As reliance on clean energy grows, and the industry continues its exponential expansion amid worsening climate conditions, two groups are making sure underserved communities aren’t left behind.

Minneapolis Climate Action (MCA), along with Renewable Energy Partners, allied to help establish the Regional Apprenticeship Training Center, located in the heart of a north Minneapolis neighborhood. By providing clean energy workforce training and a space to do it in that’s along one of the busiest bus routes in the state on Plymouth Avenue, the groups aim to equitably facilitate the community’s transition to renewable energy.

“It’s meant to be an establishment to enable people in the neighborhood, people that are from disenfranchised communities, to come in and be trained in clean energy industries – industries that we have been left out of, historically,” said Akisha Everett, MCA’s executive director. 

MCA is new to north Minneapolis but has existed since 2007 as part of a group called Linden Hills Power of Light, a community group that organized action around recycling and carbon reduction. Now, MCA is led by Everett, who came over from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment during a pilot program to install battery modules to make the solar power at the training center self-sustainable.

Everett, a Black woman and north Minneapolis resident, said working with Renewable Energy Partners and its founder, Jamez Staples, felt impactful, prompting her to leave her position at the University and join the effort happening in her neighborhood.

“I knew I needed to be back here to help with this energy transition for this demographic of people (and) to help open some doors and be a person who looks like my community,” she said. “If people don’t have the information, they  never tap into the training or education needed to pursue this career pathway.”

Everett said MCA is taking a two-pronged approach to promoting usage of clean energy and making it more accessible to underserved communities. 

The first arm is through the installation of community solar gardens that MCA and Renewable Energy Partners have helped establish – one at the EMERGE recycling center in southeast Minneapolis and another at Minneapolis North Community High School. The solar gardens prioritize low and moderate income groups, helping them to become subscribers to renewable energy while getting discounted prices on their energy bills, which Everett called a win-win as climate change worsens. 

“People can feel like they are doing their part as we’re trying to come around this curve of energy transition, and we’re coming around this curve whether we want to or not,” she said. “We can see it just based on the sporadic weather conditions – hurricanes, flooding, and all this stuff.”

The second part of this approach is through clean energy workforce development. Among the training offered to community members free of charge are a 12-week solar installation course, a building science course that teaches how to make homes more energy efficient, an HVAC lab and an introduction to energy efficient construction methods. The building also features a K-12 STEM activities program that teaches kids about robotics, drone operation and 3D printing, among other activities.

Shubha Harris, equitable energy policy consultant for Fresh Energy, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that aims to accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy, said the accessibility of the training center to north Minneapolis residents is important to facilitating their transition to clean energy.

“A lot of that work needs to be done locally, because we have to upgrade apartment buildings and single family homes in every community,” Harris said. “Having workers that can do that work in their own communities benefits those workers and benefits the community simultaneously.”

In recent years, the Minnesota Legislature has ramped up efforts to limit carbon emissions and speed up the state’s transition to clean energy. A historic energy budget package passed in 2023 includes a new law requiring residents across the state to only use carbon-free electricity sources by 2040, along with nearly $250 million that funded the creation of more clean energy jobs, reduction of energy costs and further efforts to mitigate climate change. 

As governments and companies continue to invest trillions into renewable energy, Harris said the industry represents the greatest economic opportunity in decades. And since the industry is still relatively new, it also presents an opportunity to avoid exacerbating disparities that exist in established industries through investment in underserved communities, she said. 

“We have the opportunity to maybe close the gap a little if we can funnel the money more equitably and more broadly, so that the funding doesn’t go to the people that are already established and already successful in this workforce,” she said. “The clean energy transition is gaining steam, and ensuring that diverse communities and businesses from people from diverse backgrounds can benefit from the money that’s coming from federal and state governments will help to ensure those businesses benefit and their communities benefit.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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For almost a decade, researchers from the University of Minnesota have been studying wolves in north central Minnesota in and around Voyageurs National Park. 

Their research, which has come to be known as the Voyageurs Wolf Project, involves studying the role of wolves in that ecosystem – their reproduction and direct impact on prey populations, as well as indirect impacts on the area’s forests and wetlands.  

That study requires supplies like radio collars, remote cameras, tracking equipment and trapping equipment. Thanks to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF), researchers can effectively gather data while handling the animals safely and navigating the area off-trail, said Joseph Bump, a University of Minnesota professor and researcher with the project.

“Funds from the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund make the project possible,” Bump said. “It really is a comprehensive funding source that is essential to our work, and the broader program is an asset to the state of Minnesota.”

