Residents in parts of south Minneapolis grapple with whether police are present enough

Some residents of Minneapolis’ 12th Ward — a swath of eight neighborhoods in the city’s southeast corner — had a suspicion police weren’t around much. Squad car sightings were infrequent. Neighbors whose cars had been stolen said they waited too long for an officer to arrive.

But their feelings were just that — anecdotes susceptible to accusations of fearmongering.

So 12th Ward resident Verlynn Schmalle, who’s no stranger to data requests, pressed Council Member Aurin Chowdhury to obtain numbers on how often police were responding to calls in the 12th Ward and where they were coming from.

Six months later, the answers came: From last October to March, police received nearly 3,000 calls from 12th Ward residents. Most calls led to a squad car being assigned. But only 19.8% received a response from a car that was present in the 12th Ward at the time. In other words, it had to arrive from a different portion of the city.

To Schmalle, who lives in the Hiawatha neighborhood, it’s evidence that his neck of the city is under-policed.

“The data clearly shows we need a police presence at 46th and Hiawatha, and we can’t even get somebody in the 12th Ward 80% of the time,” he said. “I know they’re down, but 36,000 people shouldn’t be without a police officer 80% of the time.”

It’s hard to know how that compares to other areas of Minneapolis. The analysis of police presence in the 12th Ward was done in response to specific resident concerns. The Minneapolis Police Department hasn’t conducted the same review for other parts of the city.

“I want to be clear: property crimes may be categorized as lower priority from an emergency response perspective, but they absolutely impact people’s sense of safety and quality of life,” said Police Chief Brian O’Hara in a statement. “True public safety is a shared responsibility. Communities are strongest when neighbors look out for one another — and MPD remains committed to supporting that through partnership and education.”

Minneapolis is required to fund 731 sworn officers, but hiring challenges since 2020’s civil unrest have suppressed staffing. Through the middle of 2024, the police force was still on the decline. But that trend reversed by year’s end, O’Hara said. There are now more than 600 sworn officers, and this week the police academy launched its largest class since the 1990s.

Still, the 12th Ward also falls entirely within MPD’s 3rd Precinct, its headquarters torched by protesters after George Floyd’s murder — and its replacement isn’t expected to open until 2026.

Most of the time when 12th Ward residents call the police, officers travel from beyond the borders of the ward’s eight neighborhoods, or they’re making their way from downtown, said MPD spokesperson Sgt. Garrett Parten. Third Precinct police are still being housed in the City of Lakes building at 309 2nd Av. S. as the city continues developing their new headquarters, the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, at 2633 Minnehaha Av.

“I don’t imagine car thefts are reported, and vandalism; there isn’t really any point in reporting,” said Standish neighborhood resident Tim Bonham. ”Our police are homeless. They’ve got to go downtown, so getting a response from them is very slow, unless it’s somebody standing there shooting."

Three garages on his block were broken into last summer but the crimes were never reported, Bonham said, because his neighbors didn’t believe police could do anything about it and their insurance rates would only increase.

“So if you have that happening, no wonder the crime rate is going down,” he said.

Data on police response times on the ward level is limited. But last year the average time that lapsed between 911 receiving a call and an officer’s arrival on the scene wasn’t much longer in the 3rd Precinct than others. (The sprawling 5th Precinct in the southwest portion of the city had the longest response times.)

On Monday night, Council Members Chowdhury and Emily Koski hosted a town hall with Attorney General Keith Ellison at the Lake Nokomis Community Center. The bulk of the program consisted of Ellison updating an audience of about 100 people on his office’s lawsuits against the Trump administration.

But questions from the crowd indicated some residents’ concerns were focused on issues such as car thefts, garage break-ins and burglaries.

“Our attorney general pointed out to me that car thefts in Hennepin County are down. However, it’s up in our neighborhood,” Chowdhury acknowledged. “Neighbors are feeling that.”

Chowdhury said she’s seen residents become indifferent to reporting crimes when those issues compound over time. Nevertheless, she urged residents to continue sharing what they know.

Two months ago when an individual vandal drove a car into about 40 different garage doors, neighbors connected with each other and crowdsourced the surveillance footage that was used to apprehend the person responsible, she said.

Ellison said his office is in the final days of coming up with a retroactive settlement with Kia and Hyundai to install zinc sleeves, also known as ignition cylinder protectors, that would make theft-prone cars unsteerable. Previous efforts to install anti-theft software haven’t worked for everyone.

Linda Ojeda, another 12th Ward resident, believes some neighbors have unrealistic expectations for what police can do about a stolen car, even if they respond right away to the home where it was taken.

“For young people, it’s a thrill thing, and they’re thinking it’s a victimless crime because the insurance company was going to cover it,” she said. “How can you change that mentality in a culture that feels like, ‘I’m not doing anything really bad?’”

A community meeting about auto thefts and break-ins is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. June 18 at the Keewaydin Recreation Center. The goal will be to compare notes, tell the precinct inspector what neighbors are experiencing and make a plan, Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury is running for re-election. She faces a challenge from Park Board Commissioner Becka Thompson, who currently lives in north Minneapolis.