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Longtime Dellwood attorney eases into retirement BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
Richard (Dick) Copeland says he is starting to get used to not having constant pressure, looming deadlines and court hearings on the docket. The longtime attorney began representing the city of Dellwood in June 1965, a position in which he remained until he finally retired at the end of 2025 at the age of 94. He will turn 95 in September. “All of that pressure is gone … It’s surprising how fast it went,” Copeland said. Copeland graduated from Cretin High School in School in St. Paul in 1949. There, he lettered in football, basketball, baseball, hockey and golf and was later inducted into the Cretin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. After graduation, he attended the University of St. Thomas. He was named to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) All-Conference hockey team all four years, and as a MIAC individual golf champion in 1952. He was later inducted into the University of St. Thomas Hall of Fame in 1991. It was at the University of St. Thomas where the seed was planted to become an attorney. “I took a political science course and (the
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Exploring mechanized marvels Hundreds of local residents were given the opportunity to check out a variety of vehicles, ranging from massive trucks to a state patrol helicopter, during the recent Touch-a-Truck event at Podvin Park in White Bear Lake. The gathering of machines and people is the first of several area events scheduled for the upcoming spring and summer season. Local public safety, public works and community partners contributed vehicles for the family-friendly, interactive event that also featured food trucks. See more photos on page 24.
SEE LIFETIME OF LAW, PAGE 16
Chief says incident numbers ‘increasing’ due to proactive policing BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
WHITE BEAR LAKE — Even though Police Chief Dale Hager is entering retirement, he didn’t break the tradition in delivering the City Council an update twice a year. If you take a look at the numbers of calls for service, arrests, traffic stops and DWIs, they have all increased over the past two years. The numbers In 2025, the White Bear Lake Police Department responded to 21,581 calls for service. In 2023, there were 15,972 calls; in 2024, there were 17,839. All told, the number of calls increased by 35% from 2023 to 2025. The number of arrests, traffic stops and DWIs each roughly doubled between 2023 and 2025. Officers made 180 arrests in 2023, 301 in 2024, and 373 in 2025. There were 2,477 traffic stops in 2023; 3,506 in 2024; and 4,989 traffic stops in 2025. In
2023, officers cited 82 individuals for DWI; in 2024, that number was 96; in 2025, there were 156 DWIs. Hager pointed out that those numbers don’t necessarily mean that crime is increasing in the area, but rather that police officers are being proactive. “Crime is not going up in White Bear Lake,” he explained. “The only thing that is changing in our city as far as crimes goes is that our officers are out there getting after it and trying to find crime and send a message.” Members of the department also participated in more community engagement events. In 2025, the department participated in 95 outings: there were 20 in 2023 and 75 in 2024. “Community engagement is one of the things I’m most proud of,” Hager said. “I’m really proud of those numbers … and the men and women in the department that are responsible for those numbers.” SEE BIANNUAL REPORT, PAGE 2
GRAPH BY WILLIAM PETER | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
This chart shows the number of calls for service/case numbers, traffic stops and citations in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
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