The Voyageurs Wolf Project is one of many projects funded since the ENRTF was first established in 1988 when 77% of Minnesota voters agreed to a constitutional amendment creating the fund. The dedicated dollars pay for activities and projects that protect, conserve and preserve the state’s natural resources – air, water, fish and wildlife – for the benefit of current and future Minnesotans.

The trust fund, which is partly funded by proceeds from the Minnesota State Lottery system, has provided more than $1 billion for more than 1,600 projects statewide since 1991. Voters across the state will have the opportunity in November to extend the arrangement, which allocates 40% of state lottery proceeds to the fund that is set to expire in 2025.

A blank selection on the ballot question would count as a “no” vote, meaning that in order for the amendment to pass, 50% of all voters statewide must vote yes.

The fund is overseen by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), a commission of five lawmakers each from the House and Senate, two citizen members appointed by each chamber and five additional citizens appointed by the governor. The LCCMR makes recommendations for projects that would be funded by the trust fund to the Legislature each year, including a package this year of 101 projects totaling nearly $80 million.

In addition to the Voyageurs Wolf Project, other projects funded by the Trust Fund over the past decade include:

• $7 million in 2024 for the University of Minnesota’s Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center.
• Nearly $5 million in 2023 for expanding recreational activities on Minnesota State Trails by rehabbing and enhancing existing trails across the state.
• $2 million in 2022 to replace failing septic systems to protect groundwater.
• $2.7 million in 2021 to help construct the Crane Lake Visitor Center at Voyageurs National Park.
• $3.5 million in 2020 to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to protect community forests and plant more trees.
• $4 million in 2019 to develop solutions to the state’s aquatic invasive species problems through research, control and prevention.
• $1 million in 2018 to the Minnesota Department of Health to monitor unregulated drinking water contaminants at wells and intakes.

The new amendment was altered to explicitly ban the funds from being used on the construction, repair, improvement or operation of wastewater treatment plants, which have received dollars from the fund in the past. The change comes after outrage from environmental groups in 2018, sparked by lawmakers using the fund to pay for such projects.

The ENRTF differs from the Legacy Amendment, which was another constitutional amendment voted on by Minnesota voters in 2008. The Legacy Amendment, which is set to expire in 2034, uses sales tax to pour money into four separate funds dedicated to outdoor heritage, clean water, parks and trails and arts and cultural heritage. 

DFL Rep. Rick Hansen of South St. Paul, who chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee and co-chairs the LCCMR, said the ENRTF has funded more research over the years than the Legacy funds, but the main difference between the two sources is the trust fund is ongoing while the Legacy funds are not.

“(The Legacy Amendment) is using the sales tax with appropriations … generally, that is money that is appropriated and that is not a trust,” Hansen said. “The importance right now with the trust fund is to continue the constitutional protection of money going into that trust.”

Due to Minnesotans in urban, suburban and rural areas across the political spectrum all valuing the outdoors, clean water and clean air, Hansen said there has been very little opposition to projects supported by the fund. 

“Minnesotans enjoy the great outdoors, they value clean water and clean air, and they put their trust in us as their elected officials to implement good projects,” Hansen said. “By establishing this fund constitutionally, and the question in front of us to continue that constitutional dedication, it provides protection to that trust that we will invest in the right things to help our state be better.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Monday called for a 15-year-old murder conviction to be vacated after a new review of the evidence points to the innocence of the man imprisoned for the crime.

Edgar Barrientos-Quintana was convicted in 2009 for the murder of 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson during a drive-by shooting in south Minneapolis, in which Mickelson was a bystander. Members of Mickelson’s family joined Moriarty at the Monday news conference, calling for the release of Barrientos-Quintana and apologizing to his family for having to be without their family member for more than a decade.

“It’s been 16 years, but I would rather have no conviction than the wrong conviction,” said Tina Rosebear, Mickelson’s sister. “I want to apologize, most importantly, because I held a lot of anger for a man that had nothing to do with it and it hurts to know that we were failed because of a wrong conviction.”

The calls for Barrientos-Quintana’s release come less than two months after the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) housed within Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office concluded a three-year investigation into the conviction and trial. The unit’s report released in late July found a “confluence of errors made by criminal justice system actors (that) resulted in a wrongful conviction.”

Moriarty’s office filed a brief on Monday agreeing the conviction should be vacated, and pledged to immediately drop the charges against Barrientos-Quintana if the conviction is overturned, she said. 

“We are hopeful that the court will give Mr. Barrientos-Quintana the relief he deserves, but this is a sad day all around,” Moriarty told reporters. “Our legal system failed Mr. Barrientos-Quintana. Our legal system also failed Jesse’s family, who almost 16 years later, must again wonder who killed their loved one.”

