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.
“Reaching 100,000 passengers in less than six months is a testament to the good things that can happen when we provide a service that is needed,” said MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger. “We are very excited to reach this milestone and look forward to strengthening our partnerships with communities, as well as federal, state and local governments, and Amtrak to continue providing a safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation option.”
“Both are discovering who they are,” said stage manager and Armstrong senior Katie Spickelmier. The play reflects the “struggle of growing up in a society you don’t really fit into.”
Cast members are challenged with embodying beloved iconic characters while creating their own personal versions of them — while speaking their lines in British accents.
“Trying to put yourself in a whole different dialect is definitely a fun challenge for all of us — and trying to keep it appropriate and not silly,” Smallacombe said.
And then, of course, as with everything Harry Potter-related, there’s all the magic the production’s tech team has had to figure out how to depict without the benefit of Hollywood’s computer-generated special effects. They include the machinations of the time machine, a character shooting out of a fireplace, characters flying above the stage.
Lovitt and other staffers traveled to New York to see how Broadway pulled it off. It debuted there in 2018 as a five-hour play performed in two parts (and remains that length in the London production). It was later edited to a one-part version at three and a half hours, and in November will be presented on Broadway in under three hours (which is the version playing in Chicago). The high school version is even shorter, closer to two hours.
Actors from “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” rehearse a scene at Armstrong High School in Plymouth. The 40-scene play has a cast of more than 30 students. (Renée Jones Schneider)
Of course, Broadway, like Hogwarts, has access to magical elements not generally available to Midwestern high schools. For example, she said, there was a whole swimming pool directly under the stage, which cast members reached via a tunnel, wearing scuba gear and emerging soaking wet.
A St. Paul woman faces a felony charge for allegedly stealing a sheep from a local farm in Bloomington, according to court documents.
Mandy Kay Bower, 42, was arrested at Old Shakopee Road E. in Bloomington Saturday evening after officers saw her and a male walking with a dog and a sheep on a leash.
According to police, Bower told officers that she purchased the sheep for $200. However, one of the officers noticed burs, a prickly plant found in fields, all over Bower and the sheep.
The male with Bower told officers she stepped over the fence of a farm, put a leash on one of the sheep and pulled it through the fence, according to the charging document. Bower pulled so hard that the sheep was choking, the male told officers, according to the document.
The officers eventually spoke to an employee and owner of the nearby farm and confirmed that the sheep, a breeding hair ram worth approximately $500, had not been sold to Bower, according to court documents.
Bower is charged with rustling and livestock theft. In a booking photo, Bower appears to have a tattoo of a sheep covering her left cheek.
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