Concerns about crime near U campus remain, and efforts to combat it push ahead

Gunfire erupted near the University of Minnesota campus early on a cold morning in November, shattering the quiet of the student-populated neighborhood.

Police arrived and found a man bleeding on the ground, critically wounded from a gunshot.

He was among three people, including two teenagers, shot near the intersection of SE. 4th Street and 13th Avenue SE., an area historically known as Dinkytown with bustling nightlife and apartment buildings mostly inhabited by students.

Over the past five years, violence has become more common in neighborhoods surrounding the U’s East Bank campus. Reports of violent crime began to rise in 2020, amid the pandemic and civil unrest.

Some cases were higher profile than others, from a fireworks melee last year that led to more than two dozen arrests and riot charges, to a December 2023 brawl inside a tobacco store that left two men shot dead and a clerk wounded.

Increasing concerns from students, their parents and lawmakers have resulted in bolstered efforts to patrol the most affected areas off campus — and it appears to be working, with drops in theft, burglary, assault and drug offenses in a concentrated area over the past two years.

According to data analyzed by the Minnesota Star Tribune of the U and surrounding Minneapolis neighborhoods in the six-year span from 2019-2024:

Joint patrols by the U and Minneapolis police departments have yielded “very positive” results, interim U Police Chief Erik Swanson said at a Feb. 27 hearing of the Minnesota House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee.

But some students and their parents say the university still isn’t doing enough.

“My son loves the school. We all do,” said Melissa Runkel, whose son Steve graduated last year. “But, as an institution, do they really care?”

At last month’s hearing, Swanson said that U police taking over patrols just off campus — from Interstate 35W to Huntington Bank Stadium and University Avenue to 4th Street — has improved response times and decreased crime, with UMPD officers also taking over investigations.

“When I first started this profession 30 years ago, there wasn’t really a thought of the university coming into the city and doing this type of work,” he said. “But in today’s times, that’s what we’re doing. And I want to say this: It’s really been a good partnership with MPD.”

Preliminary results, according to UMPD data, have included 40% drops in property and auto thefts from 2022 to 2024. Assaults in that timeframe declined from 12 to seven, and drug offenses from 10 to one. As a result, the joint patrol efforts will continue for at least another year.

The U also established an off-campus safety center on 14th Avenue S., where students can study or attend self-defense workshops. Security officers have also supplemented the police patrols.

“Violent crime is going down as well. Over the last couple years, things have gotten much better in Dinkytown,” Swanson told the House committee. “We can see the difference. It is far more livable out there, and we hope to continue that trend.”

In interviews with the Star Tribune, students out on a recent weekend evening had varying views of their personal safety, often saying it depended on where they were and when. Their experiences ranged from dodging gunfire to drunken verbal assaults on the light rail.

Fourth-year student Sean Hampton recalled that last fall, as he was preparing for a party outside his fraternity house on University Avenue and 11th Avenue SE., gunshots rang out across the street.

Hampton turned to see two men in hoodies sprinting from a nearby parking lot with handguns. He dove for cover.

“I was stunned, but I wasn’t scared,” he said. “I was just used to that kind of stuff.”

Circumstance plays a key role in much of the crime, said Minneapolis Police Department Second Precinct Inspector Nicholas Torborg, who has increased patrols in the area by about a half-dozen officers for both safety and visibility. The U campus and areas surrounding it are full of pedestrians, especially on weekend nights, meaning more potential victims for opportunists — many of them young people from outside the city “who just hang out in Dinkytown and cause various issues,” Torborg said.

Third-year student Bella Rosenthal said she was headed to her morning class last November when a sharp noise echoed from 8th Street SE., a block behind her home.

She froze, unsure whether it was the clatter of construction or something more alarming. Then came a second bang. It was a gunshot. She dove into her home as a man ran in her direction.

“Before the shooting, I was in denial about everything I heard about Dinkytown being dangerous, but after it happened, I felt the need to be a lot more careful than I was before,” she said, adding that the campus safety center has improved the atmosphere in the area and made her feel safer. “I definitely am more aware of my surroundings, and any time I hear a loud noise, I freak out a little bit. I guess I am still pretty shaken up just because of that one experience.”

U graduate Colby Pitzenberger recalled how, four years ago, he was robbed late one night in Dinkytown at the Blarney Pub and Grill on 14th Avenue SE. The perpetrators asked to add him on Snapchat, and as soon as he handed them his phone, they took off with it.

Pitzenberger chased down one man, begging for his belongings back.

“When he turned around, he opened his jacket and pulled out what looked like a gun,” Pitzenberger said. “I just froze there for a second.

“It was one of those things where you just realize you are not invincible,” he said.

Over the years, efforts have been made to improve student safety on and near campus.

The state allocated $1 million in ongoing funding in 2024 that went toward security staffing and infrastructure, as well as an $8 million two-year investment toward replacing equipment such as cameras and card-readers to enter buildings, and replacing analog cameras with 1,100 digital cameras with analytics capability.

The money has also gone to “code blue” phones that immediately dial 911 in areas with fewer cameras, and a 24-hour strategic operations center to monitor the Twin Cities and other U campuses throughout the state.

The strategic safety advisory committee was created in 2022 to facilitate frequent discussions between community and university stakeholders in order to enhance safety and quality of life on and near campus.

The Minneapolis-based nonprofit Campus Safety Coalition was established the same year. Among its goals was the improvement of law enforcement and community relations, said Mike Olson, a former U parent and Secret Service agent who helped found the coalition, which aims to serve campuses throughout the country. He said he believes the strained relationship between police and the public contributes to rising crime.

Runkel, along with other parents, students and community members, created a Facebook group in 2022 aimed at keeping students safe. The page has more than 2,600 members.

There aren’t many places where community members can get consistent information about crime from those who don’t have some political bias, Runkel said, which is why she wanted to create a “standalone group.”

“They are the people who want you to think the city is burning down to the ground because they have a political motive,” she said. “Our primary concern is the safety of our students, not politics.”

In fall 2023, Sophia Boman, who graduated in December, started the Project Dinkytown club at the university in hopes of making the area safer and cleaner by writing to lawmakers and addressing concerns like inadequate street lighting and adding more four-way stop signs.

When Boman recently visited her sister at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she was surprised that no one was afraid to walk at night.

“That is not the case here; you can do it, but you have to be quite smart,” Boman said. “When I started this club, I envisioned our campus being as safe as other campuses, which is hard because we are close to a city. But I think it is definitely attainable.”

Jeff Hargarten of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.