Former NFL player is Minnetonka PD’s newest cadet

Former professional football player Justin Johnson is the Minnetonka Police Department’s newest cadet.

Johnson played four years of professional football for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals as well as the USFL’s New Orleans Breakers. The Alabama native also played for Mississippi State University as a tight end and started in many games in the Division I powerhouse Southeastern Conference.

According to the Minnetonka Police Department, Johnson earned his bachelor’s in criminology at Mississippi State and is currently in the police certificate program at Hennepin Technical College. He will become POST-eligible in the summer of 2024, which will allow him to become a full-time officer.

“I am interested in law enforcement because I am all about service and people,” Johnson said in a prepared statement. “My purpose in life is to serve others without expectation of anything in return.”

The cadet program is the Minnetonka Police Department’s way to boost recruitment by training the next generation of police officers. The department said it recently hired its first cadet into a full-time officer role.

As a cadet, the department said Johnson will gain on-the-job experience while he continues his education.

“I hope to learn in the police cadet program how to be the best officer I can be. I hope to learn something about myself, as well as this profession every day I get the chance to put on this uniform,” Johnson stated.

Click here for more information on the Minnetonka police cadet program.