A small police department in Minnesota’s north woods offers free canoes to help recruit new officers

The police department in the remote north woods Minnesota town of Ely faces the same challenges of recruiting and keeping new officers as countless other law enforcement agencies across the country. Ely, a former mining and logging community that's best known as a gateway to the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area, will provide free Kevlar canoes worth $3,800 to the next officers it hires — and to current employees. The department — consisting of the chief, an assistant chief, and five slots for patrol officers — has one opening now with another coming soon.