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

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 

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.