2nd Precinct Advisory Council

Oct. Meeting, part 1: De-escalation: What is it? How does it keep us safe?

Posted on January 2, 2026 | Leave a comment

The Oct. ’25 2-PAC meeting was called to order at 6:37 PM. The meeting is hybrid-Zoom: 7 in person, 7 on Zoom.

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. First Responders are on duty, but the Precinct is closed to the public. We are at the Monroe Village Community Room, 1900 Central.

Dinkytown has long drawn individuals who live outside the mainstream. Covid and urban unrest made the situation more difficult for all of us. The administrator of University Lutheran Church of Hope contacted me because he was increasingly concerned about safety on ULCH campus. In addition to church members, ULCH is now home to high school students attending PEASE Academy. (https://mtcs.org/pease/) Just locking the doors doesn’t do enough to keep vulnerable people safe — one student was confronted just outside of the building. Some of the litter (needles, etc.) is dangerous.

I started looking for someone to explain how to approach people who were acting in ways that endangered them and the rest of us. When I reached out to Catholic Charities, I got a welcoming response, and we have Patrick Bayle here today.

Bayle: The first tool in the Catholic Charities tool kit is De-Escalation. Catholic Charities’ Approach to Verbal De-Escalation is based on the Crisis Prevention Institute model.

The first thing I want to say about verbal de-escalation is that, in any situation, safety is primary. If you’re not comfortable with engaging with an individual, don’t engage. That’s very important.

We’re not here to fix people. We’re here to learn how to communicate with people who may be elevated, hijacked, or disturbed. If somebody is in distress or aggressive, and you want to have a conversation with them, there are techniques that MAY help them to understand that you’re there to help, and that you want to be more comfortable with them.

If this is something that you’re not comfortable with, don’t engage. That’s rule number one. That’s what we train our skilled workers to do. For the general public, we really emphasize, don’t engage.

I’ve had a 16-year career in direct service case management with the individuals the Catholic Charities serves — those who are most in need. We serve the chronically homeless, severely persistently mentally ill, folks with substance use disorder. We serve at 16 locations in the Twin Cities. We have 19 programs, 545 employees. We’re a large organization. We house more folks each year, but we can’t keep up with the needs. Often these folks are the most challenged in communicating their needs, so having skilled staff and volunteers is very important for what we do. Here are some techniques that we use.

AT WORK Somebody may become suddenly upset for no apparent reason. If you respond, they may start challenging you, like: “Who do you think you are?” or “You can’t tell me what to do!” They may get mad enough to start yelling at you or threaten to file a complaint. You are on the receiving end of confrontational behavior.

Take a minute to think about a time when you felt distressed or challenged by somebody’s behavior and afterwards started thinking, “Well, I might have handled that a little better”. Think about a time when your reaction affected the other person?

Comment: An attender related that she was at work when someone confronted her verbally, but aggressively. She responded by listening to them.

Bayle : Listening is the key in verbal de-escalation. If you can, ignore the tone that someone is using and maybe even the language. The example that [Attender] gave: She faced a couple who came to the door of the church where she works. They were immediately very aggressive to her. And she just listened to their needs.

I’m reinforcing that listening is a key part of verbal de-escalation. Not responding but letting people vent is important. Letting people express themselves sometimes is a very important key.

In the CRISIS PREVENTION INSTITUTE model, all behavior is a form of communication.

Escalating behavior is the communication of increasing distress. You can’t force an escalated person to do what you want, but you may be able to influence their behavior with your behavior. Being calm and listening is one of the ways that you can influence their behavior.

INTEGRATED EXPERIENCE: A Model from CPI

If the behavior is anxious, we are supportive.
If the behavior is defensive, we are directive.
If the behavior is risky, we do safety interventions if it’s appropriate.
If somebody is self-harming, call 911.
If the behavior level is building tension, we try to build rapport, trying to have a more civil conversation with an individual in everyday life.

The integrated approach: Think about an encounter.

Did you see the challenging person you were interacting with as in distress? If not, how might your words and behavior have changed if you had seen them as “someone in distress”? Having compassion for people while having safe boundaries is critical.

Question: What is Directive Behavior?

Bayle: It depends on the situation, but

At Work: a directive to a fellow staff person may be, “Would you like to step over here and have a conversation about this?” You must make your expectations very clear! If you’re in a space where yelling isn’t appropriate, make sure they understand that.
If the behavior is defensive, letting people vent and listening to them is sometimes useful. Again, we’re not here to change people. We’re here to find ways to respond differently and peacefully to confrontational behavior that’s directed at us. Important: If you can see that person in distress, do not take it personally. The behavior is not about you, it’s about what THEY have going on.

There are five simple strategies for verbal de-escalation.

A person who is escalating is not in control of their emotions, so keep your own emotions in check to the degree that you can. If your feelings are also out of control, you may make the situation worse. When your response is controlled and rational, it’s likely to have a positive influence on the other person’s behavior.
Sometimes, listening is key.
Don’t try to manage their behavior; manage your own. Here or on Zoom, raise your hand if you like being told what to do, especially when you’re pissed off? Anybody? Nobody on Zoom? [No one likes it.]
Watch your body language. Keep a safe distance. Proximity: always respect an escalating individual’s personal space. We all know what six feet looks like now, right? And a 45-degree angle is much better than facing someone directly. You stand a proper distance away with a more open stance, and
Keep your hands where they can see them. Think: for someone who’s been living on the street for a long time, if you put your hands in your pockets, it’s an immediate warning It escalates.

Summarizing: Keeping your voice and emotions in check, listening, holding a posture that isn’t threatening, keeping your hands visible, together can help de-escalate an individual.

Again, none of these are solutions. These are techniques that are sometimes effective. And again: safety, safety, safety. If an individual is out of control, get yourself to safety, call 911 and let the professionals handle it.

Watch your Paraverbals: Paraverbals are how I say things and what I say.

Pay attention to the tone, volume and cadence of your voice. Speaking slower and more clearly may be useful to an individual who may be escalated. Volume, cadence, and effective directives are all things that are very helpful in confrontational conversations.

Listening: Develop your ability to listen with compassion and empathy, instead of thinking about what you’re going to say next. Nod your head to acknowledge that you’re hearing what’s being said.

Give feedback that sounds involved: What can I do to help? Is there anything you need immediately? Is there an emergency that you’re experiencing? Ask reflective questions.

If your paraverbals don’t match the words you’re saying, your message can be lost. If I engage with someone in an aggressive manner, they probably won’t remember my message. What they’re going to remember is how I said it.

The last thing you want is more people coming into a situation like this. Remove the audience.

At Catholic Charities, we encourage a team approach. We ask our workers to tap somebody else in, not in a way to confront the individual, but to let them know that there’s somebody else there to be witness to what they’re saying and what we’re saying.

If there is space, take the person aside or ask a colleague to keep bystanders away. The more people in a conversation, the more confusing it can be.

Confronting a single person with two or three people is escalating; they feel their safety is endangered. It’s best if one person takes the lead. If it’s safe, asking somebody step out to just have a conversation, is good.

When you’re dealing with individuals who are in distress or who may be experiencing the symptoms of their PTSD, their trauma, don’t ask “What’s wrong?” Ask “What happened? Asking “what’s wrong” is something that can trigger people. Keep it simple.

DIRECTIVES

People who are agitated may have trouble listening carefully. People can’t hear you when they’re agitated. Some only hear what’s going on in their own heads.

Avoid jargon, complex instructions, and complicated choices. Give people ONLY one or two options.

Be clear, direct, and respectful with what you say. Dignity and respect at the heart of all of this.

Always, no matter what behavior you witness, or what judgments your head may be having about the individual, all human beings have inherent DIGNITY. Honor it, no matter what you think of their behavior or their current situation.

Their behavior is their behavior. Your behavior is your behavior. Again, safety is paramount.

[Example of his defusing an incident at a Quarry retailer, using his training and experience]

So, these techniques work and that was almost instinctive for me. It wasn’t something I had to think about because I’ve used this over and over.

You can form de-escalation groups to practice. Online groups offer scenarios to use with confrontation practice exercises.

Again:

Be clear, direct and respectful.
Use reflective questioning.
Listen carefully and empathetically to the person’s real message.
Make sure you understand the feelings behind the facts.

If somebody’s agitated, it might be okay to ask what happened. Allow them to explain and try repeating what you’ve heard back to the person to make sure that you’ve got it right. I found repeating what people say to me back to them helps me understand it much better.

Silence. Just listening. Silence can be uncomfortable, but it’s often an effective tool for de-escalating. After someone’s vented to you, don’t feel a need to add anything. Just be there in the silence.

Sometimes people just need you to be with them, not try to change them, not try to fix them, not try to manage them, but to be with them in an uncomfortable situation.

One of the skills that people in our society lack, is the ability to sit in discomfort. We’ve been taught that nothing should be uncomfortable.

Discomfort is oftentimes your friend if you can work with it and be in the silence with it. Sitting calmly in silence with someone can be a form of support. Just be there with somebody.

Important Safety Tips:

· Practice self-care.

· Make sure your emotions are where they need to be.

· Don’t ever put yourself in the middle of a physical altercation. When that occurs in the community or at work, call 9-1-1.