The CRU found security footage from a Cub Foods in the Maplewood area showing Barrientos-Quintana at the grocery store 33 minutes before the shooting, which occurred in Minneapolis. Phone data – which was not shown to the jury during the trial – also corroborated Barrientos-Quintana’s claim that he was at his girlfriend’s apartment during the time of the shooting, placing him at the Maplewood home 27 minutes after the shooting. 

According to CRU investigators, the combination of the phone records and security footage make it impossible for Barrientos-Quintana to have driven to Minneapolis to commit the crime then back again within that time frame.

There was no physical evidence tying Barrientos-Quintana to the crime, including the lack of DNA evidence and the absence of the gun used in the shooting, which was never found, according to the report. Witnesses also described the shooter as having a “shiny” or closely shaved bald head, but the security footage just before the shooting showed Barrientos-Quintana with a thick head of dark hair, which he still had in the arrest photo taken 11 days after the shooting.

Photo lineups used by Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) investigators featured an old photo of Barrientos-Quintana with a shaved head. The report also says MPD investigators used coercive interrogation techniques, threatening witnesses with prosecution and pressuring others to name Barrientos-Quintana as the shooter despite identifying someone else as the shooter early on. 

The case was also featured in an episode of the television show “First 48,” which follows homicide investigators as they try to solve cases – often within 48 hours – that aired less than one month before the trial. The CRU report says the involvement of the show contributed to the wrongful conviction due to witnesses watching the episode,  which showed edited footage of Barrientos-Quintana’s arrest and interrogation, before testifying, and prosecutors having access to scripted comments made by a lead investigator during the episode long before the defense. 

The MPD detective on the case, Chris Gaiters, is now the department’s Assistant Chief of Community Trust, and current Hennepin County Judge Hilary Caligiuri prosecuted the case. Susan Crumb, another former prosecutor on the case, sent a memo to Moriarty’s office saying she still believes Barrientos-Quintana to be guilty and that the CRU report is acting off of confirmation bias. 

Due to the potential conflicts of interest, Moriarty said the chief judge of Hennepin County District Court asked the state Supreme Court to assign the case to a judge outside of the county. She said the case now lies with a retired Anoka County judge, who has 90 days to make a decision on whether to overturn the conviction.

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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A century-old ammunition plant in Anoka is the latest Minnesota company found to have emitted high levels of lead into the air, exceeding air quality standards and violating state and federal pollution regulations.

Earlier this month, the EPA announced a settlement with Federal Cartridge Co., which must pay nearly $350,000 in fines after the federal agency found the plant to be polluting the air with unsafe levels of lead.

To comply with the settlement, Federal Cartridge has also upgraded its facility with three new lead-controlling baghouses featuring high efficiency air filtration systems. The company, which manufactures ammunition, must also put in place what’s called scavenger hooding in areas where lead is processed to direct the emissions to those new filtration systems, as well as a plan to manage lead dust and monitor the air quality in and around the facility. 

“The U.S. EPA’s settlement agreement with Federal Ammunition, in part due to findings from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), is an important step in ensuring Anoka residents breathe clean air,” MPCA spokeswoman Jenn Hathaway said in a statement. “The MPCA is committed to protecting the health and wellness of nearby residents and will continue to work with the EPA to oversee the company’s action to meet terms of the settlement agreement and lower its emissions.”

The settlement with the ammunition company comes as Northern Iron, a metal foundry in St. Paul cited by MPCA for emitting high levels of lead particulate matter into the air, is in the midst of mandated improvements of its own, after violating state and federal air quality standards. 

After the removal of lead from gasoline decades ago, typical cases of lead exposure in Minnesota result from chipping paint in old homes, which would turn to dust and is then inhaled or ingested, mainly by children, said Stephanie Yendell, senior epidemiology supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Health’s lead poisoning prevention program. But in Federal’s case, the installation of an ambient air monitor by the MPCA at the plant found emissions of lead at levels above the state standard of 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter. 

“The concern there was that because there was higher levels of lead in the air, that people could breathe that in, or that the lead could settle out into the surrounding areas, like into soil, and then that becomes a concern for things like gardening, and so it’s a slightly different situation than what we would see technically around Minnesota,” Yendell said. 

Lead, which affects how much oxygen gets to the blood, can have adverse effects on the nervous system, immune system and kidney function, as well as on the developmental, reproductive and cardiovascular systems. It can also cause neurological issues in children, which could cause learning deficits and behavioral problems.

Last year, state and county health officials urged employees of the plant to have their children tested after the officials found four children of plant employees with elevated levels of lead in their blood, citing exposure to lead dust that may have been brought home via clothing or personal items. Through routine testing, the first child was found to have elevated lead levels in November 2021, with subsequent cases appearing about a year later in late 2022 and late 2023, leading local health officials to determine there may be ongoing exposure.

