Police Department  130 City Hall  350 S. 5th St.

 Minneapolis, MN 55415

News Release
Contact:
Sgt. Jesse Garcia III 612-919-9023 jesse.garcia@ci.minneapolis.mn.us
Sgt. William Palmer 612-919-9362 william.palmer@ci.minneapolis.mn.us
TO PROTECT WITH COURAGE / TO SERVE WITH COMPASSION

Chief Dolan announces changes to MPD Command

Staff
August 31, 2009 (MINNEAPOLIS) Chief Tim Dolan proudly announces new
appointments and changes within his command staff effective September 1st, 2009.
These changes are the result of the retirement of Deputy Chief Valerie Wurster who
has commanded the Investigations Bureau since 2006.

Retiring Deputy Chief of Investigations Valerie Wurster began her career with the
MPD as a patrol officer in April of 1981 after 3 years of service with the Detroit Police
Department. She was promoted to Sergeant in 1986 and served as the Assistant to
Chief Anthony Bouza, in the Department’s Business and Technology Unit and in the
Juvenile Unit. In 1996 she was promoted as the Department’s first African American
female lieutenant and served as the head of the Domestic Assault Unit, as a sector
lieutenant in the Third Precinct and later as the commander of Internal Affairs. In
2004 she was appointed as the Department’s first African American female inspector
and was the commander of the Second Precinct. In 2006 she attained the position of
Deputy Chief, again as the first African American woman to hold that post.

Since 2006 she has commanded the Investigations Bureau which oversees all
investigations, forensics and support services for the MPD. Deputy Chief Wurster
serves on the boards of a number of private non-profit boards and works with
community based agencies to resolve issues with families and violence. She is
currently the board chair for Asian Women United of Minnesota. Deputy Chief
Wurster is a graduate of Metropolitan State University and the Senior Management
Institute for Police. She is the recent recipient of the Minnesota Association of
Women Police Heritage Award.
Deputy Chief Robert Allen will be moving from command of the Patrol Bureau to head
the Investigations Bureau. He will be responsible for all investigations, forensics and
support services for the Department.

Deputy Chief Allen joined the Minneapolis Police Department in early 1989 as a cadet
and was promoted to patrol officer in December 1989. As a patrol officer he served
in Fifth Precinct patrol. He was promoted to sergeant in 1995 and served in various
capacities including the Juvenile Division and SAFE, from which he developed the
CODEFOR citywide crime reduction strategy. He was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant in 1999 and commanded the Third Precinct Community Response Team
and worked as a sector lieutenant in the Third Precinct. In July 2001 he was
appointed as the Inspector of the First Precinct and was instrumental in the
development of the downtown business community SafeZone partnership. In April of
2006 he was appointed as a Deputy Chief and has commanded the Patrol Bureau
which encompasses all 911 response and emergency services units. Deputy Chief
Allen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Beloit College. He is a graduate of
the Senior Management Institute for Police and the Southern Police Institute (SPI) at
the University of Louisville where he now teaches Incident Management and Patrol
Operations for SPI’s Command Officers Development Course.

Deputy Chief Allen often consults with other police agencies in developing crime
reduction strategies. Recently he has worked with the Jamaica Constabulary Force in
developing crime analysis and response strategies for neighborhoods in the Kingston
area. He has also traveled to Israel to work with the national police in order to
develop better protocols for terrorist incident response.
Inspector Janeé Harteau has been appointed as a Deputy Chief and will be taking
over the Patrol Bureau from Deputy Chief Allen. She previously served as the
Inspector commanding the First Precinct. As the Patrol Bureau commander she will
be responsible for all of the MPD’s 911 response personnel and the department’s
emergency services units.

