Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell — who in the past year has both clashed with the state’s most powerful police union and worked hard to debate police culture in the wake of the Philando Castile shooting — told city officials this week that he hopes to leave his job by the end of the year.
Schnell, who has been chief for about 3 1/2 years, said he does not have another job lined up, but there were “a couple things I’m interested in pursuing,” on which he would not elaborate.
But it won’t be a police job: Schnell, 55, said he intends to leave law enforcement. He did not say why he was choosing to leave this year; originally Schnell said he would stay for three to five years.
“The role of police chief is a unique job — you have an obligation to the department, to your bosses, and a big obligation to the community,” Schnell said.
Over the past year, that’s been a difficult balance.
“It may not always be popular to create connections with groups or organizations that have been critical of police, but in the role as police chief, you have to engage in those difficult conversations on some level,” Schnell said, adding that “recognizing the challenges officers face at the same time as being responsive to the community you serve may at some times put you at odds with the culture.”
Former Mayor Bob Cardinal said Schnell was respected but “had a strong interest in Black Lives Matter issues and didn’t always see eye to eye with his officers.”
Said Maplewood city manager Melinda Coleman: “Being able to have those tough conversations, that’s what I respect about him the most. … As long as he wants to be here, we want him here.”
“I admire the cops, the people who work in policing,” Schnell said. “I’m going to miss it. It’s hard to leave. It becomes so much a part of who you are.”
Maplewood Mayor Nora Slawik said she was disappointed Schnell is leaving: “He’s innovative, a problem solver, a proponent of community policing and race and equity issues.”
But Slawik noted that Schnell can now draw on his pension, so it didn’t surprise her or others that he was stepping away — “and then you don’t have all the headaches of unions, and that day-to-day stuff … the heavy responsibilities as director of public safety.
“If you can take your (pension) and get another job, why not?”
Schnell started his career in law enforcement as a sheriff’s deputy in Carver County in 1992. For many years, he worked for the St. Paul police department and was police chief in Hastings before becoming Maplewood’s chief in July 2013.
In recent years, he has often testified at the Legislature as a representative of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.
“As a council we recognized Schnell’s influence at the legislature, and the ability to use his expertise to further important issues, like body cameras,” added Slawik, a former state legislator. “It benefited Maplewood and really the whole state in terms of influencing policy.”
Sean Gormley, executive director of Law Enforcement Labor Services — the officers’ union that covers Maplewood and most rural and suburban departments in the state — said: “I got nothing bad to say about him. Paul had a job to do and he did it well.”
But during his tenure, Schnell has clashed with the police union — most publicly about his new body camera policy.
The union is suing Maplewood in Ramsey County District Court over the policy, which has been in effect since November.
The union is objecting, in part, to a section of the policy governing when officers can review body camera footage relating to “critical incidents,” in which they caused great bodily harm or death.
The policy states that an officer needs permission from three entities — the police chief, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and whoever the prosecutorial agency would be — to look at footage before giving a statement. Such instances would be rare, given the fact that the BCA has come out against allowing officers “prior review” in cases they investigate.
Slawik recalls calling Schnell the day after the Castile shooting in nearby Falcon Heights and asking, “What are we going to do?”
“This could happen anywhere,” she remembers Schnell saying.
Within weeks, Schnell created a work group of Maplewood citizens focused on the department’s “use of force” policies. He also attained a $75,000 grant from the St. Paul Foundation to do race and equity work in recruitment and community policing.
So far the work group has met over a dozen times, and is expected to wrap up with recommendations for the department by the end of the year.
The process of finding a new chief can take months, and Schnell said he wanted to give the city enough time to find one by the end of the year. Maplewood’s Civil Service Commission will meet Monday to vote on the job posting and recruitment process.
Sarah Horner contributed to this report.