· Having resources for people is important. Knowing at least one phone number to get resources is important.

· Practice with each other. Spend some time every week talking about strategies. Practice the tips and skills outlined. Use online training exercises.

Question: How do you contact CPI to get this training?

Bayle: You can’t. An organization can. Our recertification cost every year is about $5,000. We take this simplified form out into the community.

The training that we do with the individuals at our sites is ]two sessions of three hours, a 6-hour training.

What we introduce to the community is baseline skills, but we don’t want you intentionally stepping into these situations. People need to be trained to do it and to have experience and to have supervision after post-incident debriefs.

Comment: Do you know if the BCR groups that work with the police have had this training?

Bayle: I’ll guarantee you they’re highly skilled in verbal de-escalation. They’re not showing up without these skills. The BCR response teams that work for Ramsey County and Hennepin County are doing really good work. They’re doing a lot of interventions, too.

Quast: If anyone has a question they’d like Mr. Bayle to answer, contact me and I’ll forward them to him.

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Tagged de-escalation, inter-personal-interaction, mental-health, psychology, trauma

Oct. Meeting, PART 2: What Is 2-PAC? Coming Soon and Looking ahead. We need your ideas!

Posted on January 2, 2026 | Leave a comment

2-PAC’S ANNUAL 12/24 10- HOUR BUFFET IS ON!

Once again, The Dec. 24 “2-PAC 10-Hour Buffet for ALL First Responders on Duty” will again be at the Moose on Monroe (corner of Monroe and Spring Street)! Owner Larry Ranallo already had it on his pocket calendar.

[Details here deleted]

We always want to see new people, so contact us, knowing you are welcome.

2-PAC: WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE ARE:

2-PAC offers a place where Eastside residents and First Responders can come together to share their concerns and needs. We welcome residents, business owners, and other stakeholders who are concerned about crime, livability issues, and more, to coordinate responses with our first Responders. Our goals are to facilitate information exchange and to increase safety. We offer a safe place for open conversation where people can build mutual trust.

Walking toward the future, together:

2-PAC has not had a planning board since 2020.

There are many reasons to restart the board: more hands make light work, more brains come up with brighter ideas; more experience makes better technology, but the bottom line is:

we need more people to bring their energy and ideas about creating a better 2-PAC.

Being on a planning board is an extra 1-2 hour meeting to add to your month, but look at what you get back:

safety,
a stronger community,
getting to know the good people near you,
learning where to get help when you need it,
finding resources you never knew you already have.

FFI on any of these topics, contact emilieinmpls@gmail.com

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Dec, Meeting: Drones and the MPD – State of the Precinct – 12/24 10-Hour Buffet update

Posted on January 1, 2026 | Leave a comment

The meeting was called to order at 6:36, 17 people attending, 10 in person and 7 by Zoom.

Officer Todd Harder, our speaker, isn’t here yet, so we’ll begin with

State of the Precinct

The last 28 days reports from the MPD Crime dashboard

NIBRS Crime Metrics Crime 2025 2024 3 yr. Ave. Assault 104 89 82 Incl Domestic 15 5 9 B&E 25 21 20 Vandalism 42 120 76 Homicide 0 0 1 Homicide, Neg. 0 0 0 Larceny 138 177 158 MV Theft 34 71 77 Robbery 8 14 11 Incl Carjacking 1 4 4 Sex Offenses 4 10 6 Stolen Prop. 1 0 1 Weapons Law Vio. 5 4 6 Shots fired 17 23 20 Gun Wound Vics 1 1 2
Comment: [about ICE in Minneapolis] Inspector Torborg: [responded to the observation and then moved on to reactions] I think some people are also hoping to provoke a confrontation between the police department and the ICE workers, which would never happen. It’s getting frustrating; I hope that will quiet down. Some people in the city aren’t fans of ICE. That’s fine. But it’s bogging us down when we get one report after another. A few ICE members were trying to serve a warrant this morning and someone outside was blowing a whistle to alert other people there was an ICE raid, which wasn’t the case at all.We’ll do more messaging and we’ll see.

Comment: Another question is: how do you handle the notion of under-reporting, particularly things like robberies, getting a warrant for guns? Torborg: You mean in the immigrant community? I read every robbery case; an investigator reads every robbery case.

Comment: Well, We have a large Ecuadorian population in northeast Minneapolis, and I have a feeling they’re getting targeted because of communication difficulties and maybe their immigration status. They’re afraid to go to the police. Torborg: I like to think that most of the time when somebody gets robbed, it will be reported. I know with windows being broken out of cars, we’ve had so many crime sprees of 30, 40 car windows getting broken out. People start to wonder what’s the point of even reporting this. We try to keep an accurate number because that’s how police resources are divided up. If people stop calling in these things, they won’t get the police service they deserve. Question: Do you know who is committing these thefts? Torborg: Yes. We’ve arrested most of them, several times. They’re juveniles, so they get taken to the Juvenile Division. They get interviewed.They get processed. They get transferred to the Juvenile Detention Center, sometimes. And then they’re usually released almost immediately and they come back the next day. Question: When they’re released, are they released to their parents? Torborg: Yeah, their parents are responsible. Question: Is there any recourse to hold the parents responsible? Torborg: Not criminally. Technically there could be civil liability. I think it’s safe to say that many of the suspects come from a single parent home. The parent has no financial means to pay back any of the victims. Some of them are very cooperative. Two weeks ago a mother of one of our frequent suspects, called Lt. O’Rourke [who leads the MPD Outreach to Youth program] and said, “I think my son is going around in a stolen car in Northeast somewhere.” Just as the Lt. was letting me know, we started getting reports of a reckless driver. Comment recalling Lt. O’Rourke’s presentation at 2-PAC. (EQ: See https://courtwatch2pac.com/2025/07/05/march-meeting-part-1-mpd-outreach-to-youth/ )
[Conversation about the 10 Hour Buffet, here deleted]

Officer Harder on the MPD Drone Program

I’m Officer Todd Harder. I’ve been in the Second Precinct for about four years, now. I’ve been a police officer for almost 29 years.
I got into the Drone Unit about a year and a half ago. We use drones for searching for anybody missing. They’re a very useful tool for looking over the river for people who fell or jumped into the river. We use an exterior drone for that work. [holding it up] It has a thermal on it, too, so you can fly it in the dark to see a person hiding or if there’s a kid missing from somewhere. We have 7 or 8 of these. That is a mid-size drone. We have one that’s three times as big. In a bigger city like Minneapolis, we need authorization to fly in some areas, like the airport. The drones won’t even take off in certain airspace zones.

Question: Is that DJI? [a Chinese mfg] Harder: All of ours are DJI so far, but we’re going to get other brands. This is an interior drone [holding it up] We use them for search warrants. The SWAT team will surround the house, breach the door, and before anyone goes in, we fly this through the house so we can tell the SWAT team where people are or just share the layout of the house. It’s very beneficial to send in a tool, because if someone knocks the tool down, it’s no big deal — we can get another one.
Comment: SWAT teams used to throw in a “flashbangs” before entering (a device that would surprise or stun nearby people) Officer: We still use flashbangs too, but when we fly this one in, you can get a live feed so everyone can see what we’re seeing. Question: How soon can you be ready to go when something is happening. Officer: If I had to launch this right now, 3 or maybe 4 minutes, because it’s interior. I’d need authorization to launch the bigger one, but it’s still only a couple of minutes.
Question: Does each precinct have its own drone teams? Officer: I think there are 13 of us on the team, and we’re spread throughout the city. I think the 2nd Precinct has the most pilots. We put in for it. It’s a competitive selection process, based on application, interview, and experience. Question: Over the last year, how many interior observations have you done? Officer: I’ve probably done 10, but every search warrant gets a drone; we’re going to a house with a SWAT team. It’s standard procedure.

This morning, I was involved in a search warrant and we flew this unit inside the residence. When we’re flying this one, we put goggles right over our face and use a controller. This interior drone has the VR system and the exterior drone still has the screen, right on the controller. So the exterior one, the screen is right on the controller still. [talk about drill mark and DJI, unclear recording]

There’s state law saying when we can and can’t fly them over your house. That’s illegal unless there’s a search warrant.***

Question: How long do they go for?

Officer: It depends on how much the batteries get used. That interior one, probably 10 minutes flight time before you have to swap the battery. This one, probably 30 minutes. If you’re in an active search, you always have another up before the first one lands. Then you swap the battery and keep rotating.

Question So does that require more than one officer?

Officer: Whenever there’s a drone in there, you have to have two officers, to keep an eye on the drone and to protect the person who’s flying it. We’re supposed to always be able to see them with our naked eye. Whenever we fly them, we have to have a visual observer. We can only fly them as far as you can see.

When that big building burned in on Central, they called for us to come out there because it was so smoky, they couldn’t even get close enough to tell where the flames were coming from. The drone flew up, and with the thermal sensor, pinpointed the hot spots. Then the fire department went in and sprayed water. The next day, I went back after the flames were mostly knocked out, to tell them where there were still hot spots.

Quast: That was excellent, thank you.

