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Council OKs cops for New Orleans, haltingly Posted on Wed, Sep. 14, 2005 Council OKs cops for New Orleans, haltingly Questions about volunteer deployment irk polfce chief BY 7ASON Ht]pPTN and E{U�EIV ROSARIO Pioneer Press Page 1 of 2 Hours after a contingent of 80 Twin Cities police officers left Wednesday to help out in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, the St. Paul City Council had second thoughts about sending along 22 members of the city's force. The City Council eventually approved the move but not without raising red flags and irritating St. Paul's police chief. Council Member Dave Thune told his coiieagues that peopie in St. Paul needed protection, too. He said he alsa was worried about putting police in harm's way — and what it might cost the city. I f St. Paul officers are hurt in the line of duty, for instance, the city would be liable for their worker's compensation payments. Police Chief Jahn Harrington appeared irked by several questions from council members, including whether the city would be liable if an officer got sued for helping in the relief effort (answer: no) and whether the Police Department would need to pay overtime to officers here to cover missed shifts (also no). "r think we have a couple people that don't want to help New Orleans," Harrington said outside council chambers. "Every other state and every other city has done this." Thune said he was frustrated by a multitude of government failures that compounded the disaster and the need to send St. Paul officers, but ultimately he joined five of his colleagues in voting in favor of sending the officers. The seventh councii member, Dan Bostrom, a retired St. Paul police officer, was not at the meeting. Harrington defended St. Paul's Involvement, saying that going to New Orleans was the right thing to do and that one day St. Paul might need similar help. "1 think we need to help the people in Louisiana that can't help themselves," he said Earlier Wednesday, armed with weapons, supplies and loads of goodwill, an 80-member detail of Twin Cities police officers left to help their counterparts in New Orleans keep the peace and assist in rescue and possibly body recovery efforts. "We received a call — thatan officer needs help in New Orleans — and if you wear a badge, you want to respond to that officer," said Minneapolis Assistant Police Chief Tim Do�3n, using the common cop distress signal as a metaphor for the city's commitment to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. I n addition to 22 officers from St. Paul, there are 21 from Minneapolis, as well as representatives from Ramsey County, Maplewood, Roseville and Bloomington. The group is expected to arrive by noon Friday, and the volunteers will summarily be sworn in as peace officers in New Orleans and Louisiana. The Minnesotans wil! be under the command of Minneapolis Police Lt. Otto Wagenpfeil, a veteran cop who also se�ves as the police department's homeland security liaison. "We're theirs," Wagenpfeil said of the New Orleans Police Department's Tacticai Division. "Checking houses, looking for victims, doing street patrol, whatever they need ... even to let them get some sleep." Wagenpfeil also has a personal connection to the Big Easy: He's a New Orleans native and former paramedic there whose elderly mother, a nursing home resident, underwent heart-related surgery just days before the hurricane struck the city on Aug. 29. She was among the thousands evacuated and being cared for at an outlying medical facility. He said all volunteers, who are expected back in the Twin Cities on Oct. 'I, have received shots to guard against hepatitis and other maladies and wiil make contact with a medical contingent of doctors, nurses, paramedics and psychologists already there from Minnesota ]n i�a:;'� x4�tiw��. ��:nti i�i�:�.c:«��.� �r,1sJr'p�u�s�:tia��}rc�sr�i�f k3�� I oca Ir ] 3 i� � i�7�. hirn�:'lt:i�7�1 a��=c ontci��M�a�l ti I cs... �r�.? llr �C��