MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department released an update over a month after the city began "Operation Endeavor" — a program that uses data to determine the areas most impacted by crime and allocates additional resources to those areas.
The city's Operation Endeavor is also designed to help combat MPD's worker shortage.
The city's first update used data recorded between Sept. 27 and Oct 24.
MPD says that during this period, gun-related calls for service decreased by 30%; the number of gunshot wound victims dropped by 29%; and carjackings decreased 65% from a year before.
Mayor Jacob Frey spoke at a press conference Monday to laud the positive effects of Operation Endeavor.
"Better does not mean good," said Mayor Jacob Frey. "The fact that things are improving substantially based on the data does not mean we are where we want to be. We are keeping our nose to the grindstone. We will continue to review the data and make sure we are deploying the resources to where they are most effective," he said.
Violent crime has also dropped year-to-year, most notably with homicides down 17% compared to this time in 2021. However, homicides, gunshot victims and carjackings all remain higher in 2022 than the three-year average, according to data from the MPD dashboard.
As Friday's triple shooting near Lake and Hiawatha and another homicide in the Third Precinct showed, there are still areas of significant concern in Minneapolis.
"Our goal here," Community Safety Commissioner Dr. Cedric Alexander said, "is to be able to pinpoint each and every day and every hour, using analytics, where we need to be."
This includes downtown Minneapolis, where police have visibly boosted enforcement, working alongside peace groups stationed throughout Nicollet Mall. Steve Cramer, the CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said Operation Endeavor "is really helping a great deal with that business hour, into the evening," when people are attending sporting events or going to restaurants.
However, late night and overnight hours on weekends remain an issue. This weekend, for example, a shooting occurred at 1:30 a.m. on Hennepin.
"We still have the weekends and the Warehouse District and bar close, and that's sort of a separate environment that we are also working on," Cramer said. "We had a pilot program this past weekend, Warehouse District Live, for the second time, to create more of a pedestrian environment. We have strategies in place to deal with the whole spectrum of downtown safety issues."
Some of the other notable stats the department reported in a press release include:
- Citywide, an analysis of the average number of 911 gun-related CFS over the same period since 2018, shows a 24% decrease in 2022.
- Shotspotter activations decreased 28%, rounds detected decreased 38% and the "Operation Endeavor" period showed a nearly 50% decrease in fully automatic shot detection.
- MPD, the BCA and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) confiscated 100 guns — 23 of them being "long guns."
- Over 2,900 fentanyl pills were recovered by the BCA, HCSO and MPD.
While the first four weeks of Operation Endeavor are finished, the city plans to continue the program into the foreseeable future.
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