The meeting was called to order on 11/11/24 at 6:38 pm, with 8 attending in person. On Veterans’ Day, government employees are on leave and not attending.
Introductions:
Stephanie Zakhia announced that this is her last meeting as a technical assistant. She introduced her replacement, Rhana Elhassan, so WELCOME Rhana!
Marie Meyer lives in Marshall Terrace. She feels safe in her neighborhood, and likes coming to the meetings to be sure she’s informed.
Carol White lives in Monroe Village and also likes to stay informed.
Cheri Martin is the Community Administrator of Monroe Village. She feels safer with the Precinct right across the street and having a relationship with the officers. “I’m so pleased that we could bring 2-PAC back in person, back to our building.”
Gayle Bonneville lives in Waite Park. She’s always interested in what’s going on with the police and trying to separate fact from fiction.
Rhana Elhassan is a student at the U of MN and lives in Marcy Holmes. She graduates next year. She represents the Office of Off-Campus Living at the U.
Jeff Meehan is from Nicollet Island East Bank Neighborhood Association. He’s been involved with 2-PAC for about 8 years and involved with his neighborhood organization going on 16 years.
STATE OF THE PRECINCT:
| NIBRS Crime Metrics-28 days | 2024 | 2023 | Prev.3 yrs |
| Assault offenses | 89 | 75 | 77 |
| Incl. Domestic.Ag.Asslt. | 12 | 5 | 9 |
| Burglary, B&E | 23 | 25 | 27 |
| Vandalism | 100 | 89 | 73 |
| Homicide, non-neg. | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Homicide, negligent | 0 | 0 | |
| Larceny theft | 213 | 185 | 88 |
| MV Theft | 80 | 116 | 88 |
| Robbery | 17 | 18 | 22 |
| Incl. car-jacking | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Sex Offenses | 11 | 5 | 7 |
| Stolen Prop. Offences | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Weapons law violations | 4 | 10 | 10 |
| Shots fired calls | 34 | 20 | 28 |
| Gun wound victims | 7 | 1 | 1 |
Second Precinct crime was definitely up this month. Check the stats: assault, vandalism, larceny theft, and shots fired.
Emilie pointed out that while our numbers are up, the 2nd Precinct actually has the lowest crime numbers of the 5 precincts in Minneapolis. She contrasted 2nd Pct statistics with the numbers reported by the 3rd Precinct which reports numbers in the middle of the five.
Our crime stats are not what we want to see, but compared with all the rest of the city, we’re in pretty good shape.
An attender asked if those numbers are really reporting all the incidents. For example, does it include U of M crimes on campus?
There are a couple of things to unpack here.
- The report only collects felony crime, punishable by imprisonment of one year or more, or by a death penalty.
- Misdemeanor crimes may result in a fine, probation, community service. Trespassing (such as when protesters won’t leave a public place) is a misdemeanor, and so is speeding or loitering. The definitions here may vary by state.
- The list of felony crimes is mandated by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. The list is called National Incident-Based Reporting System.
You can read the report here: https://bjs.ojp.gov/national-incident-based-reporting-system-nibrs
While Dinkytown has been headline news for way too long, the area is now covered by MPD, UMPD, the Transit Police. Officers from the MPRB also are working there as needed. Be aware that this double coverage is not just Dinkytown. That coverage is for all of East Marcy Holmes from St. Paul to the Freeway, and from the river to the train tracks north of UMN campus. This includes Stadium Village, and the U of M and Augsburg campuses.
There are also non-police groups watching over us, like Metro Transit Homeless Action Team (HAT), Madd Dads, Somali Youth League, and several Crisis Response teams. That puts a lot of uniformed people on our streets, even if some of the uniforms are t-shirts.
When you check the MPD Crime map, you’ll see that crimes committed on University campus and nearby are reported. Also be aware that the crimes found on the NBIRS are on the felony level, not misdemeanor. A sit-down protester is likely to be charged with 5th degree misdemeanor trespassing. Those stats don’t go on this chart because they are not collected on the national level. FFI: on how to research the data, check Rashid’s presentation here: https://youtu.be/bk81Ll1Lbmk Give yourself time to learn how to use this resource.
QQ: I’ve been asking about non-part one crimes for a long time. Those are the crimes that make people move away. They are livability issues. We need ideas on how to handle them.
Quast: The 2nd Precinct includes 17 neighborhoods. Only SE Como, NIEB, Waite Park, Windom Park, and the University area are represented at this meeting tonight. How do we get the others to join us? They all have insight on livability crimes in their area. I wonder if OCL and Kendra would have insight on how to make that happen.
Comment: Emilie is emailing all of them every month. What do they do with those emails? I don’t know; they do not respond. How about if we actually go into these other meetings that they have and just introduce ourselves?
Comment: I communicated with Emilie probably 10 days ago regarding social media and our neighborhood organization. Our neighborhood organization [NIEBNA] added Instagram and Facebook. The reality is, since our neighborhood organization has gone with social media, we’re getting a lot more [attenders]. The point is, I think more people are paying attention to social media than to emails.
Comment: Another thing when you had sent in your email, you wanted to discuss more about how to get more people here, how to get the word out. Northeast does have a paper newspaper still, and they will do your event announcements for free in that whole big section. So I’m thinking we should get an announcement every month in there.