Yendell said MDH and MPCA held public meetings earlier this year in the neighborhood surrounding the Federal Cartridge facility, where officials offered blood lead testing and testing of soil samples. MDH officials tested 116 people and had a few unconfirmed tests above the threshold for lead in blood, but they did not see a confirmed disproportionate increase in blood lead levels, which Yendell called a relief.

“I think it’s an example of the challenges we face with persistent pollution,” said DFL Rep. Rick Hansen of South St. Paul, chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee. Hansen lauded the settlement but called the situation an example of the challenges state officials and lawmakers face with more and more offenders.

“Lead is used in a number of things like fishing line sinkers or ammunition where there have been efforts for regulation that have not been successful, but now we’re seeing the consequences, and not only to communities, but to the workers,” Hansen said. “It’s part of a persistent pattern with some of these compounds.”

Hansen said while the state is spending millions to replace old lead pipes, as well as doing some monitoring of air quality, more should be done on the monitoring side, including with water quality and soil remediation.

“The more you look, the more there is potential to find it. If you don’t know it’s there, then people are unable to take precautions,” Hansen said. “We’re spending money on prevention and replacement of lead service lines, but here we have these exposures that are not the result of a physical structure but production.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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While violent crime has diminished as a priority for Minnesotans in recent years, a stark divide between voters’ political affiliations and their perception of safety in the Twin Cities persists, according to a new MinnPost-Embold Research poll.

Only about a quarter of 1,616 likely voters across the state surveyed between Sept. 4 and Sept. 8 had violent crime as one of their top four priorities, which is down from 31% in last year’s poll and 42% in 2022. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

Public safety has fallen as a prominent election issue when compared to the past two major elections in 2020 and 2022. The 2020 murder of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was fresh in voters’ minds, and many Democrats called for law enforcement reform while many Republicans expressed unwavering support for police. Spikes in violent crime during the coronavirus pandemic that ebbed and flowed in the years that followed also played a role in how voters cast their ballots, but issues like the rising costs of goods and the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court appear to be more important for voters this time around.

“Crime, particularly violent crime, is not a top issue. I mean it gets a lot of attention and Republicans in particular talk about it a lot, but we’ve got a whole lot of other issues that are getting far more attention,” University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said in an interview. “For Democrats who might have been worried about crime, and particularly Minneapolis, it’s not appearing on the list for top concerns among Minnesotans.”

Respondents of color were more likely to be concerned about violent crime and have the issue as a top priority this election at 32% compared to just 22% of white respondents, with Black and Hispanic respondents much more likely to be concerned at 40% and 39%, respectively. Those percentages dipped to 26% among college-educated respondents of color.

The number of women of color who had violent crime as a priority was much higher at 37% when compared to white women at 19%, whereas the numbers for white men and men of color were nearly identical at 26% and 27%, respectively.

A third of respondents who voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 called violent crime a top issue for them while only 16% of President Joe Biden voters concurred. The figures were nearly identical along party lines. Respondents who identified as independents matched GOP respondents at 32%.

When compared to last year’s poll, which had 40% of Republican and 23% of Democratic respondents list violent crime as a priority, the political divide remains, but the decline in the issue as a motivator for voters in the 2024 election is still reflected. Even among Republicans, both polls showed issues including rising costs, illegal immigration, taxes and election security as bigger priorities than violent crime.

Perception of safety

When asked how safe they feel in different regions, about half of all respondents said they feel very safe or somewhat in the Twin Cities at 49%, but figures varied wildly based on respondents’ political affiliations. While respondents who identified as Democrats and Republicans both said they feel very safe or somewhat safe in the neighborhoods where they live – 95% and 89%, respectively – only 12% of GOP respondents said they feel very safe or somewhat safe in the Twin Cities compared to 87% of Democrat respondents.

Jacobs, who said he has researched and interviewed rural Minnesotans about the topic, said the cause seems to be a lack of familiarity with the cities, but also a suspicion of them as well that is driven by partisanship.

“A number of Republican politicians have been quite critical of Minneapolis after the George Floyd (protests) and I think if you spend time in rural Minnesota, you pick up quite a bit of animosity towards the urban areas,” he said.

Though the differences aren’t as stark, Embold Research pollster Jessica Mason said the regions in which respondents live also played a role in their perceptions of safety. 

