Star Tribune
Meet the St. Paul police officer who fills in the public on what’s going on in the city
Sgt. Mike Ernster of the St. Paul police is a nice guy who is often the bearer of bad news.
But the St. Paul native, who grew up in Frogtown and graduated from Cretin High School, is exactly that. Whenever there’s a homicide, an officer-involved shooting or a newsworthy crime in St. Paul, Ernster — the department’s public information officer, commonly called the PIO — is usually the person appearing on camera and talking to reporters.
Eye On St. Paul recently sat down with the affable Ernster, 54, to learn more about him and the demanding job of police spokesperson. This interview was edited for length.
Q: Why law enforcement?
A: I did have that light-bulb moment, sitting in my parents’ basement, wondering what I wanted to do with my career. I was working at a credit union at the time. And I saw all these officers who were coming through the credit union. I liked them. And I started thinking maybe that’s something for me.
I went on some ride-alongs and one day, I just said, that’s it. It took me 2 1⁄2 years to get hired. Back then there were 800 to 1,000 applicants for every opening.
Q: What was it about those ride-alongs?
A: The excitement of the job. I got a glimpse into what they do. And it really intrigued me, whether it was the calls we went on or the different people you deal with every day.
Q: How long have you been a police officer?
A: Twenty-nine years.
Q: Tell me about the different jobs you’ve had as a police officer.
A: I was a patrol officer. I worked afternoon to midnight shift for my first six years. Then I applied for the K9 unit.
Q: How long were you with K9?
A: Eleven years. I’ve been with two different dogs. My first dog was Bert; he ended up retiring because of a neck injury. I got a second dog. At the time, “Toy Story” was out, and my son liked Buzz Lightyear. So, my second dog was named Buzz.
K9 was a great ice-breaker for speaking with people in our community. They come up and want to talk about the dog. But slowly, that talk would transition to what they were experiencing in their neighborhood.
Q: Do you still have the dogs?
A: No, they both passed away. After I went back to the street, I thought, “What do I want to do with my career?” I took the sergeant’s exam, and I was promoted in 2013.
Q: When did you start as a public information officer?
A: 2015. I had expressed an interest in the role.
Q: Why?
A: I thought it would be interesting. It kind of went back to my K9 days. We did a show on Animal Planet called “K9 Cops.” I had a camera crew with me while I interacted with this person who was involved in a shooting. I went to take him into custody and fell down and broke my arm.
Through working with that show, I became somewhat comfortable with [talking to the public]. I thought it was important to show people what K9 handlers did. And I thought working as a PIO would be very similar.
It was not.
Q: How so?
A: Think of an iceberg. What people see of a PIO is what they see poking above the surface. But there’s a very large piece that’s underneath the surface. That’s the tougher part.
There tends to be three big pieces of public information, any time we deal with a crisis: An officer-involved shooting or when an officer may be injured; daily incidents; and then we have things that are happening within the police department that are positive, that we want people to know about.
Q: Is it hard being the bearer of bad news?
A: Yes. That can be a weight of itself. But it’s also very important in the sense that information still needs to come out. Lack of information will always lead to a void that’s going to be filled by some narrative and we need to make sure as a police department that we’re engaged in that conversation.
Q: Do you like the job?
A: I do. I like the busyness. The pace of it is very appealing. Can it be overwhelming? Yes. But on quieter days, I find myself [saying], “Boy, I wish something would happen.”
Q: Do you have kids?
A: I do. A 23-year-old son and a 21-year-old daughter.
Q: Are they in law enforcement?
A: No.
Q: Would you want them to be?
A: I don’t know. It is made for a certain personality. I worked for 19 years before I worked my first day shift. My wife and I were passing in the night for 19 years. Some people say that’s why we’re still married [laughs]. But it can be a grind and the shift work can be really hard.
Q: You don’t have 800 applicants for a job anymore. Why not?
A: I think there are many reasons. From what we’ve seen in law enforcement in the past three years, I think the scrutiny on law enforcement is turning people [away].
Q: But you carry a gun. You have power. Shouldn’t the scrutiny be high?
A: One hundred percent. It’s just thinned out the number of people who want to be involved in it.
Q: How do you change that?
A: You can try to break down what is policing. What do we do to try to educate people? I don’t think there’s anybody that’s gotten to know us that’s walked away from that encounter liking us less.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions out there about what law enforcement is. And we need to bring people in and show them that what you might think happens does not. It’s being transparent and being open.
Q: Any regrets?
A: No.
Q: Have you made a difference?
A: I would hope so. I’ve tried to treat people how I want to be treated. How I’d want my wife or my kids or my parents treated. I always tell officers, if you treat everyone like that, I don’t think you’ll ever have a problem.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
The school said in its lawsuit that both Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning, and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.
The school said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.
The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields and the school said it would.
In June, Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.
The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that May Town Board Chairman John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”
The school said its plans for the May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
