Star Tribune
Minneapolis failing in response to domestic violence calls
Minneapolis police often don’t attempt to track down domestic abusers who flee a scene before the officers arrive — leaving victims more vulnerable and empowering their assailants — according to a study published Thursday assessing how the department responds to calls of intimate-partner violence.
Minneapolis officers also communicate to victims with gender, racial or other biases that sow distrust and make some less likely to call 911 in the future, the researchers found.
The study, published Thursday by Minneapolis-based nonprofit Global Rights for Women, identifies a series of gaps in how the Police Department handles domestic violence cases. The assessment took three years and cites input from Minneapolis Police Department leadership, the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office, Hennepin County officials, a judge and a range of experts and advocates who work with survivors of domestic violence. It also includes anecdotes and quotes from survivors who participated in several focus groups. They are not identified by name.
The study found officers often fail to interview witnesses to an abuser’s conduct, including children, or document their identity and contact information, making it more difficult to prosecute these cases. Minneapolis police also don’t always properly document property crimes that accompany domestic violence, in turn depleting a victims’ physical and economic security and chances for restitution. The department doesn’t use data to identify and divert resources toward the most dangerous offenders, the study found.
The latter group of serial abusers are among those who often avoid arrest by fleeing the scene before police arrive, said study director Melissa Petrangelo Scaia.
“It’s almost like abusers in Minneapolis have figured out if you’re not there when the cops come they’re never going to come looking for you,” Scaia said.
Minneapolis city and police department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Police didn’t care’
In the United States, about 10 million people are victims of intimate-partner violence every year, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
From 2019 through 2022 in Minneapolis, about 1⁄3 of the 11,645 incidents of aggravated assaults were classified as domestic assaults, according to data tracked by police. Domestic assaults in the city are down slightly in 2023 compared to last year, but the data shows they’re still elevated 8% from prior three-year averages, tracking with greater violent crime trends in the city.
Out of more than 2,000 domestic assault victims identified in Minneapolis police data from 2021 through this year, about 70% involved a boyfriend, girlfriend or ex-partner. About 7% of victims were spouses of the offender, and 5% were children. The vast majority of victims — nearly 80% — were female.
Scaia said the new study started as a follow-up to a 2017 report from the Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission— an arm of the city’s civil rights division — that found only 20% of more than 43,000 domestic violence calls led to reports or arrests. That puts Minneapolis in stark contrast from similar data reported the same year by the Justice Department, which found police throughout the country took a report in 78% of these types of calls on average and 39% led to arrest or charges.
The Minneapolis Police Department has seen a rise in violent crime and an precedented exodus of officers since the 2017 report, exacerbating lags in emergency response times and spreading investigators thinner.
One of the unnamed survivors cited in the report described how in May 2022 her partner pressed a gun to her head and dragged her with his car, breaking her nose. She said she called 911 and waited at a gas station with witnesses to the assault, but it took an hour and a half for officers to arrive. In the meantime, her partner stole her car. When police did show up, “I was covered in blood but I think they didn’t think it was serious. He was driving around looking for me. He drove by while police were there, and I pointed him out, but they didn’t do anything.”
Another said she was repeatedly beaten by a her husband while she was pregnant, and her attacker didn’t relent after she took out an order for protection. When police failed to intervene, he began to assault her mother. “I feel I’ve called hundreds of times. He’d run and come back. I feel police didn’t care because he was my husband.”
The study found that women of color were at greater risk of not being helped, and some felt they needed to carry weapons to defend themselves rather than call the police. One survivor, who is Black, said her neighbors called 911 after her partner grabbed her out of the shower and choked her. Police burst into the bathroom and found her partner bleeding, and she said they arrested her instead of him.
Recommendations to close gaps
The report authors list several recommendations for Minneapolis police to improve responses to intimate-partner violence calls, including adding explicit policy language for calls when a suspect is gone before police arrive. Supervisors should ensure compliance, and the department should create specialized positions for investigating domestic calls, the report said.
