Minnesota Town Offers Free Canoes to Recruit Police Officers

Ely's unique incentive aims to address nationwide police recruitment challenges amid dwindling applications.

Ely, Minnesota, a small town known as a gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, is offering free Kevlar canoes to new police recruits and current employees as a unique recruitment incentive.
The canoes, worth $3,800, are made from the same strong synthetic fibers as bulletproof vests and are perfect for exploring the area's more than 1,000 pristine lakes.
New recruits or current employees who take the canoes must commit to staying for three years, or they’ll have to pay back a third of the canoe's value for each year they leave early.
The Ely City Council approved the police chief's $30,000 proposal, funded by Ely's share of a $300 million public safety assistance bill approved by the Legislature this year.
Police departments nationwide have struggled to recruit and retain officers in recent years, a shortage that many in law enforcement blame on the twofold morale hit of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police.