The MPD 2nd Precinct Advisory Council was called to order shortly after 6:30PM on April 13. 11 people met in person at Monroe Village, and 5 by Zoom.
First on the agenda was our opportunity to meet the new UMPD Chief, Michael Davis.
Chief Davis: It’s good to be here. I’m going to start at the beginning. I’m a native Minnesotan. I grew up in St. Paul and graduated from St. Agnes High School.
I joined the Minneapolis Police Dept. in 1992. I worked in the Phillips Neighborhood and left as a Sector Lieutenant after 16 years. I then spent 5.5 years as Chief of the Brooklyn Park PD, and 12 years with Northeastern University in Boston. And now I’m back home to finish everything up.
The U of M has presented an opportunity to turn the system into something that’s cohesive from a security perspective, working with colleagues that I’ve known for a long time. It’s a great honor, so I’m happy to be here.
[Applause] I could go on, but I don’t know if you have any questions.
Quast: The reason I wanted you and Inspector Fischer here today is that the UMPD and the MPD have a long history of cooperation even when that’s not too easy. During the 1970’s protests, people were shot and killed on other campuses across the U.S. The U of MN president, Malcolm Moos, alerted the UMPD and told the National Guard they were not allowed to cross University Avenue. They didn’t. It was UMPD’s job to make sure the Guard didn’t cross University.
The UMPD and MPD have had a stand-together arrangement for a long time, but a few years ago they started developing a more formal arrangement, which we’ve been hearing about piece-meal. [See https://courtwatch2pac.com/2024/09/23/sept-rept-part-1-new-safety-center-and-more-in-dinkytown-and-east-marcy-holmes/ ] The presenters in 2023 identified a town/campus boundary, but it was a very soft boundary. Also, the UMPD created a new Safety Center in Dinkytown.
In addition to that, the UMPD has always been responsible for the Cooperative Living complex and other programs in SE Como. [EQ: They’re clustered between 27th and 29th from East Hennepin going south]. I’d like to hear where that stands now. What is the map of responsibility for the UMPD?
Davis: We’re doing several things to assess exactly what our shared jurisdictional model should be. It’s not uncommon for large state schools like us to develop an agreement with the municipality we exist in, to discuss how we can best serve both populations. We have a student population that lives contiguous to campus and many students live in nearby neighborhoods as well.
But it’s beyond that. The question is: what areas do we think determine the experience that students have?
The University of Minnesota. What is that specifically? On campus proper, and areas that are contiguous to campus. Dinkytown is part of that. We’ll work closely on the safety and security plan for Dinkytown.
University Avenue: The tentative agreement is for UMPD to patrol that, because of the fraternities and others along that area. We have a shared sense of responsibility for that entire area right now. It’s something that we’ll continue to assess.
We’re also looking at it from a data-driven perspective: Where do students gather? Where do they live? What’s the density? What are the expectations of the students that live there?
[EQ: Chief Davis pointed to the Clery Act which is fully explained here: https://www.clerycenter.org/the-clery-act#:~:text=Clery%20Act%20crime%20repo .]
The Clery Act defines what information the U must capture in areas that are owned and operated by the University but also report crimes against students who were on nearby property not owned by the University.
Dinkytown is not technically part of our Clery map, but students are there. The U markets housing available to students all the way to the freeway.
For the last several years, the University has been sharing that responsibility, especially in the Dinkytown area.
I’m working with University and City to examine the demographics around campus and figure out how we can best serve the students and be a partner with the city. When this is decided, I’ll come back and we’ll discuss.
Inspector Fischer: Since Chief Davis took over a week before I started as the inspector here, we kind of started together, which has worked out really well for both of us.
We’ve met almost once a week for the last eight weeks, collaborating on events at the U or in Dinkytown to ensure that everyone is safe. It’s been enjoyable.
Davis: It’s a good partnership. One of the things I’ll just say about the law enforcement community here in Minnesota: They’re extremely cohesive.
