If you said police work is in Sherral Schmidt’s DNA, you’d be making a giant understatement. Her father worked on a suburban police force for 25 years. Her mother was a part-time deputy sheriff. Her husband is a retired police officer, and her sister is a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. So it’s not surprising that Schmidt is an MPD sergeant and president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis.
But law enforcement was not her first choice.
Although she grew up around law enforcement, her first career choice was in the mental health field, working with adolescents. She received a bachelor’s degree in counseling and intervention from Metropolitan State University. “I really thought that’s where my career path would be,” she said recently.
She maintained an interest in police work, however, and when Minneapolis was recruiting police officers about 25 years ago, she applied. She and her sister trained in the cadet program together. When they completed the program, her sister was hired first. Schmidt was accepted into the department on the next go-round.
She did her field training in the Fifth and Third Precincts. Her first permanent assignment was to the mid watch on the North Side. She “absolutely loved” being a 911 responder. “It’s the core of what we do as police officers – being of service and helping people in difficult circumstances,” she said.
One of the more enjoyable aspects of the job was being able to build relationships with area shop owners and residents. Her training as a counselor gave her an important tool: Listening. “With community policing, you really get to know what’s going on in the neighborhood,” she said. With the Minneapolis force now down to just 575 officers, “cops don’t have time to do that stuff. We just go from call to call to call.”
Schmidt was promoted to sergeant in 1996. Her next assignment was with the juvenile sex trafficking unit as an investigator. The mother of two girls, she faced some heart-wrenching moments that hit close to home. “My youngest daughter was 8 or 9 then,” she recalled. “The youngest victim I encountered was 12.” Schmidt took pride in putting together a strong case against traffickers and being able to help the girls “get away from that lifestyle and out of those situations. It was very gratifying.”
Schmidt is still an active member of the MPD, but her secondary duty is union representative. She replaced Lt. Bob Kroll as president of the Federation in January of this year. It’s a three-year term; she was elected by her fellow officers.
What the Police Federation does
The Police Federation is governed by a board of ten people who are officers, lieutenants and sergeants on the force. One represents the Minneapolis Park Police. The rest work for the MPD; they represent the members of the gun unit, street supervisors, 911 responders and the investigative unit.
Contrary to public perception, the union has no say in who is hired to work for the MPD. That’s up to Chief Medaria Arradondo and his staff. It does, however, negotiate with the mayor and the chief on working contracts.
It also represents officers in disciplinary matters, if the member requests it. (Although union membership is not mandatory, all current MPD officers are members of the union.)
“The police department has a discipline matrix,” Schmidt explained. “If an officer violates a rule, he or she may be subject to a disciplinary action. Depending on where it falls in the matrix, the officer could receive a reprimand or a suspension that could range from ten hours to 60 or more.” In some instances, officers have been fired outright.
Complaints about cops are recorded on what’s known as a “blue card” (a holdover from pre-computer days). If the department investigates the complaint and finds there’s no basis for the complaint, the officer is exonerated. However, because of data practices requirements, the complaint remains on the blue card.
Schmidt gave an example. Early in her career, before they married, she and her husband were patrol partners. They were called to an emergency, but another squad reached the scene before them and called “Code 4” (everything under control). Someone at the scene filed a complaint about her husband, even though they never arrived at the scene of the incident. That complaint stayed on his record until he retired. Sherral was never asked to give a statement.
Not all complaints trigger a disciplinary hearing. When they do, the Federation is ready to advocate for its members. “Nobody would fight harder for cops than Bob
[Kroll],” said Schmidt, who says she’s “a very strong advocate for members’ contractual rights.”
Seeking a balance
Schmidt has had several conversations with Mayor Jacob Frey and Arradondo about the kind of police force they envision. “What do we want from our police?” she asked. “I would rather have more conversations with them [rather than arguing] if we really want to move forward. We all want to feel safe in our communities and in our homes. How do we make a balance? How can we make things better?”
She supports “Rondo’s” quest for an 1,100-member police force, not to create a police state, as some fear, but to be able to get back to community policing. “Our job is not to make the people in the neighborhoods feel uncomfortable. It’s to hold bad characters accountable.”
As a former mental health worker, she’s also in favor of having mental health professionals help police when situations warrant it, but isn’t sure what that looks like. “How do we assess when a mental health professional is needed? Are they going to be available at 3 a.m.? Mental health issues don’t happen only between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.”
Schmidt said she’s open to meet with the chief any time he has a new proposal, such as giving drivers “fix-it” coupons for replacing burnt-out headlights or taillights instead of writing a ticket. She also threw down a challenge to the City Council: “What ideas have you brought to us to consider? Don’t say we’re against reform when you never ask us to be part of the conversation.”
Two years without a contract
The police work under a written contract with the city. Schmidt said, “There’s a lot of misinformation about our contract, that it allows bad cops to keep their jobs.” She pulled out a notebook containing the contract. It’s a standard civil service employment contract that outlines vacation policies as well as spelling out pay scales and city policies.
The MPD’s contract with the City of Minneapolis expired two years ago, and officers have been working without an agreement or pay increase all this time.
Schmidt reminded Frey of this during a recent phone conversation. “It’s getting hard to keep officers on the force,” she said. “They can go to Maple Grove or Bloomington and make $10,000 more a year than they’re getting here.” That, and a general feeling of public distrust of the police makes recruiting difficult. She hopes the mayor’s new budget will include money for incentives, such as training not offered by other police departments, that will make policing in Minneapolis more attractive.
In the future, Schmidt, who holds a master’s degree in police leadership from the University of St. Thomas, would like to pursue her dream job. “It’s always been my dream to retire at 50 and teach,” she said, then shrugged. “I’m still here.”
Since this article was written, Minneapolis Police Department Chief Medaria Arradondo has announced his January retirement, and Mayor Jacob Frey has named Amelia Huffman as interim chief. Huffman, currently deputy chief of professional standards, has been with MPD for 27 years and lives in Uptown. Frey said he will conduct a nationwide search for a new chief; Huffman said she’ll apply for the job.
Below: Police Federation President Sherral Schmidt examined the latest MPD police contract, which expired two years ago. Schmidt keeps track of all active-duty MPD officers via this board in the Federation office at 1811 University Avenue NE. Out of a total force of 575, 282 are 911 responders. At the bottom of the board are the names of 305 officers who have left the department in the last 18 months. (Photos by Cynthia Sowden)
