City of Eden Prairie Blogs

Neal Johnson and an Open (unlimited number of dogs) Team

Well, I’ve stayed away from the subject so far this year, but I needed to feed the fix of a reader who said he missed the sled dog action from last year. Also, there is a school project in Sheryl Cater’s class at Eden Lake Elementary to follow the Iditarod, and the John Beargrease Race started in Duluth yesterday, so here’s the latest on the local MN front:

Our first (and possibly our only if this weather continues) race of the season was the Third Crossing Rendezvous in Frazee MN this past weekend. Complete coverage of the race can be found in the Frazee Forum. It was very warm, but a great weekend. Both my girls raced as well as my brother to make itr a family event.

Amy finishing her first 4 dog pro race

My brother Tom starting out in the Skijor Race

Note “Hank” and “Wings” digging in!

Rob Ramsay, Yellowknife, Northwest Terr. Canada bringing in his 6 dog team. We met the Ramsays at the World Championships in Dawson City last year.

Sleddog raceing has been a great winter activity for our family and it’s great to see the schools exposing it to kids. Anyone interested in learning more check out Sled Dog Central - a great resource!

In case anyone wants a little deeper look at my perspective on behavior and law enforcement, the Eden Prairie News ran a editorial I wrote. Check it out here if you are interested

Law enforcement is often a very complicated and confusing operation. Every day you find issues in the news about how, when, where and why we carry out our responsibilities. The topic of immigration issues and enforcement has received a lot of attention lately. The Governor has been in the press quite a bit expressing directions he would like to pursue to address the issues.

It’s tough to address these very complicated issues in the very simple and limited space of the blog forum, but if I were to try and convey only one point, it would be that people’s behavior is the foundation of the who, what, where, when, why and how behind our enforcement efforts. When there is illegal behavior or behavior that jeopardizes public safety and the freedom rights of others, our mission is to intervene.

The next biggest issue we have to deal with, after we get involved, is accurate identification of those whose behavior we are dealing with.

Behavior, Identification, in that order. There are many variables to deal with and some arguments that this isn’t always the order. For instance age is a factor that some times comes first. There are statutes that have an aspect of a persons identity, their age, as an element of the illegal behavior. It is not illegal for a 21 year old to drink responsibly, but it is for a juvenile. But that classification is the exception.

So read the information regarding immigration and become informed of the issues, but I assure you that the driving force of when we take action is based on a person’s behavior.