I’ve worked all over the country — East Coast, West Coast, and other parts of the country where there’s a lot of parochialism, or territorialism. Not here. We’ve gotten help from the City of Minneapolis, from Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, from the State Patrol. The community here is really interdependent. We can rely on one another in a way that is unique. It’s good to know that if something were to happen, we have the partnerships to be able to scale up quickly. I have confidence in that — it’s a lot of good teamwork.
Is there anything else specific that we didn’t answer with that, Emilie, that you wanted to know?
Quast: I would like the assurance that University Cooperative Student Housing in SE Como, the new Archives Storage Building, ReUse and other properties here are all being watched by UMPD with the MPD.
Davis: Absolutely. Anything that’s ours is top priority.
STATE OF THE PRECINCT:
| NIBRS Crime Metrics Crime 2026 2025 3 yr. Ave. Assault 79 61 73 Incl. Domestic Ag.Aslt 12 7 6 Burglary, B&E 20 12 19 Destruction/Prop.Vandalism 80 50 71 Homicide, non-neg 0 0 Homicide, negligent 0 0 Larceny/theft 164 124 39 MV Theft 137 62 79 Robbery 5 6 11 Incl. Car Jacking 1 1 2 Sex Offenses 5 1 9 Stolen Property 2 1 1 Weapons Law Violation 5 2 4 Shots Fired 29 14 22 Gun Wound Vics. 1 0 1 |
| Fischer: For Assault and burglary offenses, we are pretty much the same numbers, at this time of year that we would have for the last three years. We’re seeing numbers increase in larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, and damage to property. All of that ties to the incidents we’ve had where cars go from Precinct to Precinct. People are stealing cars, damaging cars and breaking into other cars. That is where we are seeing significant crime increase, not only within the 2nd Pct, but for the entire city! To answer people’s questions about what we’re doing about that: Hennepin County and the MN State Patrol have been working closely with us. They have different policies for chasing people, so they can actually apprehend them in different ways than the MPD can do. Some of that has been very effective in catching these Rings. “Rings” is a fair way to describe them: it tends to be groups of juveniles who get together to do this. It’s the same group of people, over and over again, conducting all of this crime. We made numerous arrests of these people in the last four weeks, which led to last week’s dip in those offenses. There’s also a Metro-wide task force that is up and running because Minneapolis isn’t the only city that has seen these crimes. This task force is working together, and the MPD has added some of our members to that task force. We’re hoping to see significant changes in the next month or two. In other areas, like robbery, we’ve seen a decrease also. That’s a trend going in the right direction. Then, sex offenses, weapons offenses, and domestics are all stable for that three year period. The only homicide that in the 2nd Pct this year was the vehicle that hit a young girl. We haven’t seen any gun violence/homicide in the Precinct yet this year. Comment by attender: Described about an event across the street and visible from the Monroe Village building. Neither Inspector Fischer nor CPS Zoller recognized it. The Inspector suggested that it may have been a warrant that was executed by officers from a different Unit. CPS Zoller suggested that if people document an event, they can present the document to their building manger. If they see an event that is actually going on, they should call 911 immediately, report that event, and request information. She added that she can follow up anything sent to her. If people are doing business in an empty building, Business Licensing can be involved, and Fire Inspections definitely would be involved. She invites people to submit those questions to her. Question from ZOOM attender: About the problems with cars: What is the situation with these young people? You arrest them and then they’re out the doors? Inspector: Unfortunately, that is part of the problem. Many times, they get Diversion and they’re not actually seeing jail. Sometimes, we make those arrests and the next day, or even the same day, that person is back on the street again. We’re trying to come up with ways to aggregate charges and send [the case] forward for higher charges. I wish I could give you a better answer. Question from Zoom attender: Do you have plans for handling Spring Jam this year? And when is it? Chief Davis: Spring Jam is April 24-26. We have a planning process for any event related to the University, and this is not different. Question and Comment for the Inspector: The question is, how is staffing looking in the 2nd Pct and city-wide? The Comment is: Congratulations on being named the Irish American Peace Officer of the