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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Minneapolis police crack down on criminals. Saint Paul's crime strategy, look for torn screens on housing.

Please click onto the comments for the post.

posted by Bob at Wednesday, May 02, 2007

3 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

Summer in Minneapolis could get hot for bad guys
Minneapolis police and Hennepin County sheriff's deputies will beef up patrols in downtown. Businesses say they want to see results.

By David Chanen and Terry Collins, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: May 01, 2007 – 10:47 PM


Summer in Minneapolis could get hot for bad guys
Starting this month, people visiting or working downtown will see Minneapolis police patrolling troublesome bus stops and more officers on horseback working in tandem with at least a dozen Hennepin County sheriff's deputies.

The summer safety strategy was laid out Tuesday for the Hennepin County Board. Commissioners also heard from Downtown Council President Sam Grabarski, who said two large employers wouldn't renew their building leases if police didn't get a better handle on crime and nuisance issues like panhandling.

"I'm not pointing fingers," he said. "This is just a plea to help us recapture these sidewalks."

Serious crime reports in the First Precinct, which consists almost entirely of downtown, have dropped 11 percent compared to the same time last year. But homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and rape have stayed even.

Each year, Minneapolis police implement a downtown safety plan for the summer. With the recent violence on Metro Transit buses and crime concerns at bus stops, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan will ask the City Council today for $500,000 to fund overtime to specifically address these issues.

Officers will patrol problem bus stops along 7th Street, which will allow Metro Transit officers to focus on security on the buses, he said. The Police Department also agreed to give higher priority to responding to bus calls to encourage drivers to report misbehavior, he said.

The officers will also work to prevent nuisance issues and aggressively enforce solicitation, curfew and loitering violations. They will work from June 1 to Oct. 31.

Four to 12 more officers will work shifts from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 12 to 16 more will work from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. The department has already permanently added 11 street and horse patrol officers to the First Precinct and plans to add 10 more by June.

Commissioner Pete McLaughlin questioned why the Police Department needs more funding for downtown summer safety plans each year, particularly for overtime expenses. Dolan said he hoped the need would be alleviated in the future by the influx of new officers.

Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek plans to assign 12 deputies to the downtown area from May 20 to Sept. 15. Their total contribution will be more than 8,000 hours.

Police, the Downtown Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak have begun pushing Metro Transit to move bus stops. Among ideas the city has bandied about for months is temporarily moving a bus stop on 7th Street between Hennepin and 1st Avenues over to an island on 7th near Target Center.

Currently, there is no plan to redistribute bus service on 7th Street, said Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons. He said Metro Transit and city staff are discussing strategies.

Regarding the possibility of moving bus stops, Gibbons said, "If something were to be done, it could be in the form of a pilot plan to gauge city, business, customer and bus operator feedback."

This is all good news to Grabarski, who said drug dealing and nuisance crimes have become an epidemic in downtown's central business district. A nearly completed survey of 2,000 people said 86 percent were bothered by a panhandler in the past month.

Commissioners had little reaction when he told them that two of downtown's largest employers were considering pulling out of the area if crime trends and perceptions continued to be negative. He wouldn't name the businesses but said they were "household names" and their departure could mean the loss of 5,000 jobs.

Amy von Walter, spokeswoman for Target, said Target has no intention of leaving downtown. However, the crime problem "is of great concern to us," she said.


dchanen@startribune.com • 612-673-4465 tcollins@startribune.com • 612-673-1790

8:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Minneapolis has the same program going that St Paul, only no one over there has the guts to sue them. It is interesting that when business downtown complains about these kinds of behavior issues that they send in more police......as many as it takes. When the neighbors in the neighborhoods complain about the same thing, the city sends in the code enforcement department and bulldozers.

10:36 AM  
Blogger Bob said...

I probably should have used a different title for this post.

Minneapolis isn't any different than Saint Paul when it comes to using housing code enforcement to deal with crime.

City Council woman Barb Johnson stated she wanted to deconcentrate poverty on the North side of Minneapolis. In other words displace low income people to where ever in exchange for a higher economic class of people.

I heard her ramblings on KSTP 1500 and I thought wow, have you ever put your foot in your mouth. You just engraved evidence in stone for the plaintiffs of future RICO law suits against the City of Minneapolis.

12:43 PM  

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