Respondents who lived in the Twin Cities reported lower rates of feeling very safe or somewhat safe in their own neighborhoods at 82% when compared to their counterparts in the suburbs and Greater Minnesota at 94% and 96%, respectively. However, when asked how safe they feel in the Twin Cities specifically, Twin Cities respondents saw a small change with 76% responding favorably, whereas there was a considerable dropoff with suburban respondents at 48% and an even steeper decline with Greater Minnesota respondents at 31%.

“Although there is a high likelihood that partisanship does come into play here, we do see that geography is a factor,” she said.

There was also a divide between older and younger respondents. Two-thirds of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 said they feel safe in the Twin Cities, but that number starts to decline with the older age groups. Less than half of respondents in the 35-plus range said they feel safe in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

MinnPost freelance data journalist Michael Nolan contributed to this report.

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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Following their first unsuccessful attempt earlier this year, a couple police accountability advocacy groups relaunched another effort to establish civilian control of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) via a citizen petition to get a question on municipal ballot in 2025.

Dozens of people gathered in front of the charred remains of the Minneapolis Police’s old Third Precinct building on Thursday as two groups – Minneapolis for Community Control of the Police (M4CCP) and Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) – held a rally and march to launch a second effort to amend the city charter and establish the Civilian Police Accountability Commission. The commission would be an elected body of 13 civilians that would have the power to discipline and discharge any MPD employee – including the chief – investigate incidents and decide the department’s budget.

The second attempt comes after the groups submitted a petition to the city clerk in May that featured more than 10,000 signatures, which was more than the required 8,943 signatures, or 5% of the total number of voters in Minneapolis in the previous election, needed to get an initiative on the 2024 ballot. The city clerk’s office rejected nearly 5,000 of the signatures and gave the groups 10 days to reach the threshold but they couldn’t get the remaining signatures in time.

“Personally, when I got the news, I was crushed as I felt years of organizing and hundreds of hours of work had been thrown away by bureaucratic technicalities,” said Jae Yates of both M4CCP and TCC4J. “But this feeling of defeat was immediately replaced by determination and resolve as I watched TCC4J members immediately mobilize to say ‘What’s next?’”

Jon Martin, deputy director of the city’s elections and voter services, said in order for the initiative to get on the ballot, the groups must submit the signatures by May 1 of next year. The signature threshold will likely be higher this time around because it will be based on 5% of the number of ballots cast in Minneapolis in the 2024 election, and voter turnout is typically higher in presidential years.

Once submitted, each signature is verified by staff in the city clerk’s office. 

“What that process is, is that they make sure each signature line is completely filled out, and then they verify that the address that the person wrote down on the signature line is the address that they’re currently registered at with the city of Minneapolis,” Martin said.

If the threshold is reached, then the petition is forwarded to the city attorney’s office to do a legal review of the question. The question is then sent to the Minneapolis City Council to draft ballot question language, he said.

If successful, the measure would be the second question to make it onto the ballot seeking to remove sole authority over MPD from Mayor Jacob Frey since the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin in 2020. The first question, spearheaded by Yes4Minneapolis, would have replaced MPD with a Department of Public Safety and shifted authority over the department to the City Council. It failed in the 2021 municipal election, though about 43% voted in favor of it.

A spokesman for Frey said in a statement that the mayor does not support the initiative, saying the commission would “dilute accountability by inserting 13 bosses in the chain of command for the police department.”

“The proposal did not make sense in 2021 and still does not make sense today,” said the spokesman. “The mayor continues to support the build-out of the existing Community Commission on Police Oversight and the Chief’s development of a more accountable and transparent department through adherence to the settlement agreement, a new police contract, enhanced community engagement, and ongoing training initiatives.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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The Unity Community Mediation Team (UCMT), one of the oldest public safety-focused nonprofit organizations in Minneapolis, is seeking nearly $2 million from the city to continue its work. 

Al Flowers, one of UCMT’s original members, said to achieve the goal of cultivating trust between community and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) – after decades of volunteer work – the group needs city funding to continue its work.

“Now, the system is saying they want a community based solution,” said Flowers. “That is what we have created.”

Origins of UCMT

The UCMT began way back in December 2003, when original founders Ron Edwards and Clyde Bellecourt brought the concerns of community members to the U.S. Department of Justice regarding multiple incidents of police violence, namely against Black and Indigenous residents of the city. That led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the department and UCMT, prompting weekly meetings between the two sides for five years – called the Police Community Relations Council (PCRC) – about the implementation of 106 action items in the document, which were nearly 70% complete by 2008. But that year, city officials decided not to continue the PCRC, which remained stagnant until the murder of George Floyd by a white MPD officer in 2020 jump-started the effort once more and the document was renewed in 2022. 