Deputy Chief Janeé Harteau joined the MPD in February of 1987 as a patrol officer
and worked in the Third and Fourth Precincts. In 1998 she was promoted to
sergeant and was assigned to the Narcotics, Organized Crime and Gang Units. In
2004 she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and commanded the Crime Lab, the
Licensing Unit and was a sector lieutenant in the First Precinct. In April of 2006 she
was appointed as the Inspector of the First Precinct where she has worked to
formalize the SafeZone collaborative and served as the president of its board of
directors until July of this year. As the First Precinct Inspector she has long been a
proponent of strong public/private partnerships to strengthen public safety
downtown. Among those partnerships was the creation of the Block E station, the
Fusion center and the Downtown Courtwatch program for which the MPD has won an
international community policing award.

Deputy Chief Harteau holds a bachelor’s degree in Police Science and a Master of
Arts in Public Safety both from St. Mary’s University of MN. Currently she trains law
enforcement leaders for the Northwestern University’s Center for Public Safety and is
on the faculty for the St. Mary’s University of MN School of Police Science. She is a
graduate of the Senior Management Institute of Police and the Northwestern
University Center for Public Safety’s Police and Command Staff School where she was
the Franklin Kreml Leadership Award winner in 2005.
Inspector Kristine Arneson will be moving from the Fifth Precinct Inspector to the
Inspector for the First Precinct which encompasses downtown Minneapolis.

Inspector Kristine Arneson began with the MPD as a patrol officer in June of 1986
after a year of experience in the Savage, MN Police Department. As a patrol officer
she worked in 5th Precinct patrol, the Traffic Unit, the Background Investigations Unit,
and in the Fourth Precinct on the department’s first community policing team. In
November of 1990 she was promoted to the rank of sergeant where she worked in
the Second Precinct as a street supervisor, the Fifth Precinct as a supervisor of the
Community Response Team and as the Administrative Assistant to Chiefs Laux and
Olson. Later she was an investigator in the Homicide Unit. In 1998 she was
promoted to the rank of lieutenant where she served in the Third Precinct as a sector
lieutenant and as the commander of Third Precinct Community Response Team. She
is also the former commander of the Codefor Unit.

In May of 2004 she was detailed as the Inspector in the Fifth Precinct and was
appointed permanently to the position in June of 2005. In 2006 she was detailed as
the Deputy Chief of Investigations for several months. While she commanded the
Fifth Precinct she was instrumental in the development of the Misdemeanor Domestic
Violence Response Project. Inspector Arneson holds a bachelor’s degree from
Metropolitan State University in Criminal Justice and is a Master’s candidate this fall
at St. Thomas University in Police Leadership. She is a graduate of the FBI’s
National Academy and of the Senior Management Institute for Police. In the past she
has been active in both the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) and
the Minnesota Association of Women Police (MAWP) and is a past Officer of the Year
for that organization. She has also been recognized by the IAWP with their
Leadership and Community Service awards.
Lieutenant Eddie Frizell has been appointed as the Inspector of the MPD’s Fifth
Precinct which encompasses the southwest region of the city.

Inspector Eddie Frizell began his career with the MPD as a cadet in July 1993 and
was promoted to patrol officer in January of 1994. He served as a patrol officer in
the Third Precinct patrol and Community Response Team and later in the Recruitment
Unit and the First Precinct Community Response Team before being promoted to
sergeant in 2000. As a sergeant he served in the Domestic Assault Unit and the
Internal Affairs Unit as an investigator and as a patrol supervisor in the Fourth
Precinct. He also served as the Mediation Compliance Sergeant and as a part-time
supervisor in the Mounted Patrol and as a SWAT Hostage Negotiator. In 2007 he was
promoted to lieutenant and served in the Fifth Precinct as a sector lieutenant and at
the Police Academy as the Pre-Service commander. He was a detailed Captain and
Mobile Field Force Division commander during the Republican National Convention.

Inspector Frizell has served in the MN Army National Guard for over 20 years and
holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and is a graduate of the Army’s Command and
General Staff College (ILE). He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University
of Iowa and a Masters Degree from Augsburg College. He is a graduate of the FBI
National Academy and the Senior Management Institute for Police.

The PIO contact for this release is Sgt. William Palmer.

###