Roseville Seeks Federal Police Grant

The city of Roseville is seeking a federal grant that would enable the Police Department to hire and deploy two patrol officers at Rosedale Center.

Roseville police are seeking the competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to address what the department says has been increased crime at Rosedale, one of the Twin Cities’ most prominent regional shopping malls. 

In staff report, the Police Department said it has approached Rosedale’s management in recent years several times -with no success--to request financial support to deploy an officer or officers to patrol in the mall. The department said it also renewed a similar request earlier this month.

While Rosedale’s management has that latest request under advisement, the Police Department  said it doesn’t expect the mall to respond for some time. That’s why it is now pursuing the federal grant, police officials said.

The Police Department is requesting federal funds to hire two patrol officers for three years.  If it wins that request, the city would be obliged to fund the two additional patrol positions for one year following the end of the three-year federal  grant period.   

Roseville Police Chief Rick Mathwig said the federal funds for two officers would amount to about $400,000 in salary and benefits over three years.

He said the city won’t know for several months whether it will win a grant.   If the federal government awards Roseville a grant, the City Council will have to vote to accept it, Mathwig said.