Since then, the UCMT’s main functions have involved providing resources for community members who have had negative interactions with MPD officers. UCMT volunteers then relay the complaints to the department, review body camera footage of the incident and, when necessary, mediate between the individuals and the officers involved in order to come to a resolution. 

“We’ve been doing this for over 20 years with the police department, so they’ve gotten to know us and they trust us,” said mental health professional and UCMT member Mark Anderson. “So if we say ‘a family says that you beat up this child,’ they’ll say, ‘Well, come on downtown and look at the video,’ and so we can help mediate between the community and the police department because we have trust on both sides.”

In addition to providing community members with access to police services, the group is also trying to improve access to officers as well in an effort to improve relations between the department and residents. Since May, according to the group, every new MPD officer has been assigned a “community mentor” by the UCMT – someone who can familiarize officers with their patrol area and the people who live there.

“We’re developing a network so the officers could feel the support and the connection with the community from their side,” Flowers said. “It’s not just us learning to trust officers, it’s officers learning to trust community and work together.”

Future of UCMT

During the renewal of the UCMT’s mediation efforts following Floyd’s murder, the outpouring by the city’s younger residents during the protests in 2020 prompted the group’s elders to start thinking about the future of their efforts. That resulted in the creation of the UCMT’s Young People Task Force, led in part by Flowers’ son Alfred Flowers Jr. 

“I was standing outside at the Third Precinct protesting when George Floyd was murdered, and I don’t regret a second of it, but what I also realized was OK, now what’s next? What do we want to get done?”

The task force has been active in relaying concerns to MPD and getting policies created or changed. One example was the role they played in helping to get no-knock warrants banned for good following the killing of Amir Locke by a Minneapolis SWAT team in 2022. That same year, the task force also brought awareness to the lack of MPD policy regarding DNA collection of juveniles after a 13-year-old boy was detained by officers and allegedly had samples taken. That eventually led to legislation passed at the Capitol to prevent DNA collection of minors without parental consent.

Now with 15 members who meet each Thursday, the task force has also been working to strengthen the bond between community members and police through events like group fishing and police and UCMT handing out free backpacks to kids ahead of the school year.

All of the services provided by UCMT volunteers are free of charge, but that model is becoming more unsustainable for the volunteers, said Al Flowers. During a presentation to the City Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee, the organization is now asking the city for about $937,000 a year for two years to help maintain the eight sites where UCMT volunteers operate. 

The sites include UCMT headquarters, NAACP Minneapolis and New Salem Baptist Church in north Minneapolis, as well as Indigenous Protector Movement, Little Earth Residents Association, Cedar Riverside Opportunity Center, Voice of East Africa Women and Nuestra Lucha on the city’s south side. 

Because the sites are community-based, the funds split between the eight sites would not only go toward helping to continue providing UCMT services at each site, but they’d also go toward funding the other services provided by each of the organizations represented.

“While the UCMT is the overseer of (our programs) at these community satellite sites, this is not strictly for UCMT – we’re trying to make sure that those other sites that we have are funded as well,” Flowers Jr. said. “So it’s not as if the UCMT is getting all of that money. We just had to break it down so that each site is taken care of.”

Ward 9 Council member and Public Health and Safety Committee chair, Jason Chavez, said during an interview that he’s very interested in the goal behind the idea for the community sites, which is to help immigrants and communities of color file police reports, but how it’ll be funded remains unclear. 

“The appealing thing to me is for the city to be able to support community based sites to make sure that people can feel safe filing police complaints,” Chavez said. “Now in regards to the funding stream, that has to be a conversation had by Council. Are we funding the entire project? Are we funding one site and piloting it and seeing what this could look like?”

Chavez said he plans to have follow-up conversations with UCMT, as well as with the city attorney and civil rights department to ensure the sites wouldn’t run afoul of any city policies or the ongoing consent decree process.

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

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Following the shooting of four children in a stolen car less than two weeks ago, Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Chief Brian O’Hara and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty have been publicly going back and forth about who is to blame. 

The chief claims investigators are arresting kids for auto theft and referring them to the county attorney’s office, while Moriarty claims her office isn’t getting the referrals. The back and forth, which has been simmering for months, was sparked by a shooting on Aug. 18 when four kids between the ages of 11 and 14 were shot while riding in a stolen vehicle. 

During this exchange, O’Hara also cited a specific statute, saying the reason he couldn’t bring charges against many juveniles is due to a state law that says any individual under 14 years old is incapable of committing a crime, leaving his officers’ hands tied on juvenile crime. 

“We are failing to deter this behavior, and with that being said, we are failing these kids as well,” O’Hara said during a news conference shortly after the shooting. 

