Hobbs said the city currently spends just $125,000 annually on training for public safety officials and noted that represents less than 0.4 percent of the total funding the departments collectively receive — about $35 million per year.
He and Hansen recommended the city earmark an additional $100,000 to $150,000 for training next year.
Hobbs said the current training budget doesn't go far, considering that it's spread to serve about 340 public safety workers.
"We feel that's slightly inadequate, and being that we don't have fully staffed fire and police departments, I think one way to kind of close that gap for efficiency is by providing more training so that our public servants are better equipped. Oftentimes they run into people who are having the worst day of their lives, and you certainly don't want to have someone who's ill-equipped, brand-new, without the proper skills, tools and abilities to provide public safety," he said.
Hansen chimed in, saying: "I'm really hoping that we're able to build upon some of the consistent racial bias training and bias testing, and to be able to use those findings to determine and help with our hiring, performance evaluations and decisions about where we deploy our officers."
In particular, Hansen said she wants the city to focus on how better to serve segments of the public that are sometimes marginalized, including people of color, individuals with different sexual orientations, those with mental health issues and non-native English speakers.
"Our police and firefighters are trained a lot on how to manage burning buildings, car accidents, people with guns or knives — those really horrible situations. But we don't want to forget and we want to spend just as much money on how we learn to de-escalate situations or properly handle mental illnesses, so that we can help continue to grow the relationships that our police and fire are building within the community." Hansen said.
Hansen said conflicts involving public safety officers, past and present throughout the nation, have underscored the importance of proper training and said it seemed appropriate to make a request for additional resources as Duluth shapes its budget for the coming year.
Hobbs said he has had passing conversations with Mayor Emily Larson about his desire to increase public safety training.
"I would say she's not opposed to it by any means. I think she wants to have the conversation. I think it's the appropriate time, and given national events currently, it makes it even more sensitive," he said.
For her part, Larson said she's willing to consider the request.
"I had a phone conversation with Noah about it, and I offered to sit down with him, but he has not taken me up on that yet," she said.
Larson noted that both the fire and police departments are under new leadership. She said: "We've hired two outstanding chiefs who have a very strong pulse on what is required for their departments, and I trust their judgment as we will be shaping our first budget together this year."
"We have looked at all sorts of needs for those departments, including training," she said.
But Larson gives the city's public safety workers high marks.
"Our quality of services ranks incredibly high when you look at our community survey. The relationships we have with the community, the trust people feel about our public safety — both police and fire — speaks to the fact that I think that while we use our training dollars efficiently, we use them very, very well," Larson said.
Hansen contends additional training will only enhance city services.
"Just like any organization, training is part of what you want to do so you're bringing your best to each day," she said.
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