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While the Cloquet city council passed the city’s 2021 budget and tax levy Tuesday, the Cloquet police department got a one-time boost from unspent funds in this year’s budget.

Police chief Derek Randall presented the council with a list of requests, mostly for equipment and technology upgrades, to be paid for out of the department’s 2020 budget surplus, which Randall estimated at a minimum of $139,200, including planned expenses through the end of the year.

Many of the items are urgently needed, including laptop computers for the squad cars, five replacement Tasers and 24 portable rad...