Crime & Safety
Conserving Energy in Heat Wave, Edina Police Cut Down on Traffic Stops
Edina Police Chief Jeff Long told his staff to "avoid traffic stops" on Tuesday.
One blisteringly hot day in the early '90s, Edina's police chief, Jeff Long, was in a high-speed vehicle pursuit that turned into a lengthy foot pursuit.
"My body just overheated, quit cooling itself and I ended up in the hospital," Long told KSTP.
As a result of the incident, Long remains conscious of the risks to police officers posed by extreme heat, and on Tuesday he wrote on Twitter that he'd told his cops to avoid minor traffic stops in order to remain fresh for "calls that require exertion."
"A bulletproof vest, depending on the level of protection it provides, is somewhere between 20 to 40 layers of clothing," he told KSTP. "They're not doing anybody any good if they get hurt or if they're get too hot, because what we are, we are the rescuers for the people who are overheating."
Long noted that Edina motorists shouldn't start flooring their gas pedals; officers have still been writing some tickets.
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