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
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 