Quast: It would be nice if you would approach him, because Margo, Vince and I have colluded about a few things over the years. It would be nice to get somebody else into the mix.
Comment: Sure, I can do that.
Quast: The reason that neighborhood communication is important, is MPD staffing. We’ve all been talking about cop staffing at 55% of what it should be, and the city council has passed enough budget money so that we can hire more but they’re not on the force yet. That makes neighborhood communication so important!
We had a lovely woman come in several years ago to report high speed car racing up and down the residential streets near her home. The area is close to 37th Avenue, meaning the racers could make a quick exit if they were spotted.
We can’t pull a squad away from a critical response (person in danger or crime in progress) just to see if they could catch a speeder. But if someone in the next neighborhood had said, yeah, they’re coming past us too, and then a third person down the street chimes in, (maybe noting when the racers start up on what days or jotting down a license plate number) then the cops have something to act on. Now it’s a whole lot more than one report, and it’s actionable. That fuller picture is what builds safety.
Comment: This was probably 15 years ago now, but there was a house in my neighborhood where the people who bought the house were actually selling drugs. My neighbors would literally go out and take down license plate numbers as people came and went. Then one day, the officers came in the front, they came in the back, the cars with big lights, and they took them away, We never saw them again.
Quast: Presumably those plate numbers got reported to the police, who looked them up and got a much bigger picture, so they had info they could act on. That’s the picture of neighborhood safety, right there.
FINALLY: DECEMBER PLANS!
On December 24th, this year, we will be having the 41st 10-hour buffet for all First Responders on duty that day. I will be checking with Larry Ranallo, to see if we can have it at the Moose again. I’m sure he’ll say yes. (Because otherwise, we’re dead in the water.) That’s at the Moose on Monroe in the event room downstairs.
[Jeff passed a list of previous contributors] These are the ones that have contributed in the past. If you have a favorite restaurant that’s not on the list, I would appreciate you naming them and telling us why. We’ll ask them.
I’m looking mostly for places that offer main dishes and appetizers. My reason is that many people bring local Fire Stations, Precincts, and similar holiday sweets. They have plenty of that. Two years ago, we absolutely ran out of entrees. A dozen hungry firefighters walked in about 9:45 pm. Larry Ranallo, our host, stepped up and told his cooks to prepare 12 pizzas and just send them out. The spirit of the season: Give freely to people in need.
QQ: Are these times set in stone?
Quast: Yes. The reason for that long spread is that that way we get to feed all three shifts. Most shifts overlap. The last time I looked, the 10-hour shifts were:
- Day Watch – 5:45 AM – 3:45 PM
- Midwatch – 3:30 PM – 1: 30 AM
- Dog Watch – 8 PM – 6 AM
With our event the Moose, we get to use professional coolers. Larry’s trained, professional staff manages the food: store safely, heat properly, and get it out there fresh. That is a big, big help.
QQ I was just a newbie last year, so it was all new to me. But it seemed like, at least the time I was there, maybe two and a half, three hours, it was pretty slow.
Quast: The middle of the afternoon is very slow which is why I ask new volunteers to do their first shift at that time. That is when we do a lot of packing up and delivering to folks who can’t come in. I have a list of “shut-ins” like the Transit Police, 911 staff, and more.
By the way, we also need teams of two to make deliveries. Many of those are scheduled for mid-afternoon. If a station just doesn’t have enough staff, the people behind the service desk can’t leave either. Then we send boxes out with their precinct mates. I have two cartons of restaurant clamshells.
QQ: How does the word get out to the troops, so to speak.
Quast: It’s broadcast by the MPD from HQ. One of the MFD Lieutenants broadcasts to the MFD. Jeff and I also visit fire stations. EMTs often travel right out with the fire department.
Jeff Meehan’s Report of Donation Progress: Silver Fern is going to resubmit their six loaves of homemade pumpkin bread. Surdyks will send the cheese trays again, as they always do. Lunds — we talked about their crustless chicken pot pies, which is good comfort food. We have a new manager at Max Industrial Sports Bar. I’ve asked them for some containers of pandemic marinara. The manager of All Saints called me today; my favorite dish there is Peppardelle — very good.
I saved the best for last. Our number one most popular thing, Ginger Hop Wings, went away on us [during Covid]. I met with the manager of the Stray Dog and he said, “Yeah, we can give you up to 25 pounds of wings”. That might be too much. [EQ: doubtful)
I’m about a month early on purpose. I just wanted to get some things done. Plus, I wanted to get some new people with some new business because, as she said, we ran short last year and that’s not a good thing.
Comment: If we have suggestions for other restaurants, just let you know then? Emilie, there are some amazing restaurants that are within like three blocks of here that aren’t on this list. So I’m curious to see if we’ve approached them before or if not, can we approach them now?
Quast: I would love to see more people doing recruiting. Please follow Jeff’s procedure: He picks a dish he likes and lets me know what it is and why he likes it. I check the list to see if we have too much in that category. Then: Go Ahead!
OK, three years ago, all I could see was that we had food left over, people couldn’t leave their stations or they were sending somebody in. I was wrapping up, sending out, and then we started to run short, so the servings got a bit smaller. It was the first time that this had really happened. I didn’t want to have food left over, because I didn’t know what to do with it.
This year I’m going to find a place that will want it.
Important: We only accept donations from people in the 2nd precinct. Any First Responder ON DUTY who walks in the door gets fed.
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 