** https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/22/fcc-drone-ban-dji-00703742 – https://pilotinstitute.com/drones/states/minnesota/

*** https://drone-laws.com/drone-laws-in-minnesota/

[More discussion about the 2-PAC 12/24 10-Hour buffet deleted]

Emilie Quast, Member

MPD Second Precinct Advisory Council (2-PAC)

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Nov. report: State of the Precinct, Outreach planing, Getting ready for 12/24 for First Responders

Posted on November 22, 2025 | Leave a comment

It is November 10, 2025. 2-PAC is meeting at 6:36, by ZOOM only, with 9 attenders.

Our speaker had to cancel, but we have enough business to cover, so we actually need this time, starting with State of the Precinct,

STATE OF THE PRECINCT

NIBRS CRIME METRICS 28 DAY Total Ending 11/10/25

Crime 2025 2024 3 Yr Average
Assault 96 94 87
Incl. Domes.Ag. 9 12 9
B&E 32 25 23
Vandalism 87 105 91
Homicide non neg. 1 0 0
Homicide negligent 0 0 0
Larceny 185 227 199 MV theft 117 95 99
Robbery 7 17 20
Incl.car jacking 1 1 4
Sex offenses 7 13 8 Stolen property 5 4 9
Weapons law viols. 5 4 9
Shots fired 23 34 28
Gun wound victims 3 7 3

InspectorTorborg: First of all, the number of gun wound victims is going to go up by 3. Last Friday, we had a shooting in Dinkytown at 13th Ave & 5th St. SE. It’s an active investigation, so I can’t share a lot, except that it appears to be a targeted shooting. One of the victims was likely an innocent bystander who happened to be passing. That was the U of M student who was hit in the leg. [Investigators collected] about 20 rounds fired by more than one automatic handgun.

Also, there are officers half a block from where the shots were fired, so the shooters weren’t deterred by the presence of police officers.

Quast: The UMPD Safety Center: https://campusmaps.umn.edu/off-campus-safety-center. FFI see the introduction of the Safety Center,

Sept. ’24 by Nick Juarez, Director of U of MN Community Engagement. https://courtwatch2pac.com/2024/09/23/sept-rept-part-1-new-safety-center-and-more-in-dinkytown-and-east-marcy-holmes/

Follow-up question from a new attender: I’m assuming this info review is something you do at all of these meetings. How is this information getting out to the community? [The Inspector’s Zoom connection froze at this point]

Quast: I pull it up every month from the MPD Crime Dashboard, which is open to the public. The reports are kept on Courtwatch2PAC.com Presentation on the Dashboard [https://courtwatch2pac.com/2023/07/10/june-2-pac-the-new-mpd-crime-dashboard-explained-and-12-year-old-crashing-a-stolen-car-reactions/#respond ]. Since that presentation is up on this one website, you’ve got it. It’s yours.

But the question is how do we share this information with the community and so on.

How we got here: The Precinct Advisory Council program was started by Judge Lois Conroy, some 20+ years ago. The City of Minneapolis had grant money city improvements. Neighborhoods had to form organizations and submit requests for approval, like any other grant-writing exercise. The city wanted residents to decide how to distribute the money [subject to scrutiny].

Each neighborhood organization had a safety supervisor or officer, who reported TO the precinct once a month at a Precinct Advisory Council meeting to relay issues in their neighborhood. They’d also get direct information on what was happening in their neighborhood FROM the Inspector and other officers (HCSO, MFD) who were attending. That was the strength.

[Inspector Torborg reconnected] Quast: Nick, I’ve explained the format of the PACs and that it is supposed to be a two-way communication: the neighborhoods reported what was going on in their neighborhoods to alert the Precincts, and the cops and others advised those neighbors what they could do about it. They’d also advise delegates about part 1 crimes and what they could do about that. Then the delegates would take that information back to the neighborhood and present it at the neighborhood council. It was definitely a two-way: Here’s what’s going on, what can we do about it? Answer: Well, here’s three things you can do about it and call this number. That was generally about the way it went. Could we have called each other directly? Yes, but this communication schema was much, much better.

Torborg: [reviewed the above to make sure we’ve covered what he wanted]

Comment from attender: I was wondering how does 2-PAC share the information?

[Quast: at this point, attenders started brainstorming ideas for sharing 2-PAC info. Suggestions included working with the Northeaster, City Council members’ newsletters, and starting a social media page like Facebook.]

The Inspector reported a conversation with a Northeaster reporter, Mike Tierney, who mentioned putting notices in the paper, Torborg agreed that would be a good community connection. The MPD wants residents to know that we’re interested in hearing from people in the community.

Torborg further commented: We share tips with the public often. We send out crime alerts to neighborhoods that are getting hit really hard, but that’s after the horses have left the barn. I don’t know how effective it is to to tell everybody in the neighborhood to watch their cars at night because we had 70 auto break-ins in the neighborhood last night.

Bonneville [re: working with the Northeaster] Maybe they need it packaged for them, making reporters’ jobs easier. Having been a reporter years ago, I know the more you can package it up the better.

If we get information from the MPD related to Second Precinct, we could work with the Northeaster as residents who want to see this type of information. But you’re right: neighborhood papers don’t cover much crime.

Quast: We’ve talked in the past about reaching more residents through social media, but no one had time [and know-how] to pick that idea up. How about a 2-PACcommunications subcommittee?

Bonneville: Also, there’s the new 13-hour dashboard, which a lot of people apparently don’t know about. Recently, law enforcement agencies began encrypting their radios. People didn’t like that. The compromise, in my understanding, is this 13-hour dashboard. You can go online and select the whole city or your neighborhood or your precinct or whatever. It will show you a list of all the reported crimes [in the area you selected] that are going on almost in real time. It reports MFD. MFD and BCR [EQ search: 911 and Emergency Communications Center Incidents Dashboard]

Torborg: Sometimes Crime Watch was good because it did give real-time info, but it also caused a lot of headaches for the MPD. People would hear first reports on the radio, and not really understand them, but put them out as facts anyway. Officers would respond to the scene and find the call was unfounded — maybe a “shots fired” or nothing at all.

Quast: If the people in this conversation will connect and continue to talk off line, we’ll come back in December and you can tell us how far you’ve shaped this up. [I should have added, feel free to add others who you think will add to the conversation]

2-PAC’s 10-HOUR BUFFET ON 12/24/25

Our 42nd, 10-hour buffet IS ON!

Briefly, I believe the buffet started out as a neighborhood event, just for the 2nd Precinct, brought by near neighbors: One 12/24, neighbors noticed the Precinct lights were on and people were working there. Somebody said “This isn’t right” so neighbors started cooking good meals, and here we are!

The parameters:

Who is invited: The event is open to all First Responders who are on duty on that day.

We send out notices to all five precincts, all Fire Stations, Metro Transit PD, UMPD, HCSO and a few others. Anyone who can be dispatched to an emergency call, is welcome.

Our stats from 2024: 197 altogether.

131 people signed in and stayed as long as they wanted. Signers were from Pct 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Canopy Roots, MFD Stations(?) E15, 14, 20, 7, 2, 19, HEMS, UMPD, MPRB, and those are the only ones I can decipher. We sent food for 66 “shut-ins”. We contributed to meals sent to the HCSO.

First Responders cover the day in overlapping 10-hour shifts. This puts more officers on the street during high traffic times, so it’s very efficient, and we get double guests at certain times of the day. Other times, our space is empty. (That’s when we head out to make deliveries)

Shut-ins: Some first responders can’t leave their stations while on duty — the “Shut-Ins”. Included are 911 operators, of course, but also the guards at the doors of some emergency services. (We make up meals for the guards so they don’t have to run to a distant break room to get a nice meal.) Metro Transit First Responders are shut-ins because their stations are far from our buffet. The solution (suggested by them) is to deliver enough for everyone to the Mpls Station and they take care of sharing the bounty. Shut-Ins get two deliveries.

We learned that our host at the Moose on Monroe, Larry Ranallo, had been delivering two meals to First Responders in the Sheriff’s Office. We’ve contributed to that since we found out about it.

DONATIONS:

Important: we ONLY solicit donations from people and businesses IN THE SECOND PRECINCT. Be aware that this includes Northeast and Southeast Minneapolis — everything east of the Mississippi. The reasons for this are historical and practical; it cuts down travel time.

TIMELINE:

A few volunteers don’t have an OFF switch. When they try a new restaurant and like it, they’ll ask if the owner would like to contribute to a goodwill December event. They’ll mention it once or twice and then firm up the donation about this time of year.

WHAT FOODS WE NEED DONATED

I keep a spreadsheet of donations. If something is too much of a duplicate, I’ll talk to the donor for you and see what they can change.

We learned that the officers wanted (needed) substantial food: entrees, appetizers and more, to keep them fueled for a 10-hour shift.

Four guidelines:

1) Donated food must be reheated by the Moose staff and held in chafing dishes over the day. Pizza or other quick foods don’t wait well on buffet lines. We do NOT reheat in microwaves.
2) Hold down offers of sweets and desserts. (People send a LOT of that directly to the stations.) Exception is Sarah Jane’s cookies, a 3-generation NE tradition.
3) ASK donors how many roasters or half roasters we can expect so Moose staff can plan their refrigerator and working spaces.
4) ALSO!! Ask what pickup window will work for that donor. Some places close on the 22nd or 23rd, and some don’t want a pick up until late on the 24th. We need drivers for all of that.

