4 St. Cloud groups ordered to change security vehicle paint
ST CLOUD, Minn. April 29 2019— Four organizations in St. Cloud that have security vehicles with illegal paint schemes are being given two months to come into compliance.
The city issued the cease-and-desist orders to the groups last week, the St. Cloud Times reported. The notices came after the city received a complaint that the Islamic Center of St. Cloud’s security vehicle looked similar to a police car.
The city found that three other organizations also weren’t compliant, including St. Cloud State University.
Minnesota law states that all vehicles used by security guards can have any color other than those specified for law enforcement vehicles. Municipal police cars should be predominantly blue, brown, green, black or white, according to the law.
The Islamic Center, health system CentraCare Health and shopping mall Crossroads Center all have security cars that are primarily white. The university had several different styles of security vehicles, but the schemes were mostly black and white.
St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said the statute over security vehicles hadn’t been brought to the city’s attention until they received the complaint.
“Ignorance of the law isn’t a defense so in the case here, once the city was made aware, we enforced the statute,” Kleis said.
He said all of the group’s leaders agreed to bring their vehicles into compliance.
“The statute clearly has an intent that I would agree with — no vehicle ever should have the appearance of a police car unless it is a police car,” he said. “That would be very confusing to the public and could potentially cause dangerous situations.”
StarTribune
