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Fighting nuisance crime in downtown Minneapolis
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
November 14, 2003

The Target Center in downtown Minneapolis is a destination for thousands of people each month. Some are concerned about rising crime in the area, and Minneapolis police are discussing how to address the situation. (MPR file photo)

Police statistics show crime in downtown Minneapolis is down. Even so, a growing number of people who live and work downtown are concerned about public safety there. They say nuisance crimes, such as public urination and panhandling, are hurting downtown's image as a safe place.

Minneapolis, Minn. — Jim Grabeck and his wife have lived downtown for just over three years. They're part of a growing number of people attracted to the condominiums and apartments rising along the riverbank near the popular bars and restaurants in Minneapolis' warehouse district. Grabeck chairs his downtown neighborhood organization. He's upset with what he and his wife have encountered on some of their walks.

"Someone urinating on a tree. My wife has -- about six inches away from her face -- been called racial terms. I have been approached aggressively from panhandlers walking from St. Thomas to our house," Grabeck says. "And if somebody tells you that doesn't occur, they haven't been on the street."

Tom Reid lives in Elliot Park, a neighhborhood on the other side of downtown from Jim Grabeck, away from the bars and restaurants. He moved in seven years ago. Crime since then, he says, is dramatically reduced.

"In the earlier years when I lived in the neighborhood, there would be a lot of public drinking in the park, a lot of apparent drug dealing in the park. There was drug dealing on my block, which no longer occurs. I think in all areas of the neighborhood, things are improving crime-wise," Reid says.

	The downtown Target store

In fact, police statistics show reported crime in downtown Minneapolis is down 13 percent overall the past year -- with two worrisome exceptions, robbery and car theft, which are up.

The lower overall crime rate is small consolation to people accosted by aggressive panhandlers or worse. Police ticket or even arrest the offenders, but records show 60 percent of the perpetrators go free. Victims fume they should be put in jail.

Hennepin County Chief Judge Kevin Burke says when so many cases are being dismissed, something in the system is out of whack.

"Nobody can go to jail under our Constitution until they are convicted, and better than 60 percent of these cases are dismissed before they ever reach the courthouse," says Burke.

Burke says the dismissals undermine faith in the justice system. Police worry citizens won't report crime if they believe the perpetrators get off.

There are lots of reasons for the high dismissal rate. City officials say some cited for nuisance crimes never show up for their court appearance. Others can't be served with criminal complaints because they have no permanent address. Still other cases are dismissed, officials say, because there isn't enough evidence for a city prosecutor to take to court.

Some of the nuisance crimes are committed by people who are mentally ill. Burke says part of the solution is to find help for them.

Just like we do in neighborhoods, where we ask neighbors to look out for each other, we're asking businesses to start looking out for each other and the exteriors of their buildings downtown. - Minneapolis police inspector Rob Allen, on surveillance cameras

"You need a combination of sanctions and dealing with the underlying problem, which is mental illness," says Burke. "We have started recently a mental health calendar to deal with these people, and to think, in the long run, the combination of jail, the workhouse and treatment for mental illness will be effective."

However, that doesn't entirely address the problem. Minneapolis police say downtown will feel and be safer if the city adopts a strategy used in England.

A constable in a suburb of London, Paul Valentine, is visiting Minneapolis this month. He's encouraging downtown building and business owners to adopt the strategy used in his city -- where hundreds of closed-circuit television cameras keep an electronic eye on public places around the clock.

"As soon as our worst offenders are spotted in town, there is a united show of hands -- from the police and the businesses and private security -- that they are not welcome in that particular store if they cause problems again," says Valentine.

Valentine says the cameras in the suburban London area he polices link more than 100 shops, pubs and other establishments. He says they watch for trouble during the day, when the city is filled with workers and shoppers. At night, he says, entertainment business owners rely on the system as the city fills with London-area residents looking for a good time.

Valentine says the police alert the business owners if they see suspicious activity. The business owners get on their radio link to alert others to the trouble.

"What this radio link has enabled us to do, for the first time, is capture those halfway incidents, or semi-crimes or antisocial behavior, that perhaps members of the public wouldn't ordinarily call police because they're too busy," says Valentine. "It's allowed those stores' guards and loss prevention officers to record them."

Cameras will soon be focused on 30 public places in downtown Minneapolis. Police Inspector Rob Allen, who commands the downtown precinct, says the building owners and police need to be on a common radio frequency so they can alert one another to problems.

"The most important part is developing that relationship where private security, building owners and managers work with the police to ensure safety downtown," says Allen. "Today, right now, there are at least 10 times more security officers than there are police officers. ... Just like we do in neighborhoods, where we ask neighbors to look out for each other, we're asking businesses to start looking out for each other and the exteriors of their buildings downtown."

An alternative to cameras is more police walking the beat. Police say increased beat patrols are unlikely, given budget cuts which have reduced the downtown force by 10 officers.

Police say most of the downtown Minneapolis nuisance crimes are committed by a relative handful of people -- many of whom, they say, are well known to officers.

Inspector Rob Allen says they're working with elected officials to increase penalties to deter the crimes.

Earlier this month, the Minneapolis City Council approved a new ordinance making public urination a misdemeanor, and increasing the penalty for posessing drug paraphernalia with intent to use.

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