Jane Laurence, 67, is a retired police officer and member of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove who works as an investigator for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment. She investigates reports of misconduct from clergy or archdiocesan officials to prepare reports for the Ministerial Review Board.
“It’s not happening much,” she said. “We definitely see some stuff that needs to be corrected or shouldn’t be happening. But there’s a huge amount of transparency. Things aren’t being hidden or swept away. And administrators and office personnel have been empowered so that now, if something doesn’t seem right, they’re encouraged to make the call.”
Laurence, a grandma to 10, offsets this serious work with a wide array of hobbies, including knitting, woodworking and timber framing.
Q) At age 11, you helped your dad build a family cabin using only hand tools.
A) He was a civil engineer, a really talented hobby guy. Hand saws and hammer and nails was how we did most of it. (He taught) me how to use the angles of your elbow and shoulder to line up the saw and to saw a straight line and use your eye — I was so lucky to have that training, helping me to set the habits. Your eye and hand need to work together to do any kind of making of stuff. That’s what I really love to do now. I’m a timber-framer and woodworker and knitter. It all goes back to what I learned from my dad.
Q) Back then, some dads wouldn’t have taught those skills to their daughters.
A) Dad never made an issue out of gender and what was OK for girls to do, and I definitely grew up in that age where that was a message a lot of daughters got. When I became a cop, there were not that many women on the job, but I never thought any differently about what was open to me. If I wanted to do something, I just did it. On the job, I wasn’t the biggest or strongest, but there are plenty of skills you need to be a good cop and they’re open to anybody to develop — and mostly it’s communication and thinking.
Q) You still find refuge in a cabin. Tell me about your current place.
A) We’ve had this spot for about 40 years. It’s a frame cabin on a border lake — half in Minnesota, half in Canada. The Minnesota part is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It’s on an island — we have to get here by a boat or ski in the winter. There’s no electricity or plumbing. I have a generator going now, and I have a dish for satellite internet.
A lot of people here have their own island. But the one we’re on has nine different cabins, so my dog can just get on the path and walk over to see neighbors. It’s called Sitch Island, on Saganaga Lake. It’s a little community that pops up here in the summer. We run around in little boats and visit each other. It’s very sociable: you’re going over to people’s houses for dinner or playing volleyball or hiking. And then to be surrounded by water — looking out both sides of the cabin, I can see the water and the wildlife. It’s paradise.
Q) It sounds like a spiritual place.
A) Most definitely. The renewal. I have a mandolin up here, so I practice once a day. I have a guitar. And we brought an old church organ up here that my grandpa got in 1925. It’s a pump organ that was in grandpa and grandma’s cabin. You pump it with your feet. It belongs in a cabin. I’ve got an old hymnal here. The music fills the space. A couple grandkids would come and play, “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater,” so I taught them to play “Amazing Grace.”
Q) Your primary residence is in St. Paul — another place you know and love well.
A) St. Paul is the coolest city. We (officers) called it St. Small, and we loved how you’d ask someone where they lived and they’d tell you the parish — and they still do! It’s a great city. It’s small enough but big enough.
Q) Initially you planned to be a conservation officer, but during your final training, the police captain invited you for a ride along. He must’ve seen something in you — and you were hooked. Isn’t it amazing how one person can change your life?
A) That’s for sure! I was married with two little kids when I finished the training. To be a conservation officer would not have really worked for our family.
Q) After 9/11, you were moved to intelligence analysis. It sounds like that work suited you well.
A) I was part of a little group of cops that they called “The Nerd Herd.” My gifts were in organization, which turned into analysis. Once you get somebody’s phone records, what do you do with (them)? You’ve got to be able to take a lot of information and figure out what you’re looking for and drill down to the little bits that are going to help you solve a crime or support a prosecution.
Q) That must’ve been stressful. How did you lean on your faith?
A) I always had the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi over my desk. When I’d get stuck on something, I always looked at that: “Make me an instrument of your peace.” And I’d just kind of let go of the controls. It happened over and over that I definitely was given guidance: “OK, let’s look at this! Let’s ask about this. Let’s check this out.” When I’d be stumped, I’d ask for that guidance, to be an instrument, and that’s what worked.
And you know police officers are actually peace officers. That’s what the title is. In the state laws, it says “licensed peace officer.”
Q) You have many hobbies. Is there anything else you’d like to try?
A) We don’t have enough time! I’m constantly having to stop, “Hold on, Jane, you don’t need another thing!” I just took a blacksmithing class with one of my grandkids on Friday. It’s all I can do not to run out and buy a forge! I know I would love it. And I know I’d love weaving, to have a big floor loom in my house.
Q) You’re also fascinated by the history of knot baskets and recently recorded a documentary on the last knot basket maker in Sweden. Then there’s timber framing, which you enjoy doing — and you spent time in Paris observing the timber framing done to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire.
A) The joinery yard was amazing. They use an old method. It was all man powered, all simple engineering, so it was done with plump bobs. It was just incredible.
Q) How do you account for your curiosity?
A) I have always been this way. It’s how I’m wired. I surround myself with people who are lifelong learners and passionate about trying new things. Those are the people I’m inspired by.
Q) What do you know for sure?
A) Well, I know for sure that I am loved as a child of God, and when I leave this life, I’ll be moving on to heaven, and I’m excited about that. And I’ll find my mom and dad there and grandma and grandpa. I guess that’s the most important thing I know for sure.
