The Goodhue City Council approved the resignations of the chief, a full-time officer and five part-time officers during a special meeting on Monday.
A Goodhue police car is parked outside City Hall on Aug. 14, 2023, in Goodhue, Minn. The small town will soon be without a police department, an exodus spurred by low pay for the chief and his officers.A small Minnesota city will soon be without its police force after the chief and several other officers all resigned, officials said.
"At this point there's no reason to really talk about pay increases since we no longer have a police force," Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck said at the top of theGoodhue Police Chief Josh Smith and the other officers submitted their resignations last week, the mayor said. Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.on July 26, Smith expressed frustrations in attempting to hire officers and argued that the salary wasn't competitive enough.
Smith said small police departments hire starting at $30 an hour, and that Goodhue lacks other incentives such as signing bonuses. He said his part-time officers were working for the department largely as a "personal favor."that he and other officers left because the chief resigned. Mayor Anderson Buck said Smith and one other full-time officer are staying on through Aug. 24, and that the Goodhue County Sheriff's Office will take over calls and investigations from that point on.
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