HOW THE FOOD and SERVICE ARE HANDLED

Volunteers pick up the donations on a schedule — Emilie keeps the spreadsheet. Make sure all dishes are labeled: DONOR, NAME OF Contents, Heating instructions, “2-PAC” IN LARGE LETTERS and use a marker not a post-it.

Mr. Ranallo and the Moose staff meet with Emilie mid December — I need donation estimates for that meeting to estimate shelf space needed. Anybody else is welcome to join us.

Moose staff figures out how to arrange lockers and chillers and we respect that. They prep the food on a schedule and make sure all food safety laws are observed (scheduled temp. checks, etc.).

The 12/24 signup sheet is organized by 2-hour shifts 2-PAC volunteers set up and decorate the Moose dining room (arrive 9:30 AM), then welcome our guests. We need multiple volunteers for each shift (hosts, drivers, runners)

Hosts ask guests to sign in, usher them over to the serving tables and give a hand if they need another dish or drop something. When guests leave, we check the table and do a quick wipe down and straighten up so everything is fresh for the next guests.

You’ll find that most of our guests come 4, 6, 8 at a time so they can eat with friends and colleagues. EQ: they still have to sign in though.

This info will be posted for volunteers at the Moose.

I’ve already gotten a few good suggestions from previous volunteers to improve the event. Do keep them coming and know they’re appreciated.

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Sept. 8 meeting, Part 1: Steps toward a safe city: Neighborhood Safety Clubs

Posted on September 25, 2025 | Leave a comment

We have 7 attenders in person and 5 by Zoom. Call to order at 6:37

Speaking to the 8/13 Northeaster, Aileen Johnson stated, “. . .[T]he groups are a true grassroots effort to reduce crime with a friendly presence on city streets.” These clubs exist right now in 24 neighborhoods across Minneapolis. We are self-funded volunteers who have lots of different interests, opinions, and views, but we agree on one thing: It is neighbors, business, and law enforcement, all working together in a spirit of friendship, that makes for a safer community.

We welcome everyone who has that belief. We believe that one person can make a difference and that everyone should try. We’re committed to the same objectives:

to improve safety,
to build friendships, and
to increase our civic and municipal acumen.

We started in the North Loop in April, 2021. There was an encampment with two drug markets serving them. My friend called me and said, “What can we do?” I called a friend, Mike Rainville and asked him. Mike said, “Try to get out there and walk”. It made a difference.

After the 4th of July fireworks and violence in the Mill District, they contacted us and we were walking 3 weeks later.

Next someone asked for help with drugs and guns in Loring Park. Today, Loring Park, which once had the highest park-crime rate in the city, isn’t even in the list of 10 top crime incident parks.

EQ comment: the video shows slides of the people she is talking about. Pictured and discussed are

Windom (which still concludes their walks with tea and cookies),
East Isles focuses on picking up needles with MFD donated gear,
Kenwood spends 90 minutes to cover the entire neighborhood,
Thomas Beach was supposed to cover all of Linden Hills, but a neighbor objected to MPD, so we focused on Thomas Beach, which had a calm July 4.
Nicollet Island East Bank was the first safety club in the 2nd Pct. That club is actually sponsoring Pumpkinpalooza on the 5th of October for Halloween.
Sheridan is our newest club in the 2nd. They’re walking and rolling Wednesday nights.
Three groups: Loring Park, Stevens Square, and Loring Heights are helping each other, adding walkers when one or another group wants to swell the group.
East Harriet is based in an assisted living complex which is where they start and stop their walks.
Ward 13 has six Neighborhood Safety Clubs. They rotate walking the neighborhoods — that way they cover the entire 13th ward.
Kingfield, St. Anthony West and St. Anthony East have launched.

This summer, the Uptown Business District wanted to hire us. We don’t work for pay, but we’ll bring groups in to do a special walk for them.

We are doers. We know we can’t solve large problems, but we know that picking up trash improves an area. If you see blue painters’ tape on a street light, that’s a sign we did a project to get the lights turned back on.

Access Denial: In Loring Park, a guy was selling drugs from his apt. We set up our bright tent across from his building to create “access denial”. We’ve done that other places, sometimes with Mad Dads.

The most fun thing we’ve ever done, was to be in the alley outside of SexWorld, at closing time. Nothing makes a young man run faster than seeing women of a certain age handing out safety literature. We had a ball and it worked. They’re closed in Mpls.

Service Work:

The squad car memorial for Officer Jamal Mitchell was staffed 24 hours/day for 13 days with our help.

We’re sending 40 volunteers to help with the Battle of the Badges dinner.

In the North Loop by the Rabbit Hole, we assisted people out of their Uber Lyfts, and got them to use the crosswalk.

In the 1st Precinct, we passed out info at Inspector Peterson’s and Chief O’Hara’s requests.

We do open houses at Precincts and have done potlucks and BBQs.

We’ve done a Personal Safety workshop here in the 2nd Pct.

We do cookies at the MPD graduations and ceremonies.

QQ: How often do people try to walk through the neighborhoods?

Johnson: It depends weekly, twice weekly or once a month Even a once-monthly walk exposes the neighbors to each other. You are seen out there, in your orange shirts, walking together. Then you learn about the other events that are open to safety clubs.

Our only requirement is that you believe that neighbors and business and law enforcement together stand for a safer community. If you have a quarrel with any of that, we will still urge you to walk in your neighborhood, but believe our network is not a good fit for you.

Comment: it sounds like you start the group, but they have a lot to organize.

Johnson: They do. I do the overall things like getting people the t-shirts, getting them invited to all the events. Then the neighborhood itself needs to schedule the walks and communicate at that level.

QQ: Do you have safety concerns?

Johnson: We do training with the precincts, quarterly. We’ve had enough training so we would never go into a scenario alone and try to do something. We call 911 if we need to. We’ve seen that if we’re standing around in our orange shirts and watching, it shoos people away.

The Loring Park Lt. gave us a lot of coaching when we were across from a drug house. He said if they come out and start yelling at you, evacuate. When people were scaring Lotus patrons, we told the Lt. that we can’t do this on our own, and asked him to have Mad Dads there. Mad Dads came the next week and it was a whole different world. So we don’t worry too much about it. We do what we can. We feel fairly confident but not in a foolhardy way.

The 2nd Pct is a different ballgame. It’s mostly prevention. Presenting a strong community presence can be very discouraging to people who are trying to do harm. You operate on the idea if you are paying attention to your neighborhood you’re safer. Sheridan started because they wanted to get in front of it. That’s been a really good model.

Some people will think if they don’t have 25 people it’s not worthwhile but that’s that’s not true. We don’t believe we can solve large problems. But we think that we make a difference solving smaller problems.

An abandoned building was set afire many times; squatters were going in, constantly. We did what we could there. It’s up to the city to solve the squatting problem, but we can help with the building. We walked around the building, picked up litter, kept our eyes on it. We kept the pressure on Lisa Goodman until the city(?) secured the building. We kept up the trash pickup, because there were still people living outside.They would leave every day and we kept up the trash pickup.

QQ: .How many hours do people walk?

Johnson: Some groups like to go longer, but 90 minutes tends to be a really nice time.

Q: is there a common time?

Johnson: No. We started the North Loop at 5 a.m. on weekends. Mill District is afternoons. North Loop is early evening. It just depends on what the group wants. Kingfield’s walking at 6 a.m. on Monday mornings.

The thing is: almost every group picks up litter. We’re not vigilantes and we make that clear. We’re trying to grow strong friendships and report street lights that are out.

QQ How do you start?

Johnson: People ask me and I and tell them what it’s all about. Then they find like 4 or 5 five friends. Next we get coaching and I walk with them a couple of times. Then I pull back.

Summary: It’s easy to start. We don’t allow people who want to carry guns. We are kind to each other. If we have a problem person, we remove that person.

QQ: Do you go to neighborhood meetings?

Johnson: Only if they ask us.We really like word of mouth. We’re walking in 24 neighborhoods right now. We grow organically and we prefer that. We don’t force any growth. But, if you invite me, I go. Then if people want to join, I’ll get an email or something a few days later.

QQ Do you have any church related groups?

Johnson: We can do a group for a church itself if they just want their own members and they don’t want to be part of the neighborhood.

Comment: Dinkytown is part of the University District where Emilie and I live. It’s largely students and a few early career professionals — very few seniors. Looking at photos of your groups — these are folks who’ve been around for a while and who care about their neighborhood. What are your suggestions for neighborhoods like the University District where there just aren’t many people who look like us?

Johnson: We had hoped the parents of the students who asked us to form this would dedicate this time and that their children would walk with them. We weren’t surprised when the children weren’t showing up, But we were surprised when the parents weren’t.

We might make it if we go through the Greek system to get them community service credit for that work.

Our most committed people generally have lived in the neighborhood for quite a long time. It’s antithetical because our clubs are actually needed out there in Dinkytown at 10PM or later. We haven’t got the answer to that one.

Comment: About Dinkytown: for a short time, some of the Somali elders from Cedar-Riverside were walking Dinkytown. Is that still happening?