The study authors point to a “Blueprint For Safety” adopted by St. Paul as a model. The document instructs police in St. Paul to gather specific information when a suspect flees before arrival, and provides steps for how to follow-up urgently and protect victims.
Police should receive training on implicit and explicit biases, and the department should develop risk assessment tools for female same-sex relationships and immigrant victims. The Police Department should direct officers how to gather information from children who witness assaults, provide regular trainings on witness interviews and identify and address officers filing incomplete reports. And it should create a data-centric approach to identifying high-risk offenders and triaging resources toward those cases, according to the study.
Star Tribune data reporter Jeff Hargarten contributed to this report.
As October surprises go, the most surprising thing about this one was that anyone saw it.
But someone, somehow, at some point, climbed on top of the unoccupied worksite that is the Minnesota governor’s residence with some paint. There, the timid tagger scribbled a political hot take that only birds, HVAC repair technicians and drone operators could see.
Minneapolis photojournalist Chad Davis spotted the partisan graffiti on the taxpayer-owned building on Wednesday and shared the images — possibly spoiling the vandal’s plans for an Election Day or post-election reveal of “Walz failed” scrawled across a rooftop that belongs to the people of Minnesota, who are now going to have to foot the bill to clean up the mess.
If you’re the tagger in question, remember: This entire rooftop could have been a tweet.
The Minnesota State Patrol has not yet provided an update on the investigation. The state patrol is responsible for the governor’s safety and the security of the governor’s residence — or residences, in this case. The Walz family moved out last year when the $6.3 million renovation project began and into a $330,000-per-year rental. The big brick governor’s mansion on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue has been a work site ever since, complete with scaffolding that might explain how someone could make their way onto the roof.
It wouldn’t be the first time scaffolding on a public building in Minnesota tempted someone into a petty misdemeanor. In 2013, when the Minnesota Legislature had just begun its massive renovation project, an unidentified climber scaled the Capitol dome and led security officers on a nerve-wracking low-speed chase, 223 feet above street level. Eventually, the hooded intruder clambered back down and fled into the night.
Star Tribune
One man shot dead, another wounded near Willmar soon after gunman opened fire from Lyndale Av. balcony
Bystanders observing the scene in Minneapolis recalled hearing the female police negotiator pleading with Matariyeh to surrender. When shots rang out over the phone, the negotiator dropped to her knees and cried. Colleagues could be seen comforting her.
O’Hara said the shots in Minneapolis were fired shortly after an altercation involving Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend, who arrived to the apartment to retrieve some items. Matariyeh and the woman share a child, who was at day care at the time. Police went there to ensure the child’s safety shortly after the suspect fled. The ex-girlfriend and the boyfriend were also not harmed.
The chief said that when police initially responded, it was unclear whether the suspect was still inside the apartment. There is no indication of a domestic violence history between the pair.
At one point after Mayerchak was shot, an officer or dispatcher radioed that the suspect was the man from Minneapolis: “He did say he was willing to shoot cops. Proceed cautiously.”
A short time later, the suspect was leading police on a chase of speeds of more than 100 mph while on the phone with the Minneapolis negotiator, threatening “suicide by cop.”
At about 2:29 p.m., Matariyeh was arrested, and a gun was recovered in the ditch.
He said he would continue to support economic development projects, including one aimed at stabilizing the riverfront and preserving cultural sites that were significant to both the Dakota people and European settlers.
“We want to have good things,” Whiting said. “I’m pretty fiscally conservative for being called the liberal that I am. But, if it makes sense, we’re going to do it.”
Yttreness, who has lived in Shakopee since 1998, spent years with the Fire Department, serving first as a volunteer. He worked most recently as assistant fire chief, a role he left earlier this year.
Yttreness declined to speak in detail about his management of the department, saying, “I’m no longer with them, so that’s the past.”
He said he is running to “get involved in trying to manage the city’s expenses more” and “give some guidance and support to our city employees, public works, police.” He said he believes his knowledge of city operations could be helpful and he wants to “try to do zero tax increases, if possible.”
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