Mayor Frey: Calls To Defund MPD Have Had An Impact As Crime Spikes
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Shootings, some fatal, are all playing out in and around where people live and work in Minneapolis.
It has become too common of an occurrence across the city, especially in north Minneapolis. Mayor Jacob Frey met with community leaders last Friday, and empathized with what's going on.
"The violence needs to stop, its unacceptable. People deserve to feel safe in their neighborhood, they deserve to be able to send their kids out to the sidewalk to play and to recreate without bullets flying by. That's unacceptable. We should be holding these perpetrators accountable," Frey said.
The mayor is hoping for a both/and approach to tackling crime.
"It's going to take a very comprehensive effort. Yes, it includes safety beyond policing, and it includes police. And, you know, I'm one that has been working lock step with our Chief [Medaria] Arradondo, and I'm calling on the council members to try to work with him as well," Frey said.
He says the city does not have enough officers to respond to crime when needed. Community members at Monday's gathering, including Pastor Dale Hume, believe calls for defunding the police have played a role in the spike in crime.
"To people who think that the easy solution to this is defund the police, when you live here and something like this happens, you can obviously see that is not the solution," Hume said.
Mayor Frey agrees.
"It's just the reality of the solution, you know. When you make big, overarching statements that we're going to defund or abolish and dismantle the police department and get rid of all the officers, there's an impact to that," Frey said. "Do we need massive change? Yes we do. We need accountability and culture shift within our department, and we need police."
Mayor Frey says he plans to release a plan later this week that includes laying out both safety and accountability.