Response: I think they’re mostly at Stone Arch now but they do go into Dinkytown as well. We were told in March that the U of M and MPD were working on a contract with them for this summer, but the contract wasn’t signed until last week. I believe the funding was taken over by the Office of Community Safety. The Somali mothers are going to be at the Stone Arch Bridge and in Dinkytown. Then the Park Board has another group of culturally specific outreach workers they contract with. That group has been at the Stone Arch and Father Hennepin Park area.

See STATE OF THE PRECINCT, part 2 of 9/25 meeting.

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Sept. 8 Meeting, Part 2: STATE OF THE PRECINCT

Posted on September 25, 2025 | Leave a comment

STATE OF THE PRECINCT

NIBRS 28 Crime Report.

Crime 2025 2024 3 Yr Ave.
Assault 83 77 80
Incl. Domestic Ag 8 8 8
B&E 25 26 27
Vandalism 122 87 78
Homicide non neg. 0 0 1
Homicide negligent 0 0
Larceny 184 171 192
Robbery 8 12 11
Incl.car jacking 1 3 3
Sex offenses 0 1 1
Weapons law violations. 2 1 5
Shots fired 29 22 27
Gun wound victims 4 2 2

Inspector Torborg: Assaults are up for the last 28 days but they’re still down compared to last year — year to date they’re down about 50.

The destruction and vandalism is primarily kids going around breaking windows out of cars and stealing from the cars. That’s slowed down a little bit. We’ve made progress and identified some suspects, but it’s painstakingly slow. Over the past weekend, we did not have anything of the scale we’ve had in the past so we’re getting there.

If you look at a crime map of damage to autos year to date, there are hundreds of them in some neighborhoods. The boldness, of course, is frustrating; equally frustrating is that when we find them, they’re not held accountable.

QQ: You said you have some suspects. Have any arrests been made?

Torborg: City-wide incidents, about five different suspects. They get arrested and charged. Some just get charged by a complaint. Then it’s up to the Juvenile Court system to deal with them or not.

We’ve had some success with some of the damage to autos. We called crime scene people out to process the cars if we thought there was any chance of getting fingerprints. Sure enough, they were able to lift some prints off the vehicles that were damaged and identify some suspects!

That’s helpful because if we get a group of kids going out on the street damaging cars, how do we prove that the suspect we grabbed actually was taking part in damaging the cars? Well, when their fingerprints are found inside the car that’s pretty good.

Today we had a known auto thief crash a stolen car by a park. Thanks to good witnesses we were able to track him and take him into custody. It turns out he’s a prolific car thief, especially in the 5th Pct. Now he’s in, and he’s not a juvenile anymore so he got sent to the adult jail for at least 36 hours.

QQ: Are minors that end up in the juvenile court system detained?

Torborg: They get assigned to their parents. I heard a public information story at a meeting last week. In either the 3rd or the 5th Pct, two kids were arrested in stolen cars. The kids know the officers and talked to them. They said they love stealing cars. It’s what they did for fun and they would keep doing it. In this case they’re openly admitting they were going to continue stealing cars. Both were released an hour later.

The next day, the same kids were arrested, same story, went to JDC and released an hour later. The next night they got a stolen car again, but one wasn’t going with the program at JDC so he actually stayed for a while. The other was released an hour later.

I don’t think there’s been media coverage. Some people claim they don’t have enough secure beds to hold the violent juvenile offenders, and others claim that stealing cars isn’t a crime of violence. I (Torborg) would argue otherwise because the cars are used as a tool for other crimes of violence. [discussion of who pays for the repairs? Owner’s deductible, or insurance coverage or the parents of the minor?]

QQ: Porch pirates seem to be popping up again. Do they fall into the larceny category? My other question: MPD calls for service overall down. The concern some of us have is that people are not calling in when crime is too bad.

Torborg: You mean you’re wondering if in some parts of the city, they’ve been victims of damaged properties so often that they don’t even bother to report it anymore? [EQ: the directive is “Call It In, Every Time]

My property crimes lieutenant didn’t give me the numbers but we had a rash of catalytic converter thefts deaths again. The 2nd PCT didn’t get hit that hard at first, but now there’s been a bunch in the 2nd, so we need to keep watch. Battery operated power tools have gotten so good, somebody can climb under a car and cut off a catalytic converter in a matter of minutes. Once in a while we’ll get a good video of one and they just slide underneath. Sometimes they’ll park a car next to the car they’re working on and they’re in and out in a minute.

[Brief discussion of rebuilding 2-PAC Board.]

Emilie Quast, Member
2nd Precinct Advisory Council
1911 Central Ave NE
Mpls, MN 55418

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May 12 Meeting, Part 2: STATE OF THE PRECINCT

Posted on August 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

STATE OF THE PRECINCT – May 12, 2025

NIBRS Crime Metrics, Last 28 days 2025 2024 3 yr ave.

Assault 70 88 84 Incl. Domestic Ag. Assault 7 16 9

Break and Entry 12 13 20

Vandalism 54 74 69

Homicide, negligent 0 0 Homicide, non-negligent 0 1 1

Larceny 167 184 190

MV Theft 51 115 98

Robbery 6 24 16 Incl. Car-Jacking 1 0 2

Sex Offenses 4 10 10

Stolen Property 1 1 1

Weapons Law Violations 3 4 6

Gun Wound Victims 0 1 2

Shots Fired Calls 21 25 22A

Inspector Torborg: Everything is trending in the right direction.

One frustrating thing we deal with in the 2nd Pct. more than anything else is auto thefts, and it’s all over the board. One week will be as low as 8 for the precinct, and the next week we’ll have 20 some, and then the week after that we’ll have 12.

We’re focusing on why we’re still having relatively high levels of auto thefts. We’re figuring out where some of these suspects live, and link auto thefts with the motor vehicle recoveries.

We have a couple known auto thieves in NE Minneapolis, juveniles, so we’ve been working with the juvenile division to see if more work can be done with them. It’s weather dependent too, so that’s a little tricky to deal with.

The Qawah House coffee shop: I was excited. Most cops are fans of coffee shops, and that one was opening right across the street from the precinct. It would have been very convenient for us. When they opened, I went over there and had a good cup of coffee.

Unfortunately, the first weekend in May, it immediately got out of control with large crowds as someone already said. it was not just the noise, not just the disorderly people, but trash left everywhere.

When we get a situation like this, the first thing I do is check with licensing. Sure enough, they’re supposed to close at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. They were operating well past their hours. So they’re not off to a very good start.

Licensing has already mailed them a letter indicating that they’re violating the terms of their license. I stopped over there with a lieutenant and a sergeant the next day. We asked for the manager, but when three experienced people in uniforms come walking in, owners and managers usually become very scarce.

I’m still trying to make phone contact with the owner, but he never seems to answer his phone and his voicemail is always full. I want to make personal contact with him so I can give him a friendly reminder that we value his business and they’ve got a good thing going over there, but they have to keep things under control and pay attention to operating within their hours.

Also, other businesses in the second precinct have their workers go out after closing and clean up the parking lot out to half a block away. They clean up all the litter in case it was some of their customers that left the litter. I like to encourage them to do that.

Qawah has gotten to the point where we had to chain that entrance to the precinct, because people were hanging out in our parking lot and filling it up. It became a party.

Last week, we had a horrible incident. A large group gathered outside of Qawah, and got out of control. Some people started to show off with their vehicles, [hot running]. One person thought it would be a good idea to zip past the coffee shop doing about 80 on his motorcycle. He hit a car a few blocks up the street and was very severely injured, but not killed. It was quieter for a couple of days, but then it picked up again this weekend.

When the hot running starts, civilians wonder, “Why don’t you just stop all those cars and take them in? Remember, we have a staffing issue in the 2nd Pct. Especially on weekend nights, we’re pretty busy. We don’t have the time to just hang out in front of the precinct and deal with that issue. Hopefully, the owner will get the message, and we won’t have to take more severe steps, but we won’t put up with that kind of nonsense.

Quast: I recall during Ramadan last year, a coffee shop owner had to negotiate later hours. I think you handled that negotiation and got the parties together.

Inspector: That’s kind of a success story. To be honest, it got ugly last year.

The owner hadn’t gotten an extended hours permit. Maybe he wasn’t aware of the rules. Unfortunately, he had a shooting there. When we increased patrols in the area last year, the owner made accusations.

But this year, he approached us well before Ramadan, filed the proper paperwork and had a good security plan. We didn’t have a single incident there during Ramadan at that shop. In fact, they’re going to stay open a little later now, year round.

That’s why we have a business licensing unit in the city. If we continue to have problems, Qawah House will start getting fines and that’ll cut into their profit margin. Maybe they’ll take it a little more seriously.

Comment: So I’ve got one more question. When they’re operating later than their licensed hours, is that something the police would cite?

Torborg: We would document it and forward that information to licensing. Licensing is on the civil side of law, not criminal. The licensing unit or the business licensing department of the city would mail them a fine.

You might be wondering why we just don’t walk across the street and shut them down. We really don’t have that option unless it’s like a riot situation. We try to handle [restaurant hours] on the civil-law side.

Question about precinct perimeter cameras:

Torborg: We actually do have a couple cameras already in place that cover it. The regular precinct security cameras show the activities, so there’s no debating what’s going on.

My office faces the restaurant. I can hear everything if I open my window or not. The kids are all hanging out in front of the precinct on the sidewalk, and they’re sitting on the walls in front of their car. They’re just goofing around and they’re loud.

I’m glad they’re having a good time. It’s good, clean fun. There’s nothing wrong with that at seven o’clock at night. But at midnight or later, that’s not acceptable.

We are putting up 15 minute time limit parking signs in our parking lot on the west side, too. We have people park in our lot at night, and they’re causing issues. It’s pretty easy to write the driver a parking tag, if they’re just hanging out being loud. We’ll see how it works. It’s a good plan and it’s worked well before.

Before I take that road, I’d like to meet the manager face to face and give him a chance. I don’t know if this person has much experience with running a business, and maybe he just didn’t know. Unfortunately, 31 years of law enforcement made me kind of cynical. I don’t know what he’s telling about himself, doing all of this directly across my precinct, but it’s kind of revealing.

Quast: You know, the quiet time ordinance? If you live in the University district, springtime parties can get so loud That is just quieted down. It’s been very effective, so I’m sorry it’s not working up on Central.

Torborg: I just thought of one last thing I want to say.

We’ve gotten questions about the open house this year. Typically we have it either this week or next week. This week we have 30 or 40 Minneapolis police officers in Washington because they’re adding Officer Mitchell’s name to the Law Enforcement Memorial in DC. That meant we don’t have extra staff right now to do an open house, so we postponed it until August 2.

Saturday, August 2, is an Open Streets event on Central Avenue. Central will be closed for quite a distance. Precinct Open House will dovetail nicely with the open streets event on Central, so we’re going to have our open house then.

Quast: Thank you very much!

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April 2-PAC Neighbors reporting Pranks, Livability Issues and Crime, & State of the Precinct.

Posted on July 6, 2025 | Leave a comment

The meeting was called to order at 6:37; 8 people attended in person and 8 on Zoom. However, the system didn’t start recording until several minutes into the meeting.

Our representative from the 2nd Precinct was Lt. Ryan Johnson.

After introductions and a summary of the topic for tonight, we started

Quast: I live in Southeast Como, which is normally a safe and relatively quiet place. Recently, things have been changing.

Our much-loved Tuttle School building has been vacant for several years, although it is maintained by MPS. People have

been breaking in and “touring” but doing relatively minimal damage — which doesn’t make the break-ins less concerning.

Last month, for the first time, I found an abandoned, busted Kia in front of my house. Thanks to several presentations at 2-PAC, I knew what it was. Tip off: it was a Kia with a messed up ignition — both are earmarks of a stolen car, so I called it in.

A week or two later, I spotted someone clearly dumping stuff in the trash area of the empty school building across the street.

The people weren’t trying to hide what they were doing. Then I noticed they had left a bike lying across my sidewalk. A few

people in my area use wheelchairs and a lot of parents push their kids around in strollers so I walked the bike back to them

across the street and asked if the bike was theirs.

“Yeah, I left it. It’s broken”

“Well, I can see it’s broken but you can’t leave it here because we have neighbors who need access to the sidewalk.

If it’s broken, you’ll have to carry it home, and you do have to keep it off the sidewalk.”

They continued to do what looked like they were dismantling other bicycles, (found or stolen?) and I did call it in, but it was not a crime in progress. There was no person in danger. They were dismantling “abandoned” bikes, and that is an opinion not an observation.

We have graffiti occasionally in SE Como, but I just take a picture and send that to 311 with the address, so it gets cleaned off quickly, usually by the city.

Does anybody have any other “Eyes On The Street” reports?

Gayle from Waite Park: I just see quite a bit on the Ring app. It’s mostly people at night trying handles on cars to see

if they’re unlocked so they can get in and steal the goods inside. A lot of that is showing up on this area’s Ring cameras in

alleys and streets. There are also some porch pirates. Ring cameras don’t give you the exact address, but you do

get a map. I would say it’s Audubon, Waite Park, Holland. My big concern is a lot of people seem reluctant to call 911.

Lt. Johnson: People can call 911 for any reason. It’s unfortunate that sometimes people are reluctant to do that.

We also have 311, which is for non-emergency calls. If you call 911 but aren’t reporting a crime in progress, you

might be forwarded to 311.

Obrestad (ULCH Administrator): I’ve had that issue at the church. I’m trying to train our volunteers and staff to call 911.

We might say we’ve got a homeless person who’s trespassing. They’re not causing an issue right now.

Sometimes there’s a squad there in a minute and a half. Other times it’s three hours. If it’s a long time, we know more

critical things are going on. We also know if it’s not reported, it’s not going to be addressed.

I’ve noticed that people with Ring cams are reporting, “Oh, we saw this”, or, “We’ve seen this”. It’s not necessarily an increase in crime. It’s an increase of picking it up on camera.

People are saying crime is so much worse than it was 10 years ago. No. Ten years ago, nobody had Ring cams. We have to keep that in mind. We don’t know.

Quast: But, if it doesn’t get reported, the data is flawed, right? then if no one knows what’s going on in the 2nd Precinct, we won’t get the help we need up here. That message just doesn’t seem to be getting through to our neighbors. Of course, there’s still an element of people who just don’t want anything to do with the police.

Obrestad: There are people who don’t think trespassing is an issue. If there’s not somebody with a gun, they think I shouldn’t call 911 because it’s not a reporting option. I don’t know how they know the person doesn’t have a gun. I’m going to assume they do have something dangerous. I’m calling. Again, training people: “No, you need to call.”

Quast: I think there’s a problem, again, going back to the old block club thing. I don’t know how to get that restarted without the MPD backing it up, but it’s much easier to call your neighbor and say, “Have you seen [whatever]”?

It’s much easier to bring the point up at a neighborhood meeting and see who else around the table has had the same problem.

I have called 9-1-1 about something that was very iffy. The person who took my call the first time I did it said, “Yeah, we should send a squad out. I’ll see if there’s one available”. We agreed that it was a person in “possible” danger.

The second time it was definitely not a person in danger, and the operator shuttled me right over to 3-1-1. No harm, no foul. So if you call and it’s the wrong number, you know what? They’ll still take care of you. You still need to report and let the operators enter it in the system.

Okay, anybody else got any more stories?

Resident of Monroe Village: People have been sleeping in the entry foyer and someone broke in to steal

the master postal box key. The building manager posted pictures of the person and reminded residents to

never admit people they don’t know.

A neighbor of SE Como reported that he’s never called 911, but MPD called him when his car was stolen.

Obrestad: The new East Bank Association met in person for the first time in University Lutheran Church

of Hope (ULCH). Over 100 people showed up. There is a lot of traction in a group that large. I think

keeping this kind of stuff tied in with that group is important. When a lot of people show up, you can get this info out.

Quast: Nathan and Steve are both members of the new East Bank Association. Could they ask Chris (association director) to look into recreating the safety officer position? That used to be an appointed position. Our Crime Prevention Specialists could help them figure out what they could be doing.

I learned that the Prospect Park security officer acts at the direction of the Chair of the Association. That’s another somebody who could be coming here and exchanging information STATE OF THE PRECINCT
Four weeks ending April 14, 2025

Assault, slightly down but domestic assault is up. B&E steady. Vandalism is humming. Homicides: we didn’t have any. Larceny is going down. MVT is getting there. Carjacking is level. Sex offenses, slightly down. Gunshot wound victims, none! Shots fired isway down.

I hoped to put up an incident map for this, but my computer was reluctant to take the screenshot I wanted, sorry.

The point that I wanted to share with you is when you look at the NIBRS incident map of the 2nd Precinct, the hot spot is at the bottom with StadiumVillage and Dinkytown, and then it lightens up a lot as you move north on the map through East Marcy Holmes. The higher you go, the fewer incidents you get.

I don’t believe that’s “as” true for livability crimes, but I can’t prove it because nobody calls unless it’s a very, very serious crime, which gets the mark on the map.

We’ll have to follow up on this in future meetings.

Comment: I am curious about when they’re going to go radio silence the police and do the encryption. Are they doing that here too?

Response: Yeah, it’s a statewide and I think nationwide thing that all the police departments are going to encrypted radios. When is it happening?

Quast: I’ll ask the Inspector to comment on this at our next meeting.

One more report from Diana Halsey about police response: Over here on East Hennepin, the only thing I really see going on is those power cars that zoom up and down East Hennepin late at night, or early morning. A couple months ago, they were just on the north side of East Hennepin, zooming around in the parking lots and stuff.

I called 9-1-1. The response was phenomenal. There were so many squads here so fast.And they were going around with those bright lights and stuff and everything. It was just really something.

Quast: So I’m glad you said this. We will pass it on. That definitely shoots down, “They never come.”

Halsey: There was one other time that I called. Some teenagers looked like they were throwing punches at each other. A squad of very young officers showed up very quickly. The very few times that I do actually need to call, I’ve never had a problem with response time. Not when it’s something like that.

