Brooklyn Park Police Department creating first-of-its-kind unit focusing on juvenile crime
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — A Minnesota city is using a new tactic to stop kids from committing crimes.
The Brooklyn Park Police Department is creating a new Violence Intervention Unit, which Chief Mark Bruley says is the first-of-its-kind in Minnesota.
The unit will consist of civilian employees who will act as case workers and hone in on the reasons young people turn toward crime in the first place, such as a lack of basic necessities.
"I can't tell you how many times... The child or the youth has no food or doesn't have a home," Bruley said. "They've been couch hopping, and they don't have someone who loves them that takes care of them."
The Violence Intervention Unit will help connect known youth offenders to resources like mental health services, sports programs or food.
"How many opportunities upstream were there to intervene in that individual's life before we got to the weapon? Before we got to somebody being shot?" Bruley said.
Two teenagers died after a shooting in the city on Halloween. A third teen is charged with the double murder.
RELATED: Deadly teen shooting draws attention to "notorious" Brooklyn Park neighborhood
Police records show that car thefts are up 36% versus this time last year, and Bruley says young people are responsible for most of them.
He says making arrests isn't an effective deterrent to stop the thefts.
But Bruley wants to be clear: officers won't stop doing their jobs.
"[Offenders are] going to get an option to go to mental health treatment, get an assessment, go to anger management, get back enrolled in school... And if they choose not to take that, we promise to come after them and arrest them every chance we can and hold them accountable for their actions, and we do that out of love," he said.
Violence interrupter community groups will continue connecting with kids where they are too.
"We're still out here in the community," Tekoa Cochran, the founder of The Village BP, said. "We're still doing the work. What the chief is saying is pretty spot on. Just attacking those root causes and addressing those root causes makes a huge difference."
The Village BP's contract with the city ended on Dec. 31 and was not renewed.
Bruley says community groups are effective at reducing crime in troubled areas but can be limited as to how much they prevent crime.
He says police will still collaborate with community groups in this work.
Bruley says the city's hoping to post the job openings for the new unit in the next few weeks, then get it up and running as soon as possible after that.