2-PAC January 9

Start the New Year with up to date information about our city.  Ten times a year, the MPD Second Precinct Advisory Committee (2-PAC) brings in a speaker with information about services most of us don’t know enough about — services that improve livability east of the river and services that keep our crime statistics low.

Join us this Monday, January 9, at 6PM.  We meet in the Monroe Village Community Room, 1900 Central Avenue NE.  There is always plenty of free parking on Central Avenue and on the nearby cross streets.  19th and Central is a bus stop too.

Our speaker this month is Lt. Joanne Sellner from the Metro Transit Police.  This police force is responsible for the 4th largest jurisdiction in Minnesota, working in 8 counties and 85 cities. The force includes 111 full-time officers, 76 part-time officers, 12 community service officers, 16 administrative staff, and 4 K-9s, including Merle who has his own video.  The department has a (CSO) Community Service Officer training program for people who are studying to become law officers, giving them some hands on experience before they are ready to be sworn in.  The department partners with civilian groups (MADDADS is one) and services that raise awareness of sex trafficing and  other abusive behaviors.  One more unusual service the Transit Police offer is  supplying bus evacuation and transportation after disasters or any time when other emergency responders need to move large groups of people quickly. You can find out more about the Officer Training Program and about Merle (with his human partner) here:

https://www.metrotransit.org/who-we-are

We’ll have time for a 10-minute Q&A period following the presentation.

Inspector Loining will present the State of the Precinct report.  If you read the Jan.5 S’Trib, you saw that violent crime in the Second Precinct fell by more than 2%.  The charts on the webpage are different, but say the same thing.  (The story is focused on scare statistics and pretty much ignores us.)

Courtwatch will resume after a month long break, so attorneys Sarah Becker and Deb Russell will help us catch up.

Our business meeting will include a brief summary of the 33rd noon to midnight  dinner for all metro area first responders working on 12-24.  We formally extended  that to include breakfast rolls and sandwich and salad lunches for people working at the Second Precinct on 12-25.