Quast: Good.Thank you very, very much, Diana All right. We’ve gotten started here.Does anybody else have some things they want to get into the record? [None]

I have to thank you for being patient with us. We started with a handful of snafus, but we got together and we got a couple of really good reports. Thank you and good evening.

Emilie Quast, Member

MPD 2nd Precinct Advisory Council

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March meeting, part 1: MPD Outreach to Youth

Posted on July 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

The March 2025 2-PAC meeting was called to order at 6:37, 9 attending in person and 6 by Zoom.

Our topic tonight is MPD Outreach to Youth, and our speaker is Lt. Kelly O’Rourke.

Lt. O’Rourke: I’ve been with the police department for 28 years. For 22 of those, I’ve been an investigator, either managing or investigating in one capacity or another. Right now, I manage our juvenile investigation division.

I’ve been told you are interested in hearing about the Curfew Task Force. I refer to it as Youth Outreach.

I’ll start with the inception.

Everybody has heard about juvenile crime getting more violent, and offenders getting younger, committing carjackings, auto thefts, robberies, burglaries — all violent crimes. I’ve spent the last two years managing the juvenile unit, but prior to that, I focused on gangs, violent crimes. I was told to figure this out.

In August ’24, we met with Community Outreach for a two-week pilot project, “Barclose”. The project put us together for two weeks on foot patrols and in meetings to gather info and plan strategy. We decided we would focus on groups of kids who were coming downtown.

Outreach teams would approach the kids, advise them of curfew issues, and ask them if they needed services, like, do they need a gym to play in? Do they need a ride back home?

We found the Outreach groups are very useful in working with law enforcement; they have firsthand connections in the community. We used nine different organizations: about 66 personnel from the community, and 10 law enforcement officers.

In two weeks, we were able to divert over 70 kids back into their homes or other family before curfew, giving them rides from downtown or networking with the community to get them back home. There were some contract issues that didn’t allow for some of these Outreach groups to stay out that late, but the kids actually stopped going downtown in those huge groups.

Next, we focused on the kids who were chronic reoffenders and carjackers who we’d see involved in the big sprees throughout the city. We teamed up with Outreach and visited the kids’ homes when they were out of custody.

Our procedure: I or one of my team knocks on the door. We say, “Hi, Ms. Davis. I’m Kelly from the Juvenile Unit. We’re here just checking on Jameer. Do you guys need any services? Is Jameer home? Does he need a place to go tonight? Does he need a ride to practice? Do you guys need anything?”

We’d get answers like, “Everything’s all good.” or “Sure, my kid would love to go to the park.” or “My kid would love to go up to the gym.”

Then we’d call up Outreach, and “Hey, Jameer would like something to do tonight if there’s somebody that wants to come and have fun with them, go teach them some things, or hang out with them.”

The alternative home response we met was confrontation, and the door slammed. Then you’d hear the parents saying, “Hey, we don’t want the cops here every night. This is embarrassing. You need to get your act together.”

In those scenarios, we keep coming back every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, every single week.

You’ve probably seen in the media that parents are often single. If their 12 year old is out with other kids in the neighborhood, mom or dad can’t chase after them because they’ve got a 6 and a 4 year old too. Now they can call law enforcement. Then law enforcement contacts Outreach, or vice versa, and we go track down their kids.

Doing this, we’ve developed a good relationship with the parents so they’re real time texting us, with social media locations, like Snap Maps, iPhone locations, AirPod locations, and we’re able to catch up with the kids that much quicker. We either get them back home, or to one of the outreach programs, educational groups, or athletic groups.

Also, when a crime is occurring, we get real time information from moms and dads to tell us where these kids are right now, or where they’re going and who they’re hanging out with. This has increased our ability to identify groups of kids and the networks they’re in and what may or may not be causing the arguments.

Now we’re working with the community and the Office of Neighborhood Safety, to rewrite some RFP [Requests for Proposals] to make these Outreach contracts sustainable. We’ve revamped Our Diversion and Youth Group Violence Initiatives to partner with this model.

We saw a 60% reduction in the numbers of youth entering the criminal justice system from January 1, 2024 to February 6, 2025. We also saw a 44% reduction in all violent crimes involving juveniles. [applause from attenders] Thank you.

The exciting part of that news is that when I say violent crime, that’s homicide shootings, carjackings, aggravated robberies, robberies. Then we added in auto theft, because auto theft is the gateway to all those.

When you add in auto theft, that hurts your numbers. If we took auto theft out of there, we’re closer to the 80% range and the 60% range on those figures. Citywide, I think everybody’s feeling it.

We’re growing a network of families by working directly with the community to keep kids out of trouble. We’re seeing more parks open up longer hours. We’re seeing more schools allow for gym times. We’re seeing churches open up just to have an educational component.

We’re now working on funding and program building at a church [EQ: unnamed] that’s already got a media center set up for the kids, a theater, a kitchen, an art studio, a gym. So, any questions?

Question: Is there any way to participate in what you’re doing and helping?

O’Rourke: Definitely. We’re still working on getting outreach fully contracted to partners. A couple of them — Salem Incorporated, Change Equals Opportunity, and Touch Outreach — volunteer to do this. Obviously, there’s some funding that they get too, when these kids enter into their programs, but a lot of the work they’re doing now is outside the scope of all their contracts and is strictly voluntary.

If you want to join one of the outreach groups, email me when you’re available. As the model grows, there will be opportunity.

Question: What are your plans for the future?

O’Rourke: As Inspector Torberg will tell you, we’re not always in charge of our plans. I think we will get back to where we’ve been in the past, where parks, gyms, schools are cooperating with us, and there’s more ways to reach these kids when they’re younger.

One of the wrongs that we’re righting is that when we go in and deal with criminal behavior in a family, we see younger kids witnessing criminal behavior when they are still very approachable and have a clean slate. We’re making sure that community services come in to handle those younger kids so they get taught that some of the things they’ve seen are not appropriate. That’s [a service] we’ve never had before.

CPS Ali: How do you see that momentum of reduction in violent crime going into the summer?

O’Rourke: I think the word is trust.

There’s been a lot of debate over the last few years about brain development, consequences, restorative practices. I don’t know if anybody listened to Walter Hudson** speak at the [MN State] House last week. There’s a happy medium.

There are definitely consequences that are needed. I can tell you that it’s a small number of kids — I mean less than 50 in our whole city — that need real, serious timeout consequences. Restorative practice also has a place.

The biggest thing we need now is getting secured facilities, so the kids have a break from the past. When practitioners are able to get in touch with these kids, they’re able to make solid headway with restorative treatment.

But when the system returns them to the presence of a violent crime, [treatment] does not work at all. There has to be a breaking point, like a stop point. They need timeout, essentially.

The county is starting to put money into secured facilities. Back when things were much better, before COVID and the George Floyd era, we had county home schools. A big difference: back then they didn’t focus on mental health.

Right now, there’s no place to bring these kids that’s permanently funded. They can have service providers but it’s hard to get to those kids. That’s the biggest barrier.

Advocating for the middle ground: know that we in law enforcement, aren’t here to lock up every kid. But we’re also not here to let violence multiply tenfold either.

[Discussion about the former Bike Cops for Kids team. EQ: we’ll follow up in a later meeting]

O’Rourke: We’re going to add a mobile response for outreach to the juveniles through the city. That’s the next step in this program. I forgot that piece. We’re going to get to that point for sure.

O’Rourke: One thing within the precincts that Outreach uses to build confidence in these kids is finding local barbers or people who do hair, within the community who are willing to donate time in their chair. It’s a common expense that these outreach people are paying out of their pockets because it’s difficult to get reimbursed, but it makes a huge difference in the confidence of a kid. And, that’s a lot of time where an adult male can spend some time with a young male, just talking and sitting down and engaging. Just talking about life skills that the kids weren’t given when they were younger.

So, think about finding people within the community who have services that they can donate or, you know, or odd jobs. Outreach is very good at figuring out how to put kids on a payroll, whether it’s mowing lawn, washing cars, cleaning up the trash on the sidewalks in the neighborhood. They use their Outreach budgets to pay these kids.

Money’s always an incentive, teaching them how to budget. There are a lot of life skills that the outreach groups are teaching these kids. Ways to provide an opportunity to develop life skills is something that most people don’t think of when they’re volunteering.

Question: Who do we contact if we know somebody who wants to do haircuts for these kids or teach them a skill or whatever?

O’Rourke: Right now you can contact me. It’s a work in progress. We’re getting to a point where if this model keeps growing at this pace, if we can keep hiring and developing these relationships, so the network just gets bigger, we’ll be able to spread out resources.

This started out with the 10 of us chasing carjackers every Friday and Saturday night. Now we’re walking up to doors and figuring out where we can find entertainment for these children for the night.

Comment from Obrestad: We have a good focus on children at University Lutheran Church of Hope, and we have the PEASE Charter School there.

I think we don’t connect enough with the community to understand what some of those needs are. I think there’s a lot of times where if somebody reached out to us, we could possibly provide some support and volunteers, but we don’t necessarily know where to go for that. I think the more communication we have with this group, the better we can provide some of those services.

We’ve got a great organization, but we don’t necessarily know what the needs are.

