Minneapolis is boosting summer safety efforts amid a violent start to the season.
"Operation Safe Summer" will put more eyes on busy spots like food markets and big events like the Pride Festival and Taste of Minnesota, as well as shops for liquor and tobacco. All of it is aimed at making sure everyone feels safer in the city.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says this safety initiative is just one part of Minneapolis' comprehensive public safety plan - but it's a vitally important one.
"It's one that has shown some success over the last several years," notes the mayor. "It's one that is shown to be necessary because we've got to get ahead of these issues before it gets hot, literally and figuratively."
Even though Minneapolis police say crime numbers like shootings and carjackings are already down from last year, they're hoping these extra steps will help keep the community secure throughout the summer.
Minneapolis is already increasing patrols in areas like Boom Island Park after a fatal shooting there on Sunday left a woman dead and five injured. Police are still investigating that mass shooting, and have yet to make any arrests.
"When people are getting killed, we need to act, not just two and three years down the road, but right now," Frey said. "We need to help people right now. This is not the only strategy that we have that we're presently utilizing, but it is an important one."
The effort builds on recent successes, as Minneapolis Police report significant reductions in violent crimes that have risen since 2020, but also confronts a challenging start to the year marked by six homicides. Five of those occurred within 24 hours of each other in early May.
Still, Minneapolis' city dashboard which tracks crimes shows a 32% drop in homicides since last year, a 25% drop in motor vehicle thefts, and a 35% drop in carjackings.
That doesn't mean there aren't issues, as Frey and Police Chief Brian O'Hara noted following Sunday's shooting in Boom Island.
"You know, it's really, really disturbing, that at a gathering like that at a park, looks like it was kind of like a cookout or something like that, that people would come armed to the teeth and then just open fire with all those people there in the way they did. It's absolutely disgusting," O'Hara told WCCO's Adam and Jordana on Tuesday.