The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) held a press conference Monday to announce the formation of a new unit that will focus on reducing violent crime in Minnesota.
Despite repeated recent assurances from city, county and state leaders that crime is down, BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said the announcement of the new unit was being made now to address an anticipated spike in violent crime this summer, particularly in the Twin Cities.
The BCA’s new Violent Crime Reduction Unit (VCRU) is an extension of the violent crime reduction support unit that was formed in April 2022 to help local law enforcement agencies deal with the surge in violent crime that followed the George Floyd riots and to assist police agencies like Minneapolis, which developed a shortage of officers in the wake of the riots and the defund police movement.
Superintendent Evans said that although violent crime has been “trending in the right direction,” it’s still above 2019 levels. “Since that time, [violent crime] has spiked significantly,” Evans said. Even though levels have gone up and down since then, Evans said that violent crime remains elevated above the 2019 levels.
The VCRU will have about 40 team members consisting of 14 agents, two criminal intelligence analysts, two crime victim witness coordinators, and 11 task force officers from a dozen agencies and will focus on repeat offenders doing the most harm to communities, and the associated drug and gun crimes. The unit will also have a dedicated K9 officer trained in firearms detection.
Present at the press conference were officers and chiefs from several law enforcement agencies including the cities of Bloomington, Brooklyn Park and Fridley. Evans said the VCRU will continue its collaboration with metro law enforcement agencies to focus on violent crime investigations.
Ongoing funding for the unit was established in the 2023 legislature, and Evans estimated that the ongoing cost to fund the unit is about $12 million. He also said that a one-time allocation of about $15 million will be used to reimburse agencies lending officers and agents to the unit so they can backfill staffing in their agencies.
Since its establishment in 2022 and through December of last year, the unit made 1,384 arrests and seized 653 firearms, over 145,000 fentanyl pills, and 220 pounds of methamphetamine and other drugs.
Special agent in charge of the VCRU Jake May said that since January, the unit has made 112 arrests and seized 66 firearms, 2,650 fentanyl pills, and over 9 pounds of meth and other drugs.
“We want the people out there, the repeat offenders, the people who don’t care who they hurt, who gets caught in the crossfire, or where their drugs end up, to know that they are the ones we are targeting, that we’re going to come after them,” Special Agent May said.
Evans said they had hoped for the establishment of two new field offices in Mankato and Bemidji, but those plans were wrapped up in a bonding bill that didn’t get passed out of the legislature this year. Instead, the unit will operate out of a space being outfitted in Maplewood.
Evans said the unit will address violent crime statewide, but a large focus will be on the population center of the Twin Cities.
The City of Minneapolis has seen 21 homicides so far this year, which is on pace for the same period last year. St. Paul has had 9 homicides so far this year, which is down just under 40 percent from last year during the same period.
Minneapolis had a particularly violent past weekend with three shooting homicides since last Thursday, as well as several other shootings that included a woman and a toddler both being shot in the face in south Minneapolis Sunday night. There was another shooting minutes later and just blocks away, where another person was reportedly shot in the throat.
St. Paul notched its 9th homicide on Friday night with a shooting at the Metro Transit Green Line LRT platform at West University and Dale Street.
As of Monday, there was no word from police in either city on whether any arrests had been made in the weekend shootings and homicides.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
