On Friday afternoon the St. Paul Police Department released a list of law-enforcement agencies that have agreed to participate in Republican National Convention security efforts. The numbers looked rosy: 28 agencies had signed off on joint-powers agreements and agreed to contribute 1,819 officers to the cause. The SPPD claimed that an additional 1,118 cops were also pledged for RNC duty, though the formal agreements were still in the works.

But multiple discrepancies in those figures are now becoming apparent, and two such cases unearthed by the Minnesota Independent appear to subtract nearly 200 cops from the ranks of the 1,819 presented as done deals by the SPPD last Friday.

As I reported yesterday, the Metro Gang Strike Force — which was listed as contributing 40 officers and having signed off on a joint-powers agreement (JPA) — has not reached any such agreement with the SPPD. In fact the agency only has 33 officers currently, and officials there lack the authority to sign off on such a power-sharing arrangement.

Now the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) is taking issue with the SPPD’s claim that it will contribute 150 officers to the security cause. The Minnesota Board of Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) has confirmed to MnIndy that the DOC only has seven licensed officers, all of whom are assigned to the fugitive apprehension unit.

What’s more, no joint-powers agreement has been reached between the two agencies, as claimed by the SPPD. "There have been conversations," says Shari Burt, the DOC’s communications director. "We are supportive of the St. Paul Police Department. We have not yet signed a joint-powers agreement simply because we are waiting to hear back from the p.d. as to how we can serve their needs." (The Pioneer Press wrote about DOC’s denial that it had signed a JPA in today’s paper.)

SPPD spokesman Tom Walsh insists that a contract for 150 workers is in place — although it’s not a joint-powers agreement. "It’s essentially a joint-powers agreement," he says. The bottom line, however, appears to be that an agency with seven licensed officers can’t send 150.

As MnIndy first reported on Thursday, St. Paul is struggling to recruit the 3,000 to 4,000 officers deemed necessary to staff RNC security efforts. Some law enforcement agencies have been hesitant to sign off on JPAs owing to financial concerns, particularly whether there is sufficient insurance coverage available to cover any legal costs stemming from the RNC.

According to the POST Board, there are currently 10,300 licensed officers throughout Minnesota, representing 472 law-enforcement agencies. In other words, the four-day gathering in St. Paul will require more than a third of all cops in the state.

At a press conference yesterday, Assistant Police Chief Matt Bostrom, who is overseeing RNC security efforts, assured reporters that preparations are ahead of schedule. "Contrary to some of the reports that are out there, things are going remarkably well," he said.

But on Thursday afternoon, Bostrom wrote an email to the heads of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association and the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association asking for additional volunteers for security efforts. He held out the possibility that officers from other departments could volunteer on the basis of providing "mutual aid" to St. Paul for a "day or two." Such agreements between police departments are typically invoked during large-scale events that require outside personnel, like the Super Bowl or natural disasters. Bostrom asked for a tally of how many additional officers might be available through such agreement by today, when he’ll be meeting with Gov. Tim Pawlenty to talk about convention preparedness.

Walsh declines to provide a figure for how many more cops have been recruited through this effort. "That number is changing," he says. "To give you a number now wouldn’t be the same number that we would have at three o’clock this afternoon."

The mutual-aid proposal also raises the question of who will pick up the tab for the salaries of the officers assigned to the RNC. According to Dave Titus, president of the St. Paul Police Federation, typically the city dispersing officers to help with the event would have to eat those personnel costs. "If we send cops to Minneapolis we’re paying for our cops to go to Minneapolis," he says. "Why are departments going to say we’ll send you five officers through mutual aid if they’re a department that’s refused to sign the joint-powers agreement?"

But Walsh says the SPPD intends to reimburse agencies for any salary costs, noting that there is $50 million in federal money available to cover RNC security expenses. "Because there is a budget here for the event, we envision the City of St. Paul would be paying reimbursement," he says. "I don’t think that’s always what happens."

On Monday Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher sent a letter to St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington raising numerous concerns about security preparations. He questioned whether there will be sufficient cops on hand to handle the expected crowds of protesters and whether mutual-aid agreements will allow for proper planning and training prior to the gathering.

"We can’t assume that Minnesota nice will prevail for the convention," says Fletcher, who traveled to Seattle with Harrington and Bostrom in September to find out what lessons law-enforcement officers had learned from the 1999 anti-WTO "Battle of Seattle." "A majority of the the anarchists that will be in St. Paul on September 1 will be coming from other cities throughout the country. We have to assume, for purposes of planning, that they have the potential to carry out at least some of their threats."

Fletcher argues that the window for additional recruitment efforts is quickly closing. "I still think there are two weeks during which new officers could be recruited from around Minnesota and from neighboring states," he says. "It’s always far easier to ratchet down your resources than it is to ramp up."

See MnIndy’s previous coverage of this story:

Convention cops: St. Paul struggling to recruit enough officers for RNC security (July 17)

Convention cops: SPPD official asks for more police volunteers, offers to forgo JPAs (July 18)

Convention cops: SPPD releases list of departments sending officers to RNC (July 18)

Convention cops: Head of gang strike force denies RNC participation (July 21)