STATE OF THE PRECINCT Whether pushed by the mild temperatures or Holiday Break, crime is up. People have more free time and one less reason to stay home.
Data from the MPD Crime Dashboard:
Crime Metric 2024 2023 3-yr. ave
Assault 78 64 64
Burglary B&E 17 20 24
Damage to prop. 102 43 44
Homicide, non-neg 2 0
Homicide, negligent 0 0
Larceny theft 155 79 159
M.V. Theft 79 79 64
Robbery 8 4
Incl. Car-jacking 2 0 3
Sex offenses 7 4 17
Stolen property off. 0 1 4
Weapon Law Viol. 4 3 5
*Domestic Ag.Aslt. 17 7 9
Shots fired calls 18 10 19
Gunshot Vics 3 0 1
QQ: How should we report an incident to 911 when we call? Asker had a person show up on her Ring video who appeared to be having a mental health crisis. She asked the 911 operator to send someone with that training but is wondering if residents should offer that info because we don’t have training in that.
Inspector Torborg: When you contact a 911 dispatcher, give them as much information as you can. If the person is doing something criminal, a Police Officer will go out with the Social Worker. There are many times when an officer is called to “crime in progress” and the behavior described suggests that a mental crisis specialist is needed on the call. In those cases, the officers make sure the situation is safe for the behavioral specialist. The only time when a Behavioral Crisis team is dispatched without an officer is when there is no crime occurring.
QQ South Minneapolis has teams of violence preventers. Do we have this in the 2nd Pct.?
Torborg: There are different groups that get called to these incidents. Last summer in Dinkytown, we had Somali Mothers who contract with the Office of Violence Prevention.
QQ: So many people are saying, “Don’t bother calling 911”. What do you think about that?
Torborg: Do keep calling 911. The calls are tallied and that is one of the resources we DO use to allocate resources. If people don’t call 911, response times are going to be even slower in the future.
After we make an arrest, it’s up to the County Attorney to decide if they will be charged. When we bring someone in, it is VERY often true that this person has previous arrests — sometimes they have many previous arrests. People hear about repeat offenders and assume repeat offenders are out there because the cops are not doing their jobs. Actually, it’s other offices in the criminal justice system that have failed and allowed this person to go back to the public and victimize people.
CPS Ali: There is one more light. Since the inception of the 988 Lifeline (previously the Suicide Prevention Lifeline) there are more resources for people in mental health crisis. Also, some of the officers have received special training for when this response is needed. People with this training can filter calls to determine what kind of response is needed. This is a new territory for all of us, including the Police Department.
We’ve all seen this frustration that “officers don’t come” One reason for this is that we don’t have enough officers.
QQ: How is recruiting going?
Inspector Torborg: Not well. They are starting a new academy this spring. They had 60 applicants. After the applications were examined, that is now down to 11 people.
Quast: And some of those 11 people will take a job in a suburb or Ramsey County.
Torborg: That goes both ways. We’ve had officers come from those places too. They do have to go through a brief retraining session. Another issue is that we have a lot of officers who are approaching 55 and can retire without penalty. Minneapolis will have that to handle in the near future.
Also, we have not had a contract since January 1, 2023. There doesn’t seem to be any urgency in signing this contract. [EQ: Officers are not allowed to go on strike.]
*Original Star Tribune stories are here:
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-several-underaged-women-say-they-were-drugged-at-dinkytown-bar/600329132/ Dec. 18 story, and.
This event actually occurred in January ’24, and is included in the crime statistics for 1/8, a 28 day compilation. It is part of this month’s report, above.
** The Inspector previously led the MPD Sex Crimes unit. See his 2019 2-PAC presentation at https://courtwatch2pac.com/?s=sex+crimes
YouTube copy of meeting recording: https://youtu.be/kR7bCHrxqQg
Emilie Quast, Member, MPD Second Precinct Advisory Council (2-PAC), 1911 Central Ave NE Minneapolis MN 55418
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 