Loading...
Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Martin DesLauriers Eagan Chief leaves job with respect - 4/13/1983Eagan chief leaves job with respect By Mike Barrett Staff Writer Martin DesI4at; riers' "life of crime" began as t boy when he stopped Eagan tr affic by light- ing cornstalks o a fire across Minnesota 13. A neighbor saw the prank and called Martin's father, Louis. When Martin arri ved home, his father told hin: the sheriff called and Martii was sure he was bound for ref ■ rm school. Since that tim Martin has "gone straight," and kept law and order in Ea an as police chief for 30 years. The cornstalk caper is among ti e tales he re- calls as he looks 1 oward retire- ment in May and the start of a new career as a p ivate investi- gator. His departure from office comes as a surprise to many residents because 1 bey have tak- en the 51-year-o ld chief for granted — like a piece of old and valuable furniture: sturdy, comfortable and :always there. To some in his cc mmunity, he has seemed as mill .h of an insti- tution as a man. "Martin has the respect of his men and the re pect of the city," Mayor Be Blomquist said. "Believe me. we're going to miss him." Her comment < choed miles away another day when a cop on the beat descri bed DesLau- riers as "a good chi 4." Born and raise 1 in Eagan, DesLauriers began n as a part - time constable in 1953 when the township was home to about 3,000 and he knew tearly every- body by his first i ame. As the community grew, DesLauriers became a full -time cop and the first police chief in 1965. The department l ias his home where the officers met and his wife Marie kept the records and relayed calls when force was on patrol. When DesLauriers began pa- trolling, he said most residents didn't lock their doors. There were occasional theft reports of gasoline siphoned from car tanks or tools missing from ga- rages but almost no home bur- glaries. That's changed today with a department cop spree t ing colored pins showing crime locations. Now, he directs a department of 23 sworn officers, 13 dispatchers, records clerks and cadets who serve a city of more than 25,000. "As police, we have awesome authority and responsibility," he said. "We have to make deci- sions quickly and let the chips fall where they mad-. "What disturbs me today is that when a kid gets into serious trouble, say a burglary, and his parents get an attorney for him and get him off without a sen- tence," he said. "Then the kid gets in trouble again and they go through the whole thing with the attorney. Finally, the kid gets in really serious trouble a third time. Nobody can help him and he winds up with a prison sentence." Instead, DesLauriers over the years has advised some parents to let their errant children cool off in jail over the weekend and it has worked as a deterrent to crime. "I've had at least six young men come up to me years later who told me their spell in jail was the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They found out what jail is like, who's in there and they got Please see Chief /2S Mike Barrett After 30 years on the beat, Eagan Police Chief Martin DesLauriers is calling it a day. He retires at the end of the month. Chief • Continued from Page 'IS scared off, which is good. They got married, got jobs and became re- sponsible citizens." These are among his good mem- ories but he has others T-To rmm17,, nered finding the beaten and para- lyzed teen -age girl near Minnesota 55 one day in the late 1960s. She remains a paraplegic today and the man who apparently assaulted her remains in a mental institution. DesLauriers also recalled arriv- ing at a two -car accident scene on Minnesota 13 with seven persons