I’m pleased to report that it’s been a quiet couple of months in my neighborhood. Our crime prevention specialist with the Fifth Precinct sent out an email last week with the happy news that there was precisely zero reported crime in the neighborhood for the month of December. November was largely quiet as well, although an idiot with a BB gun did take potshots at some windows on Kenwood Parkway early in the month. But overall, crime has been low, and I’m sure we’re all grateful for that; it’s nice to have a break and enjoy the quiet most of us took for granted pre-pandemic.
Crime statistics were also much lower in Lowry Hill, with December having the fewest crimes of any month of 2022. According to the Minneapolis Police Department Crime Dashboard, there was one assault at Lake of the Isles/Franklin Avenue this month.
Carjackings are also down dramatically. For Kenwood, Lowry Hill and East Isles there have been, zero reported carjackings in the last month, and carjackings are down dramatically citywide compared to 2021. Giving credit where credit is due, it appears that Operation Endeavor — the city’s recently announced violent crime prevention effort — is having success. In a nutshell, Operation Endeavor is an effort within the Minneapolis Police Department to prioritize its sharply limited resources to the areas seeing the highest levels of violent crime, essentially doing more with less using a data-driven policing model. There is also a high level of coordination between our local, state and federal governments, and the United States Attorney’s Office is playing an outsized role in prosecuting adult offenders under federal law thanks to Andy Luger’s stewardship. During the first eight weeks of Operation Endeavor, carjackings in the city decreased by over 60% compared to the same period in 2021.
Now if the view out your window looks anything like mine, you might suspect the weather also has had something to do with this recent decrease. That’s certainly what I think, and that leads me to believe we can reasonably, albeit sadly, expect an increase in crime once the snow piles are no longer taller than my dog.
So, what can we do as community members to prepare? Along with following the commonsense crime prevention steps outlined in previous articles, getting better connected as neighborhoods is key, both amongst us as neighbors and with law enforcement. Personally, I’m working with the Kenwood Neighborhood Organization and the Fifth Precinct to revitalize the block leader system. Getting our neighbors connected by email will allow us to share breaking news quickly and ensure that neighbors receive accurate crime summaries in a timely fashion. Lowry Hill is already impressively organized, and East Isles is working hard as well. And there’s no rule saying that our neighborhoods can’t talk to each other and work together. Although our geography may differ somewhat, to my mind we’re essentially one community and we’re better off when we’re all working together. There’s definitely work to be done, but I think we can do it.
