Tuesday night, the Theater of Public Policy, presented by Danger Boat Productions and City Cast Twin Cities, brought Mayor Jacob Frey and Council President Elliott Payne to the Granada Theater in Uptown for an evening of policy discussion and improv comedy. It managed to be both serious and entertaining. We respect that these city officials showed up.
The evening opened with a discussion about lessons learned from the hiring and firing of former MPD Chief Brian O’Hara. Payne emphasized that the next chief must be an active participant in the reform process, though he qualified that reform is everyone’s responsibility, not one person’s. He wants someone with humility who listens to residents like Michelle Gross, who has led police reform efforts for decades. Someone accountable to the broader community.
Frey largely agreed but offered a defense of O’Hara, noting that crime and complaints had both decreased during his tenure.
What was absent from this discussion, beyond Frey’s brief mention of crime, was any serious treatment of what the next police chief would actually do to reduce crime and attract more officers. The next chief will certainly be tasked with extending reforms. But that is hardly all they need to do. If we have reforms and rampant crime, we will call that a failure.
When politicians talk about crime and policing, they retreat into the academic. They omit the victims. They omit the families recovering from a loved one shot or attacked. They try to reduce it to a math problem, one solved when a specific number of officers are on staff.
Payne offered this calculation:
I actually did a comprehensive study of five years of call data and put together a staffing model with outside consultants who used to be police chiefs, and they calculated that we could meet the calls for service with a police force anywhere between 270 to 450 officers exclusively for 911 calls. That doesn’t cover investigations, that doesn’t cover other administrative work. But that was just the 911 calls for service, especially as you start taking into account the problem nature codes, that’s the wonky technical term for it. Is it a car accident or a bank robbery? There are certain ones we can peel off, like we’ve done with the behavioral crisis response. All of those added up to that number. But that’s actually not the debate.
I think the real math debate here is if it’s going to be thirty million dollars of overtime that we need to cover our basic services.
We’d like to know more about his math. Minneapolis has a higher rate of 911 calls per capita than cities like Portland and Seattle. Year-to-date, the 911 dashboard shows 88,244 Priority 1 and 2 calls — the most serious. Behavioral Crisis Response calls account for 3,341, less than 4%. Right now, there are 638 sworn officers. If every one of them were responding to calls, that would mean each officer would respond to roughly 276 calls per year. Of course, that isn’t how it works. At any given time, officers are out on paid leave for medical reasons or vacation. Others are in administrative roles, as Payne notes.
The math, to us, indicates that MPD officers remain busy responding to calls. But math isn’t the only factor here. Two others demand consideration.
The City Charter mandates 731 officers based on the Minneapolis population. Frey will likely be found in contempt of court next year because the MPD has failed to maintain this standard. If advocates for reform want to see a smaller force that more closely matches Payne’s math, they will need to change the city charter.
A majority of residents want more police. It’s one of the reasons Frey was reelected as mayor. They want them trained. They want them to apply the law fairly. But they want them. Wanting more police does not preclude wanting more support for those with mental health issues, drug addiction, or housing and food insecurity. It simply means residents have grown tired of the lawlessness that takes place when the police force is understaffed.
Recent Events
On June 30, the DOJ, along with the FBI, DEA, MPD, and Hennepin County Sheriff’s office, announced charges against 11 people connected to drug trafficking and murder. The indictment included members of the “G Block” gang, who operate in the area of 19th Street and Nicollet Avenue selling fentanyl and cocaine, and members of the “Family Mob,” which operates along Lake Street.
We agreed with Sheriff Dawanna Witt’s comments about the arrest:
Drug trafficking is not just about illegal narcotics. It fuels violence. It exploits people struggling with addiction. It puts the entire community at risk. As outlined in this indictment, these crimes are also connected to serious acts of violence, including murder. No single agency can tackle criminal organizations like these alone. That is why these collaborations matter.
We raise this arrest not to spark sensationalism, but to remind the loud and repetitive voices in Minneapolis that seem to believe we can function without police that the stakes are real. Ride a bike through Lake and Blaisdell and it becomes immediately apparent that significant problems must be addressed to move beyond the current crisis. Speak with the residents on these blocks and the issues become far less academic.
There may be a time in the distant future when the gangs, drugs, and guns currently on our streets are no longer an issue. But that day is not here. And we have not yet seen a roadmap that gets us there.
Minneapolis needs new ideas for moving forward in a realistic and achievable way. It’s one of the reasons that David Therkelsen and I are traveling to Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco starting July 18. Many of the people engaged in debates around policing, housing, and drug addiction seem to have grown rigid in their thinking. We’re hoping to return with fresh perspectives that will broaden the conversation.
If you’d like to contribute to this effort, you can donate at our website or email terry@betterminneapolis.com.
Better Minneapolis is taking this Fourth of July weekend off. Enjoy the holiday.
