Edina City Council votes to create police substation within Southdale Center

Emily Baude KSTP

Exterior of Southdale Center. Credit: KSTP-TV

The Edina City Council voted Tuesday to create a police substation within the Southdale Center.

The substation, which would cost $120,000 a year for Southdale Center to operate, would staff two Retail Crime Investigators to work at the center, according to a proposal from Todd Milburn, Edina Chief of Police.

For multiple years, the Southdale Center and the Edina Police Department have staffed two Retail Crime Investigators to operate out of the basement of Southdale Center in an effort to offset the cost of assigned Edina police officers, Chief Milburn said. That financial agreement ended years ago, and the department relocated staff to the Edina Police Department.

City documents say, “increasing activity in the area” and Southdale’s redevelopment both signal the right time to build a substation at Southdale’s expense in the mall directly across from the Hennepin County Service Center, “providing a high visibility presence in the mall.”