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!
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 