Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jun 2006
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2006 Star Tribune
Contact: http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/feedback/form.php?opinion=1
Website: http://www.startribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author: Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune

TWO BIG PROBLEMS CAUSE RISING CRIME

Minneapolis police Sgt. Jeff Jindra of the Metro Gang Strike Force 
has one of the toughest jobs in the city. I don't mean dealing with 
dangerous criminals. Today, one of the roughest parts of Jindra's job 
is talking to neighborhood groups that are at their wits' end over 
rising crime.

"We had 27 gunshot wounds and 48 aggravated robberies in the Fourth 
Precinct [north Minneapolis] in April and May alone," says Jindra. 
"People give me an earful; they want answers. I do my best, but I 
have little in the way of good news for them."

Recently the news got worse.

Violent crime was up 15 percent in Minneapolis in 2005.

While this figure isn't as high as the FBI initially reported, it's 
still six times the 2.5 percent national increase. Violent crime in 
St. Paul rose only 1.5 percent.Jindra, a 23-year veteran, agrees with 
the conventional wisdom that Minneapolis needs more police. But he 
believes a larger force won't help much if two intractable problems remain.

First, he lays significant blame on the Hennepin County Drug Court. 
Launched in 1997, it was intended to be an innovative approach to 
getting budding narcotics abusers into treatment. But Jindra says 
it's gone too far.

"Drug Court is killing us on the Gang Strike Force.

Drugs are behind a lot of the crime in this city. But today, we 
arrest drug dealers, and they're right back on the street."

He gives the example of a well-known drug dealer in the Fourth 
Precinct. Since December 30, 1999, the man has been convicted of five 
drug felonies, and was repeatedly ordered into treatment. The total 
time served behind bars for his drug crimes? Four months.

"There's a whole crowd of guys like him," Jindra adds.

Judge Kevin Burke, who initiated the Hennepin County Drug Court, says 
the court operates less effectively today than when it was set up in 
1997. "It's slower to get people into treatment or serving time," he 
says, "and there's less drug testing and probation oversight." Burke 
says that the jails and prisons are full, and that the private sector 
needs to provide more jobs for low-level drug offenders.

Jindra's second reason for escalating crime?

"The incentives to do aggressive police work have been taken away," 
he says. Today, thanks to the focus on "racial profiling" in law 
enforcement and to "overreaching" by the Minneapolis' Civilian Police 
Review Authority, which reviews claims of police misconduct, it 
sometimes seems that police rather than defendants are on trial, he says.

The result is that police may hesitate to investigate some suspicious 
behavior for fear of complaints of racial bias or brutality.

"As a cop, you don't have to make traffic stops, which helps get guns 
off the street, or go the extra mile in proactive policing," says 
Jindra. "In fact, it's easier not to. But if cops don't do these 
things, neighborhood safety will suffer."

Today's lax environment emboldens criminals, Jindra says.

"It used to be people would steal VCRs or pass bad checks to get 
money for drugs. Now they rob people in broad daylight; stick a gun 
in their face in their own driveway and grab their wallet. The fear 
factor has gone up tremendously."

In short, while there's a ton of pressure on our police, no one's 
putting real pressure where it counts -- on the criminal.

It sounds like Jindra's community meetings won't be getting easier 
any time soon.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman