Front Page - Dolan knows the Northside - Dolan knows the Northside

    Dolan, a 23-year Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) veteran, grew up on the Northside and his parents Jack and Irene (now deceased) were “proud Northsiders.” He’s the oldest of five boys and they lived on 25th and 6th Streets — in the same house that his mother grew up in. When Tim was 18 the family moved to 29th and Xerxes. Dolan attended St. Phillips School and then De La Salle High School where he graduated in 1973. At St. Thomas College he got his B.A. in sociology in 1977 and his Masters degree in public administration in 1981. 

    He was a good kid; played football, baseball, hockey and tennis on through college. His first job was as a paper boy with a route stretching from Broadway to 26th to Washington to Emerson. He did his job so well he got great perks for it — free doughnuts and burgers from various restaurants when he delivered the paper. He says, “I never had trouble getting a sub when I needed one.”

    He was an all-American boy, but he knows what it’s like to get into trouble as a youth. “There’s always peer pressure” he says, and it got the better of him. Hanging out with a group of kids during St. Philips middle school years he set fire to a mailbox. The mail box belonged to a group of nuns and contained their Christmas mail — and his dad worked for the Post Office. “I was not a ‘favorite’ around the neighborhood after that,” he says. What got him out of trouble and back on track was when he really started focusing on sports and worked at the Nicollet Tennis Center. A number of people helped him, including a St. Philips priest (a Holocaust survivor) who was “pretty strict and took a big interest in boys with problems.” Coaches, his dad included, played a big influence on him. And there were many people at after-school programs and drop-in centers [in the 1970s] to keep kids out of trouble. He truly appreciated all those mentors and programs and says, “Today so many youth programs come and go, so it’s hard to keep a stable community environment for kids.”

    Dolan says there wasn’t anything in particular growing up on the Northside that influenced him to become a cop and that he didn’t “have any big-time positive relationships with cops.” Yet during his youth two cops coached him in football at Farview Park, his godfather was a cop, and his uncle was in the FBI. He says he really didn’t think about becoming a cop until graduating from college when, “I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.”

    He began as a probation officer in the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department, where he got to know Minneapolis cops and decided to apply for a MPD uniform position. They sent him to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension academy, then to Peace Officers Standards & Training. He started patrol on the Southside at the 3rd Precinct, and was then brought downtown by Chief Tony Bouza for research and development writing policy.

    Dolan proved himself and quickly moved up the ranks. He became a 5th Precinct sergeant, then a 3rd Precinct lieutenant, then transferred to narcotics. “I’d always been bounced around, transferred by the department, but I finally decided to ask for an inspector position at the 4th Precinct [covering Camden]. In all the years at the MPD it was the only job I ever asked for,” he said. He spent five years at the 4th Precinct and was then called downtown by Police Chief Bob Olson to be deputy chief (where Dolan’s been for three years). When he was called for that interview he had been on vacation and literally ran to the interview with “holy jeans” and dirty t-shirt. He’s humble in saying, “I really had no experience, but Olson gave me a chance.” McManus became police chief and he made Dolan assistant chief. “The whole thing fell into place —timing is everything,” he says.

    In terms of how experiences formed his view of Minneapolis policing, Dolan says, “Every job teaches you something about yourself and policing, and working with community and partners.” And some experiences really influenced him, “The DMZ [clothing store on Broadway robbery where the owner was killed] was hard, and the Kevin Bruer shooting [11-year-old boy killed by a stray bullet at Cottage Park] was the saddest. Then we had three cops shot…and every year’s marked by some huge incident — you survive, become a little stronger and form relationships with community. And it’s more of the same with the chief job — something that’s not easy to deal with — it’s between a rock and a hard place figuring out how to deal with those issues.” He was also affected by the peak of gang violence, the Jacob Wetterling case (when he was with the BCA), the “plunger incident,” and the recent Hiawatha shooting of an unarmed guy. “You learn a lot,” he says.                           

    We’re all familiar with the increase in teen crime, and Dolan contributes it to “Disconnected youth; we can’t turn our backs on them, we need programming and activities. We need to make sure that kids stay connected — in sports, music or something, and keep them in school.” He says, “Chronic truants were over 12,000 last year, and that’s way too much.” He worked with Minneapolis School Superintendent Green on a citywide truancy program and got good results. “Youth curfew crime has been decreasing every month this year. And we’re charging the ones in violent crime who’ve been getting off. Violent crime is decreasing, we’ve got good stats…we’re not out of the woods, but hopefully the trend will continue.”

    Dolan says the most pressing crime and safety issues in Camden are “more livability than violent crime.” He notes there are some narcotics sales problems, but more property crimes. His biggest beef is with chronic offenders, “They get out for good behavior and then go back to the same neighborhood and get back into drugs and go right back into crime.” 

    He also wants to continue the effort to enhance community oriented policing with the Safe City Program and 83 neighborhood plans (to put in priorities and measures based on 6-8 main plans for their neighborhoods) and then present an overall plan. He’s gonna push sectors to work with communities on this effort.

    He knows folks want more cops on the street —and the addition of 80 new city officers will impact staffing levels in the 4th Precinct. Dolan says there’ll be 40 new cops this year and 40 next for the entire city — above attrition. “I want to be proactive versus reactive — and increase investigation to put people away and keep them away — and still see more uniforms and more squads.” Dolan says, “Out of 80 officers, 20 will go into investigations (to solve crimes) and 60 uniformed officers will be evenly distributed around the precincts — so about 12-15 more uniformed officers for the Northside.”

    The Minneapolis School Board recently voted to lease the Hamilton School site (42nd and Dupont) to the City to house the Minneapolis Police Training Academy, STOP Unit, Police Athletic League, SAFE and north area housing inspectors. Dolan says, “I’m really excited about this, the academy has been at Fort Snelling, now we’ll have cadets in blue suits jogging around the neighborhood. It’ll be a great presence, squads will be there all day long.” There were some questions about the city taking responsibility for the playground but Dolan is adamant about keeping it, “It’ll be a safe place for kids to play, I want cops interacting with kids on the playground and field.” He says the department will lease the site for four-five years, then the city “might sell it for a good price” to the police department. He says, “It has everything we need — lockers, classrooms, all the facilities.” 

    Perception has always been an issue with the MPD. While at the 4th Precinct Dolan was a regular contributor to the Camden News, giving police activity updates and insight into the productive work that the police were doing. A big piece of Dolan’s plan is communicating with the community. He says he’s going to work with precinct inspectors to “push communication…perhaps through a blog.”

    For Camden crime prevention and public safety, Dolan says to residents, “Keep your eyes and ears open…there are only 800 cops in the city, and 99 percent of burglars were caught because citizens called 911 to report it.” He says don’t give up hope. Get to know your neighborhood kids by name. “I recall when someone called [911] to report a neighbor kid causing trouble and the dispatcher asked what the kid’s name was and the caller said, ‘I don’t know.’” He emphasizes, “Kids are less likely to cause trouble when neighbors know their names.”

    If he had a magic wand to solve crime on the Northside Dolan says, “Make sure every kid is going to school — within five years we’d have very little crime.” He added more homeownership will also solve crime in Minneapolis.

    When asked what it’s like being chief, Dolan says, “The sense of responsibility and representing the department positively is very important and even more intense. Everything I do now is ‘on the record.’ It is also very exciting. I think we are going to do very well.”