensuring the department is responsive to the community’s evolving needs and expectations. By engaging community members throughout the process, the study will foster trust, promote transparency, and strengthen relationships between the department and the residents it serves,” the RCA reads.

The RPD received seven proposals from different consulting groups and a committee of city and police leaders evaluated them. The committee was comprised of City Manager Pat Trudgeon, Equity and Inclusion Manager Antonio Montez, Police Chief Erika Sheider, Deputy Chief Joe Adams, Lieutenant Travis Steinberg, Lieutenant Jennifer Engh, and Police Services Manager Sarah Mahmud. The committee unanimously ranked The Axtell Group as the top firm, according to Sheider.

“I appreciate you having the equity and inclusion manager on the committee. I thought your process was really well thought out. I think having outside eyes on the department is a good idea,” Groff said to Chief Sheider during the meeting.

The Axtell Group’s evaluation will include engaging with police department staff, city staff, and community groups such as advocacy groups, neighborhood associations, business, faith, and educational institutions. In the proposal, the Axtell Group said they would be engaging both internal and external stakeholders through interviews, surveys, and meetings.

“We wanted to be sure they are engaging the community, that this isn’t just a police-driven evaluation,” Sheider said to the Council.

The community engagement will have a focus on involving underrepresented groups, according to the RCA.

“Gathering input from residents with diverse perspectives is essential to understanding how RPD can best address the safety concerns and priorities of all community members,” the RCA states.

The Axtell Group will also be doing observational analysis and data collection of police department activities.

The Axtell Group is named for its president and CEO Todd Axtell, a 33-year veteran of the Saint Paul Police Department from 1989 to 2022. He served the last six of those years as Chief of Police. Axtell made community engagement and increasing diversity top priorities as Chief of Police.

“Under his leadership, the department connected with its community at historic levels and saw a 41 percent increase in the number of diverse employees,” the proposal states. He also instituted best practices that resulted in officers using lower levels of force, reduced civil payouts related to police misconduct, and publicly shared more data about traffic stops, arrests, and use of force, according to The Axtell Group proposal.

“His time in Saint Paul was exemplary during some challenging times, both for the profession and the community,” Mayor Dan Roe said during the Council meeting.

Councilmember Julie Strahan said during the meeting that Axtell’s policing experience during the time periods when both Philando Castile and George Floyd were killed, “speaks to his ability to understand Minnesota policing and the culture where we grow from.”

“I couldn’t find anything about him that wasn’t glowing. I’m looking forward to the ethical take from him. It seems really important to him that a police force do good by the people,” Strahan said.

The rest of the project personnel include Robert Thomasser, former Saint Paul police officer; John Harringon, former Commissioner for the Department of Public Safety for Minnesota and former Chief of the Metro Transit Police; and Camille Hepola, senior advisor specializing in “solving complex challenges for public and private sector organizations.” According to the proposal, the team also includes a group of public safety and research professionals, data analysts, and survey designers.

During the meeting, Roe expressed admiration for former Commissioner John Harrington “who is also very well respected in the industry . . . and has a long history of service in public safety. I think we have the right people to do this job for the community,” he said. Roe also said that a key connection point during the process will be the Multicultural Advisory Committee (MAC).

The MAC was formed in the summer of 2020 in order to “help strengthen community outreach and foster honest, ongoing and focused conversations between members of the community, police officers and other city staff in Roseville,” according to the City of Roseville website.

At the end of the evaluation period, The Axtell Group will deliver a detailed report highlighting the police departments strengths and areas that need improvement to strengthen the “organizational, structural, programmatic, staffing and policy capacity to efficiently meet the future needs of is community and achieve its goals,” according to the proposal.

The total proposed cost of the project is $79,900 and will take approximately four months to complete.

“We believe there is salary savings in our current budget due to unfilled positions that would cover those costs,” Sheider said to the Council. Sheider told the Council that there are currently three open positions on the RPD. Two left policing and entered the private sector and another resigned due to moving out of state.

The Axtell Group has recently conducted staffing assessments for several metro-area police departments such as Burnsville, Richfield, Hopkins, Maple Grove, and Oakdale.

There was an opportunity for public comment on this matter during the meeting, but no one came forward.

The City Council unanimously approved the motion to authorize city staff to enter into a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with The Axtell Group to conduct the comprehensive evaluation of police resources and operational efficiency. A finalized agreement will come back to the Council for final approval at a future meeting.

More information

Learn more about The Axtell Group online here.

Watch the Dec. 2 City Council meeting presentation about this proposal:

Read the full proposal from The Axtell Group to the Roseville Police Department here.

Read the Roseville Police Department’s Request for Council Action document here.

St. Paul’s Todd Axtell prepares to step down after term of managing crises (Pioneer Press, May 31, 2022)