Student Walkout Raises Questions About Northfield's ICE Response Policy
How would local police document, intervene, and protect rights, and how long would they stay?
Last Thursday, Jan. 15, at 1 pm, a large group of Northfield High School students conducted a walkout to protest ICE’s tactics in the area. They walked on the sidewalk to Bridge Square downtown where a smaller group of college students from Carleton and St. Olaf joined them for 15-20 minutes of chanting and singing. The high school students returned to school by about 2:15 pm.
A few dozen adults either joined them or shouted support along the route. Many drivers waved and honked their horns in support.
Several police cars roamed the area the entire time, including one driven by Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer. The Northfield Police Department (NPD) deployed its newly acquired drone over the gathering at Bridge Square.
The event appeared entirely peaceful from what I observed. I saw no ICE presence, and as of Sunday afternoon, I've heard no reports to the contrary.
[Disclosure: I observed the walkout in person and took the photos/video embedded below.]
45-second video:
Photo gallery (click any photo to enlarge and scroll through):
What did Northfield Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer say prior to the walkout?
At 7:20 am Thursday morning, the day of the walkout, KYMN Radio’s Rich Larson interviewed Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer as part of their Community Interview series. Linked screenshot:
At the 19:40 mark of the audio, Rich asks him about the walkout. [The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.]
KYMN’s Rich Larson:
What is your role in the protecting and serving part of it? How do you prepare for that? At what point are you made aware of these things?
Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer:
I don’t want to go into tactics completely, but we are involved. One of the organizers reached out to us, which I appreciate. No matter what your stance is, we have a role here - the safety and security part of things. They reached out early. I got the School Resource Officer involved and he had communications in the school about the plan, timing, all of that.
Depending on how large the group is, we may have a bigger role. If they stick to the sidewalk, we have less of a role. We’ll be visible because we don’t want anything to happen.
But if it grows in size and ends up taking a street - which I prefer they don’t do because there are too many unknowns - if you have bad actors, it raises the hair on the back of my neck to think about that.
We communicated: please stay on the sidewalk. It’s absolutely your right to do this. We know their destination, their timing, things like that. We’ll try to do what we can to prevent anything from happening.
What would the Northfield police have done if ‘bad actors’ had appeared during the walkout?
In the interview, Chief Schroepfer mentioned traffic safety and managing the walkout itself. He also referenced “bad actors,” without specifying who he meant. Student organizers told NPD they were concerned ICE agents might show up. Other possibilities could include unaffiliated people trying to provoke conflict, or students engaging in unlawful behavior. None of that happened. Still, it raises questions about how NPD would respond if it did.
If ICE agents had appeared and begun detaining someone along the route:
Would NPD officers have remained at the scene? For how long? Would they have activated body- and dashcam recordings to document the interaction? Would the drone have been repositioned for additional documentation? At what point would NPD have determined the situation was stable enough to disengage?
If students had surrounded an ICE vehicle:
The Chief mentioned establishing a “perimeter” as part of NPD’s role during federal operations. What would that have looked like with high school students peacefully surrounding a vehicle while chanting? Would officers have physically separated students from the vehicle? At what point would student behavior have crossed from protected speech into something requiring police intervention?
If ICE agents had used force against protesters:
Local police presumably know how to respond if students become violent or if counter-protesters attack them. But what if federal agents deployed chemical spray against students who were shouting but staying within First Amendment rights? Would NPD have intervened, documented, or disengaged?
If counter-protesters had gathered to show support for ICE:
If counter-protesters arrived expressing support for ICE while student protesters attempted to shout them down or physically confront them, would NPD have intervened to protect both groups’ speech rights? At what point would officers have separated the groups or made arrests?
These aren't hypothetical scenarios. They're variations of what's happened in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and other Minnesota cities recently. The Chief's stated policy is to maintain public safety while not assisting immigration enforcement. But how that policy applies in specific situations remains unclear.
I've submitted these questions to Chief Schroepfer and will provide an update if he responds.
My Take
Police Chief Jeff Schroepfer deployed a drone presumably to monitor and document Thursday’s student walkout, another measure to “prevent anything from happening.”
Compare that to the Chief’s stated policy for actual ICE detainment operations, where unlawful conduct is a real concern, where confrontations are far more likely, and where documentation would protect observers, protesters, residents, and officers alike. His position: no documentation, and disengagement once immediate safety concerns are addressed. See:
That doesn’t make sense to me.
Drone footage, body- and dash-cams don’t just document what happens; they help prevent bad behavior by everyone involved. Police know this. It’s why they use these tools. If drone deployment was justified for students worried about ICE showing up, why wouldn’t it be even more justified when ICE shows up to detain people, and observers and protesters appear?
I understand the Chief wants to avoid any appearance of assisting immigration enforcement. But I don’t see how leaving the scene accomplishes that better than staying to create a clear record: NPD officers present, cameras rolling, documenting that they’re not interfering with federal operations, not providing support, just ensuring public safety and preserving evidence of what actually occurred.
Federal agents in Minneapolis have used pepper spray on lawful protesters and observers (NY Times). Residents here need to know: if that happens in Northfield, will NPD be present with cameras documenting it? Or will they have already left?
The other scenarios I asked about above aren’t hypothetical. They’re based on what’s happened in the Twin Cities in recent weeks. Northfield residents deserve answers about what the police would actually do in those situations, before they happen, not after.
See the latest Northfield.org posts in the archive.
You are so right. These responses are surprising and concerning to me.
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