Year! [Applause!] Fischer: I worked very hard at that one. I really appreciate that! As for the staffing: it’s still a challenge. I feel reasonably confident about the staff in the Precinct. We are able post overtime for shifts when we’re short and those tend to get filled, which helps us get to calls quicker. Then definitely the partnership with the UMPD is help for late nigh work specifically I the Dinkytown area. It takes more effort to keep that area safer for everyone there. Having large police presence assists with that, so UMPD, MPD, and Hennepin County are assisting what we do every Friday and Saturday. That tends to calm things going on in that area. We’ll use that plan as we head into summer. Also, the UMPD partnership frees up my dog watch [night shift] staff to continue to take 911 calls as we focus in Dinkytown. We’re trying to be efficient with the resources we have, but if someone offered me 20 more officers in the 2nd, I definitely wouldn’t turn them down. Question: I’m a Northeast resident. I spent 25 years working for the City of Mpls. I started in the 911 center in 1998, and moved to the Fire Dept. in 1999. For the last few years, I’ve been at the UofM in Emergency Management. My question for the Inspector and Chief is about sharing information . You talked about how public safety agencies I Minnesota work well together and are cohesive,. I have questions about how information about addresses might be in the notes field of the 911 system. Let’s say there might be an Alert or Notes on the address that you pass along to the First Responders who are on their way, but those notes aren’t necessarily already shared with other public safety agencies that service the same address. For example, you might have an address within the Clery Boundary to which MPD and HCSO also respond because that address is in all three boundaries, but only one agency has tagged that address with an alert. I’m wondering if that info is shared, This is more of a telecommunications question than it is a U of M responder question. Inspector: That is a very good question. You are pointing out an Intel problem that we DO have, because we don’t all use the same systems. [Explaining] If we have a 2nd Pct address that we go to often, and a person there has threatened officers, we CAN put a note on that address for the next officer who gets called there. It is possible that an officer from another agency wouldn’t see that note. Officers know this and when they hear a call to “that” address, they DO send out that info. But since different agencies use different communication systems, we may have times when safety info isn’t completely shared. Comment: I had a neighbor who was deaf. We were able to put a note about that in the 911 system. We can do the same for folks who are deaf, blind or have mobility issues. Inspector: For Minneapolis residents those notes would be in the CAD system. [Google: Minneapolis CAD system for emergency. If a link doesn’t come up, enter “Tri Tec Computer Aided Dispatch ] Question: Chief Davis, we’ve been very aware of short staffing in the MPD. How is UMPD staffing? Chief Davis: Technically, we’re full. Part of my charge here is to assess the current staff. We have never had as many cops as we have right now. 25 years ago, UMPD had half as many cops. If Chief Hestness was sitting here, he’d be talking about 35-40 officers. We are close to 70. But the calculation for a university includes: What is the overtime draw? What is the jurisdictional draw? What patterns and trends do we have to respond to? How many “should” we have? We look at what we’ve done. Then we project what we want to do in the future. We’re here to do what we can because we share the same interest, which is the safety of everyone here. Quast: We have time for one more general question: Attender: Minneapolis is so good about sharing info and crime stats. How about the State? Inspector: I’m going to guess there isn’t a system share. There may be crime stats somewhere, but definitely not like what you get from us. Our stats are updated weekly. Comment: I asked because I was thinking about trends. Holidays – how do they affect crime? When the economy is changing, we see different crimes. Inspector: When we look at our weekly stats and we see something change, we ask our crime analysts why this is happening. Within hours they can give us a response. This kind of analysis helps us direct where we put squad cars, directed patrol and other resources. Quast: message from Dan Miller appeared in the Chat pointing to an upcoming Traffic Calming meeting in SE Como. CPS Zoller announced the 2ne Precinct Open house May 11 and offered to share a printable flyer. Emilie Quast, Member MPD 2nd Precinct Advisory Council (2-PAC) 1911 Central Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55418 |
2nd Precinct Advisory Council 