Minneapolis Calls In State Patrol, BCA To Assist With Crime
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- City officials say Minneapolis will pay state authorities to assist with law enforcement and criminal investigations.
The city announced joint powers agreements with the Minnesota State Patrol and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Wednesday.
The agreements state the extra law enforcement is necessary "due to a significant reduction in MPD sworn staffing levels."
The state patrol will "provide high visibility patrols" in two areas of the city at specified times, according to the agreement. Those areas are:
- West Broadway Avenue from North Fourth Street to Penn Avenue North
- Lake Street from Hiawatha Avenue to Interstate 35W and Nicollet Avenue to Hennepin Avenue.
The agreement states four troopers in two squad cars will patrol for four hours a day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays between 4 p.m. and midnight.
The troopers "will not be taking on any MPD 911 call response" or "be expected to handle routine calls for service," according to the agreement.
The BCA agreement says it will "provide investigatory services agreed upon by BCA and MPD." A release from the city say the BCA "will be supporting MPD with violent crime investigations including gun crimes, shootings, and carjackings."
For this support, the city will pay up to $700,000, according to the agreements -- $400,000 to the state patrol and $300,000 to the BCA.
Both agreements are in effect through 2023. In a release, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said "absent additional funding from the state Legislature, [BCA personnel] will return to their prior assignments in September." DPS said state patrol's involvement "will likely last through the summer."
Minneapolis has seen 31 homicides so far this year. Should the pace of killings hold, it would mark a record year of violence in the city.
A report last week from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found that the city and its police department have engaged in "discriminatory, race-based policing" for at least a decade.