O’Rourke: One of the things I can do here that’s very simple is I can send a list of the vetted outreach organizations that we’re working with. If you have a space that could be utilized for activities we can give the outreach a call. They can work with you to figure out how to staff it. [Discussion of coordinating with the Outreach teams.]

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hudson_(Minnesota_politician)

Emilie Quast, Member

MPD Second Precinct Advisory Council

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Tagged Crime Prevention, Minneapolis Police Department., Youth Outreach

March meeting Part 2: STATE OF THE PRECINCT

Posted on July 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

STATE OF THE PRECINCT

NIBRS Crime statistics 2025 2024 3 YR. AVE

Assault 50 92 74
Inc. Dom. Ag. Aslt. 1 2 2
B&E 11 23 24
Homicide negl. 0 0 –
Homicide non-neg 0 0 0
Larceny 119 150 160
MV Theft 60 64 76
Robbery 6 17 12
Inc. car jacking 5 5 7
Sex offenses 1 8 10
Stolen property 1 2 2
Weap. Law Viol. 2 7 5
Gun Wound Vics. 0 2 2
Shots fired calls 13 28 21

Inspector Torborg: We’re down across the board, which is really good. But I don’t take anything for granted. We also had some very cold weather that usually slows things down.

There are some patterns that usually coincide with spring break — we get hit with a high level of crime. Then it drops off.

We have some events coming up this weekend. We’re preparing for the Northeast Pub Crawl, [EQ: Google www.crawlwith.us/minneapolis/bigne This is the 8th Crawl.] which is getting bigger and bigger every year. A lot of people will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday. That is followed by Spring Jam, which is not solely our problem. Then graduation, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July. [the list goes on].

Obrestad: You bring up a point for us. ULCH is three blocks off campus.

About safety: University students who live by us do not have access to Blue Light Emergency Phones. The closest is three blocks away. I would like to see those expanded.

Another thing is the Safety Center in Dinkytown. ULCH has the PEASE Academy, but our students are not part of the U of M, so they don’t have access to the center. There is no walk-in. I’m wondering if there’s a way that maybe that could be adapted to PEASE students. Maybe they could get a card or a pass? These are high school students who are in the area.

What can we do to open that Center a little bit more to the community? One of the pastors from the University Baptist Church went over and, no, they wouldn’t let them in because the center is for University students. I would think the pastor of the University Baptist Church should be able to walk in the door.

This looked great when it was first advertised. Now I see there’s this section of people that could use that, but don’t have access to it.

Inspector Torborg: Former Chief Clark and I had a lot of conversations about that safety center and their vision for it. I think they envisioned it as more of a student center, a place where students can go and study.

Obrestad: I’m thinking of that as a place where [other people] can go to say, “I don’t feel safe.” It would be a place to go for people in a crisis situation. They could say, “Hey, if you feel scared; if you’re at the high school and your ride doesn’t show up, go right here.”

[EQ: as a former homeowner on 13th Ave SE, half a block from ULCH, I agree having “Something” in the n’hood for all residents and students to access would be great.]

Inspector Torborg: Before I forget: I talked to a Channel 11 reporter on the phone tonight for Channel 11. They’re doing a story on the U of M Safety Center and also the Memo of Agreement we have with U of M. They’re the primary responder to 911 calls [for part of East Marcy Holmes] They interviewed somebody with the U of M and then she talked to me on the phone.
It was a phenomenal switch. The UMPD took over a share of the 911 calls to relieve pressure in other areas. The year before we took about 500 calls from there. The couple of calls a day that they handle makes a difference. Plus many of the calls we handled there involved U of M students and sometimes the issues that were involved were U of M policies. So it was all intertwined.

In the long run, the U of M students who called 911, typically had less wait time for police service there. It was a win for them, and it helped Minneapolis residents because it freed up Minneapolis officers to answer other 911 calls or do more patrols in the Dinkytown area.

We had people who didn’t want to “put a burden on the system for ‘frequent flyers'”. When that switch happened, [people realized] they were not taking something from someone else by calling and reporting.

One more thing that’s vexing is the auto thefts. They’ve been all over the board in our case.

Three weeks ago, we only had four auto thefts in the whole precinct, which was an all time record since I’ve been here. This is great! Our projects are really paying off. Everybody was rushing to take credit for the 4, which happened to be when it was about 20 below.

But then the next week, we had 30.

Then last week, we’re down to 18. For a while, we’re averaging in the low 20s. So that’s a little bit lower, but we’re still around 20 to 30. About 25 to 30% of the vehicles are Kia’s or Hyundai’s.

Question: What is the attraction with a Kia or Hyundai?

Inspector Torborg: They’re easy to steal. You can get in, you don’t need a key. As fast as the companies update them, somebody figures out a workaround and posts it online. Then they drive around and commit other crimes. They steal more cars, do carjackings, do robberies. We have days where some kids will get into a couple stolen cars and there’s a spree of crime in a given area.

Comment: Change topic. 19th Avenue. I look out my windows onto 19th Avenue. Cars are parked there all the time and never get a ticket. [Discussion on parking over 72 hours on the street. See Minneapolis Code of Ordinances 476.250 (a) EQ]

Inspector: We only work off complaints. Parking violation calls are routed to traffic control, a separate department. If they get a complaint, they’ll go out, mark the car and then come back. Call 311 for that.

Question: I know now we’ve hired people, and they’re getting up to speed, but it wasn’t as many as the police department lost. When we were at the lowest point, do you know how many numbers, what percentage?

Inspector Torborg: Right before 2020, we had about 850 officers. Since 2020, almost 500 officers have left the department. But we never went down to 300 officers because we were hiring and training new officers while [while others were leaving. I heard 37 this month.

I don’t think people understand that Minneapolis has had a long history of running very lean for a police department. We always had very few officers compared to the size of the city and the population of the city.

And, our reporting requirements have never been higher. We’re required to do much more reporting now than we used to in the past and that takes time. Many things that pull us away from the street and make us less efficient than we used to be.

We are aggressively recruiting people, and that’s going pretty well considering the intense competition. It takes a long time to get through the Academy. It takes a long time to get your field training.

People don’t understand — you don’t just walk in and say, “I want to be a cop.” Even if you were a cop in another state, you still have to go through all the training to become a police officer in Minneapolis. I know every law enforcement agency, at least in this state, is struggling to get candidates.

We’re doing pretty well. We have an internship program now because we’re trying to get candidates under our wing as early as possible, literally right out of high school. If somebody’s thinking about law enforcement, we’ll give them an internship and pay them. It’s not a lot, but we’ll pay them basically to be an intern, we’ll find stuff for them to do, just to get them in the system.

When they get in college, they can work for us as a CSO, and we’ll help them pay for college and slowly get them trained in. Not every other agency can afford to do that or has the ability to do that.

Why are we attractive to candidates? I think there’s a good pay internship. In the past, we used to have a fair amount of people who’d come here and get trained up and then leave. Today, our pay isn’t bad compared to other agencies. Plus, when you factor in the amount of overtime that’s available, and it’s going to be available for a long time, there’s potential to make a lot more here, than in other places. Plus, some people like to be busy and they want to work in a place where they get to practice their craft.

They want to have a meaningful job and they don’t want to be bored. We have so many different things you can get into once you get hired. After a couple of years, there’s horse patrol, SWAT, we have a drone unit now. There are just so many opportunities. If you don’t like what you’re doing, something’s wrong, because you should be able to find something you like, at least part-time.

For a long time, we were at a financial disadvantage. We couldn’t compete with some of the suburbs for pay. We’re better now, and with the potential for overtime work, it’s tough to beat us.

Question: In about 2015, in North Minneapolis [describes the Special Operations Center] It has a big gym, and they had activities for the kids. They don’t do that anymore, do they?

Torborg: We’re slowly resurrecting it. I think there’s two officers assigned to it now. It evolved. It used to be strictly the Police Athletic League. Then it became the Police Activity League. They did all kinds of stuff, and they had quite a few officers assigned to the unit full-time. Officers would get involved on a part-time basis too. With the staffing crisis, that pretty much went away. We’re slowly, slowly bringing it back. We know that’s important. It’s an investment in the future.

When you don’t have enough cars or squads to answer 911 calls in a timely fashion, it’s a tough balancing act. But slowly, things are getting better.

Emilie Quast, Member

MPD Second Precinct Advisory Council

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2nd Precinct Advisory Council

Oct. Meeting, part 1: De-escalation: What is it? How does it keep us safe?

Oct. Meeting, PART 2: What Is 2-PAC? Coming Soon and Looking ahead. We need your ideas!

Dec, Meeting: Drones and the MPD – State of the Precinct – 12/24 10-Hour Buffet update

Nov. report: State of the Precinct, Outreach planing, Getting ready for 12/24 for First Responders

Sept. 8 meeting, Part 1: Steps toward a safe city: Neighborhood Safety Clubs

Sept. 8 Meeting, Part 2: STATE OF THE PRECINCT

May 12 Meeting, Part 2: STATE OF THE PRECINCT

April 2-PAC Neighbors reporting Pranks, Livability Issues and Crime, & State of the Precinct.

March meeting, part 1: MPD Outreach to Youth

March meeting Part 2: STATE OF THE PRECINCT

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