As Kevin Reinke pinned a police badge on his son, it mirrored what his father did for him 37 years ago. Braden Reinke became one of St. Paul’s newest officers Thursday and the third generation in his family to join the department’s ranks.
Kevin Reinke, now retired, remembers asking his father why he never encouraged him to be an officer when he was a kid.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Being a police officer, you have to have that love in your heart for that job. You can’t do it for somebody else,’ ” Reinke said. “And that is so true.”
He took the same approach with Braden Reinke, letting him find his own career path.
The younger Reinke is among 10 new St. Paul officers who graduated from the department’s academy Thursday night. They completed more than 600 hours of training since December and will now begin field training on patrol.
Law enforcement leaders say finding new officers was already difficult and has been more so since a Minneapolis officer killed George Floyd in 2020. St. Paul has, for the first time, dedicated an officer to working on recruiting full-time.
“The men and women who put on the badge and uniform … are the ones who sign up to run in, when literally everyone else is running out,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said at Thursday’s graduation. “It’s no secret that police officers worldwide are being held to account in ways that they never have before. It’s no secret that this job is demanding more today than it ever has before. And it’s no secret that fewer and fewer people are finding themselves standing up to that call today than we’ve ever seen ever before. The only thing harder than being a police officer … may be signing up to be a St. Paul police officer because of that high standard that we always hold ourselves to.”
Reinke family
Ed Steenberg, president of the St. Paul Police Historical Society, said he’s only found one other third-generation St. Paul police family in his research, the Renteria-Longbehn family. There are more instances of two generations serving in St. Paul, along with siblings.
Braden Reinke, 24, never knew his St. Paul police officer grandfather, who died in 1995.
While many people say they pursue a career in law enforcement to help people, Braden Reinke said it goes beyond that: “It’s being there for people when they’re going through their worst days.”
Braden Reinke graduated from Minnesota State University Mankato with a degree in law enforcement and a minor in psychology. He joined the Army Reserves his junior year of college and is part of the military police. He was deployed to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin in 2021 for Operation Allies Welcome, which resettled Afghani people in America who’d worked alongside the U.S. during the war there.
Kevin Reinke’s father, Gus Reinke, served in World War II as a radioman aboard an aircraft carrier escort ship in the U.S. Navy. When he returned to St. Paul, he joined the city’s police department in 1949.
Gus Reinke didn’t talk much about the war or his job, and he wasn’t one to show his emotions — he was part of the stoic “Greatest Generation,” Kevin Reinke said.
One of the only times that Kevin Reinke remembers seeing his dad with a true smile was when he became a police officer in 1986 and Gus Reinke pinned the police badge on his uniform. The elder Reinke retired in 1982 and his son received the same badge number he had worn — 401.
Kevin Reinke was allowed to pin badge No. 401 on his son Thursday, but it was only for the ceremony because it belongs to another officer. Braden Reinke can request the badge number when the other officer retires, his father said.
Kevin Reinke said his son didn’t waiver in his path to becoming an officer, but he asked Braden if he was sure as he saw public support for policing decline. He’s proud of his son and also worries for him, as his own parents did.
“I want him to do good, I want him to be safe,” said Reinke, who retired as a St. Paul sergeant eight years ago and was previously the department’s historian. “Law enforcement is a lot different than when my dad was a street cop and then, of course, it’s different than when I was a street cop. So I told him, ‘Learn fast. Listen to your field-training officer.’ ”
From academy to field training
St. Paul’s 10 new officers begin four months of continued training on patrol with St. Paul officers who are certified field-training officers, said Sgt. Chelsey Siverling, who oversees the academy. In the fifth month, the department’s lead field training officer will accompany each of the new officers on patrol to ensure they’re ready to work on their own.
Their 16-week academy included training in community policing, criminal investigations and responding to people in crisis, Siverling said. They had to pass firearms and physical fitness testing.
Before the academy they graduated from college programs and completed state certification to become licensed peace officers.
Some join the St. Paul department with experience, including Dean Bauers, who was a Duluth officer for nearly 10 years.
He also comes from a law enforcement family — his mother, Anne Peterson, is a retired University of Minnesota Duluth police chief; his father, Dennin Bauers was a St. Paul officer for about a year before becoming a Duluth officer; his brother, Bryan Bauers is a Minnesota State Patrol trooper in Duluth. Dennin Bauers died in 2006, after he was struck by a puck during a hockey game between fathers and sons.
Peterson pinned Dean Bauers’ new badge on him Thursday, and Bryan Bauers was by their side.
Continued recruiting efforts
The department is continuing to try to fill positions that are open because of officers retiring or otherwise leaving. St. Paul’s authorized strength is 619 officers and, with the 10 newest officers, there will be 572, according to the department.
With federal funding and department savings, St. Paul held two police academies last year and is planning the same for this year.
“We’ve been pleased with how the two academies in 2022 and 2023 have supported police department staffing and operations,” said Kamal Baker, Carter’s spokesman. He said the mayor’s office looks “forward to exploring the feasibility of multiple academies in upcoming and future budget discussions.”
Sgt. Kou Yang, the department’s recruiter, said a challenge is that policing is generally “not viewed as a favorable job anymore.” St. Paul police have been trying to counter that view by sharing officers’ personal and professional stories on social media to show the department “wants them to bring their unique experiences and talents to work with us,” said Alyssa Arcand, a department spokeswoman.
Here’s a promotional video the department released in November:
Yang has his work cut out for him with recruiting. When the St. Paul police department was hiring in 2014, 794 people applied. In 2018, it was down to 314. There were 327 applicants in 2020, but then 191 in 2021 and 253 last year. He’s seen signs of progress, with more people applying for the academy that starts next month.
Yang’s recruitment has primarily focused on students in law enforcement programs at colleges and universities. When Yang and other St. Paul officers recently visited Minnesota State University Moorhead, he said they talked to 37 law enforcement students and only two didn’t already have jobs lined up.
He’s also making sure that high school students know about opportunities such as the Law Enforcement Career Path Academy, which the police department launched with AmeriCorps in 2017. It pays for students to get their first six credits at Century College while they are paid employees at the police department doing community outreach, Yang said.