Moriarty’s office released a statement in response, calling O’Hara “inaccurate” and laying out several other ways law enforcement could refer juveniles 10 years old and older to her office, including their Youth Auto Theft Early Intervention Initiative. 

The initiative was created last year due to officers telling Moriarty’s office they knew the kids involved in thefts but didn’t have enough to charge. The initiative involves youth and their families accepting voluntary services from a social worker in an effort to prevent kids from stealing cars in the future. About 81% of juveniles who went through the initiative had no new cases submitted, but MPD has only referred four cases to her office in the second and third quarters of this year to date, according to her office. 

“This is critically important given the low clearance rate of 1.4% in 2024 for auto theft cases in Minneapolis,” Moriarty said in the statement. “Police often tell us they know who is involved but do not have the evidence to prove it.”

Rachel Moran, University of St. Thomas School of Law professor and founder of the school’s Criminal and Juvenile Defense Clinic, said while both O’Hara and Moriarty are accusing each other of inaccuracies, they’re both “not hearing exactly what the other is saying.”

“Chief O’Hara is right that these kids can’t be charged as adults … Mary Moriarty is right that there are other ways that they can be charged with delinquency offenses, and that there are ways to certainly refer the kids for charges, even if they wouldn’t be charged as adults and even if they might not be held with detention,” Moran said. “They’re both kind of at odds with each other over nuances in their language, but I think the ultimate gist of it is they don’t perceive the other as cooperating with their goal.”

Related | ShotSpotter to stay put in Minneapolis as officials negotiate extension, expansion

Moran said these types of exchanges happen often when a county attorney, labeled as progressive or wants to take a more rehabilitative approach, and police chief have different notions of public safety. And while they appear at odds with each other, violent crime being down overall shows each of their efforts could have merit, she said. 

“A terrible incident like what happened … is obviously going to create a lot of public attention and tension, and so words fly, but the reality is that I think to some extent, each of their approaches may be working,” she said. “Not perfectly, and this is an example of something not working, but the path forward certainly would be helpful to have them more on the same page.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

The post Police and prosecutors in Minneapolis grapple with youth ‘incapable’ of committing crime appeared first on MinnPost.

Minnesota court officials are looking at increasing juror per diems as a possible method to improve representativeness among juries amid a lack of racial diversity in the Twin Cities metro area and across the state. 

A MinnPost analysis of state court data found glaring racial disparities in the make-ups of juries for criminal proceedings going back 10 years. In an effort to combat those disparities, a previously established workgroup at the Minnesota Judicial Branch is looking at increasing pay for low-income jurors. 

The juror per diem rate was first enshrined in statute in Minnesota in 1977 at $15 per day and a reimbursement of $.15 per mile traveled by the juror. In 1993, the statute was repealed and the responsibility for setting the rate fell to the Supreme Court, which raised the rate two years later to $30. 

The per diem was decreased to $20 in 2003 due to budget restraints and again to $10 in 2008 before being raised again in 2016 to $20, where it sits today. 

During a Judicial Council meeting held earlier this month, the judges discussed the challenges within the process for paneling juries, including the financial consequences caused by serving on a jury. 

Related | Data shows glaring ethnic disparities in jury make-ups in the metro counties

“It falls into two categories: it’s either ‘I’m a doctor or a dentist or a business owner and I can’t take time off so please let me out of it,’ or it’s the person whose got two kids at home, and if they’re doing jury duty they’re not getting paid,” said Third District Judge Joseph Bueltel. “We’re losing people on both ends of the spectrum.”

A report conducted by the National Center for State Courts released in 2022 found that all states offer some kind of juror compensation, ranging from $4 in Illinois to $50 in North Dakota, with Minnesota in the middle of the pack. The report argues that compensation for jurors is crucial to the functioning of state courts, not only increasing candor and enthusiasm in participation but representation as well. 

An example of that is a pilot program started in March 2022 in San Francisco County. That program increased juror compensation in criminal trials from $15 to $100 per day in an effort to improve representation on juries by eliminating the financial barrier that often prevents low-income residents from serving. By August 2023, the staggering results showed that 84% of participants were only able to serve due to the increase in compensation, and the racial demographics of participants was nearly identical to the racial diversity of San Francisco County after only a year. 

“Being able to serve made me feel more connected to my community and involved in democracy,” said one participant in the pilot program. “I learned so much about the justice system.”

The jury workgroup, which presented during the Judicial Council, mentioned various improvements they’re working towards, including mental health services for jurors after serving, shift protection for jurors who need to take time off to serve and increasing the per diem, pending additional funds from the Legislature. 

In its supplemental budget request to the Legislature this past session, the Judicial Branch did add a funding request to increase juror per diems, but that part of the request wasn’t fulfilled, said Kim Pleticha, the Judicial Branch’s director of public affairs. 

