Mpls. police say violent crime at lowest level in 25 years
Minneapolis Police say violent crime in the city is at it's lowest level in a quarter century.
Authorities credit a crackdown on illegal guns, and stronger partnerships with residents and community groups.
Better number crunching is a factor, too. Sgt. Jeff Egge runs the department's crime analysis unit and said police are getting a better handle on where crime occurs and why.
"What we tried to do was to find those areas that were most likely to have offenses," he said. "And we started using trend-based data as well as historic data to isolate those area so we could actually put our police officers in those zones."
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Police said better policing techniques and community cooperation have helped as well.
Even though homicides doubled this year from 2009 -- from 19 to 39 -- police Chief Tim Dolan says a drop in rapes, robberies and assaults resulted in the low violent crime rate.
Dolan also credited the better analysis of crime patterns, as well as a crackdown on gun violence.
"We are proactively assigning people spots and it's based on intelligence, and it's also based on data, what we've been seeing," he said.
Dolan says cooperation from business owners and residents has been just as vital.
The largest drop in crime has been in the fifth precinct in southwest Minneapolis. However downtown and the northeast quadrant of the city saw a rise in violent crime this year.
Police said car break-ins and auto theft were up this year, partly because people going to the new ballpark left valuables in plain sight.