Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Chief Tim Dolan released statistics on July 18 that show that violent crime continues to decline in Minneapolis for the fifth year in a row. As of June 30, violent crime had dropped nearly 15 percent compared to the same point in 2010, after falling to a 27-year low for all of 2010.
Chief Dolan put this year’s decline in violent crime in the context of five years of declines in violent crime. While several large cities are recording drops in crime in recent years, few if any of them can point to Minneapolis’ consistent, five-year drop in crime. “This five-year arc is the biggest story,” Dolan said. The Fourth Precinct, which covers North Minneapolis, has marked a 23 percent decline in violent crime as of June 30.
As an important component in the citywide drop in violent crime, the number of youth suspects in violent crime has declined 14 percent since the midpoint of 2010 and 66 percent since the midpoint of 2006, the recent high-water mark for violent crime and youth crime. Rybak credited the City’s Youth Violence Prevention initiative — a comprehensive, community-driven approach that treats youth violence as a public-health epidemic, which began in response to an outbreak of youth-driven violence in 2006 — with leading the citywide drop in violent crime.
The drop in violent crime is also led by an ongoing decline in the number of gun incidents, with Minneapolis on track to record a 20 percent drop in gun incidents in 2011 compared to 2010. Rybak and Dolan credited the success of Project Exile, a partnership between the Minneapolis Police Department, the Hennepin County Attorney and the United States Attorney to arrest and prosecute the most violent gun offenders and get illegal guns off the street. Project Exile began in July 2010 after a spike in gun violence in the first half of that year. City, County and federal officials earlier credited Project Exile’s focus on guns with leading a decline in gun crime in the second half of 2010.
Inspector Martin and Council Member Hofstede also credited cooperation and partnership with neighbors, businesses and community organizations as contributing to the decline in violent crime. “Our success in bringing down crime is really about bringing everyone together. It’s a story of community and partnership,” said Hofstede. “We can’t do what we do without community,” Martin added. “We are preventing crime by working with community.”
Building strong partnerships leads not only to greater public safety, but more jobs, more successful small businesses and stronger economic development. “They go hand in hand,” Rybak said. “We can’t do one without the other.” City economic-development staff and public-safety teams work closely together.
Dolan praised the work of City, County and federal prosecutors who cooperate closely with Minneapolis Police, and police officers themselves. “These five years of decreases in crime are the results of the amazing work of the men and women of the Minneapolis Police Department, and I thank them for it.”