“Jury per diem is something the Minnesota Judicial Branch cares deeply about,” Pleticha said in a statement. “The Judicial Council has not yet finalized the Branch’s legislative budget request for the 2025 legislative session, but jury per diem certainly is being discussed.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

The post Just $20 a day: Metro courts look at increasing jury pay to address racial disparities appeared first on MinnPost.

The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is making its case to not only extend by time, but also expand its use of ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology, to more of the city’s neighborhoods.

Though the city’s law enforcement officials say the technology is vital to their public safety efforts, some council members have raised concerns about its effectiveness, prompting negotiations over how long and how far the technology should reach in Minneapolis.

MPD’s case for ShotSpotter 

ShotSpotter, now known as SoundThinking Inc., is a gunshot detection system used by more than 160 cities nationwide that installs sensors and microphones in locations around a city that are hidden from both police and the public. Through the combination of a machine-learning algorithm and human evaluators, the system detects gunshots and relays the location where a sensor went off to local police.

During an Administrative and Enterprise and Oversight Committee meeting earlier this month, Office of Community Safety (OCS) Commissioner Todd Barnette and MPD Chief Brian O’Hara gave a presentation on how ShotSpotter is used in Minneapolis and how it helps officers do their jobs. 

“ShotSpotter does save lives,” Barnette said at the start of the presentation, likening the technology to a smoke detector in a home.

Barnette said the technology allows for a 911 dispatcher to receive a notification less than 60 seconds of a sensor’s activation, allowing officers – who get text messages whenever a ShotSpotter sensor is activated – to react and respond to that location faster. That then allows officers to get to victims faster, facilitates more efficient collection of gunfire data and aids in the collection of evidence, he said. 

ShotSpotter currently covers seven square miles – a large chunk of north Minneapolis neighborhoods and a smaller area in south Minneapolis – which is about 12% of the city. According to OCS data, 56% of gunshot wound victims between 2021 and 2023 were found within the areas where ShotSpotter has coverage.

O’Hara stressed the importance of the technology in its helpfulness in the department’s investigative efforts, citing multiple incidents that led to arrests for murder after the sensors directed officers to the shots’ locations, where they were able to recover bullet casings and DNA evidence. 

“This is a tool,” O’Hara said. “By being able to determine a location of where a shooting actually happened, that can get us much quicker into the right area to start talking to people, start looking for people and hopefully recover ballistic evidence … that can trace what gun that was that fired the shots.”

The proposed contract would include an extension through March 2027, and a westward expansion of the technology into the Uptown neighborhoods of south Minneapolis, including Whittier, Loring Park and Lyn-Lake. 

Related | Future of ShotSpotter in Minneapolis in flux as research shows disproportionate impact on communities of color

The presentation countered a series of presentations given to the committee in April by researchers at the University of Minnesota Law School and Legal Rights Center, as well as Campaign Zero, a public safety-focused research group. Their findings showed that ShotSpotter routinely activated in error, lengthened 911 response times and disproportionately impacted the city’s Black and Native residents, resulting in over-policing of those communities.

Future of contract

During the same committee meeting earlier this month, city staff presented a report commissioned by Ward 2 Council Member Robin Wonsley, the committee’s chair, along with Ward 5 Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, to identify potential third-party contractors who can come in and evaluate the ShotSpotter program and produce data that can be used to determine whether the program is effective or not. 

“Our whole thing was that we want to make sure the Council has information and objective data to have access to prior to considering an extension of the contract,” Wonsley said in an interview. 

The city currently pays just more than $233,000 for its ShotSpotter coverage. The initial proposed contract extension is expected to cost an additional $575,000 per year to maintain the city’s existing coverage zones, and the expansion to Uptown would add another $407,000.

Wonsley and Ellison met with Barnette and other public safety officials last week to express their concerns about the extension and expansion of the ShotSpotter contract. Wonsley said Barnette and OCS are taking their concerns into consideration and amending the contract, which could involve shortening the extension to 2026 or limiting the expansion from two square miles to 0.6 square miles, or both. 

The amended contract is then expected to come before the committee during their next meeting on Sept 9. 

“It’s very typical when there are concerns that are brought up by council members to reach out to the administration with those concerns directly and see if there’s a pathway forward for any corrective actions to be taken,” Wonsley said. “In this case, there was agreeable interest in finding something that could be of support amongst the Council and that is what’s being brought forward, hopefully, on Sept. 9.”

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.

The post ShotSpotter to stay put in Minneapolis as officials negotiate extension, expansion appeared first on MinnPost.