Star Tribune
New St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry vows to listen
Axel Henry made phone calls to new police recruits this week and got a reminder of why he loves his new job.
Henry, who was sworn in as St. Paul’s police chief Wednesday, was calling applicants for the department’s police academy to let them know that they had been accepted. Many cried on receiving the news, he said, but one call stood out.
“One of them was a St. Paul kid who literally said, ‘I’ve been waiting my entire life for this phone call,'” Henry, 54, said. “That inspires me.”
Henry will manage hundreds of officers, oversee a potential $130 million budget and help to implement a community-first public safety approach backed by Mayor Melvin Carter and $10 million in federal funds during his six-year term as chief.
In an interview, Henry detailed some of his priorities, including curbing gun violence and building connections with residents, and shared how the city that he credits with raising him, plus a dose of hip-hop, inspires him to lead.
Carter recommended Henry, a 24-year veteran of the department over four other candidates for the job, and he won unanimous approval from the City Council. At Henry’s swearing-in ceremony, Carter charged him with keeping the city on the cutting edge of public safety. “In Axel Henry,” he said, “we have someone who has been at the forefront for years, keeping St. Paul in the forefront.”
Growing up in St. Paul, Henry said, he found comfort listening to such rap emcees as Ice-T, KRS-One and, his favorite, Run-DMC. He estimates at least 60,000 music tracks are in his collection today. And although he is not a big fan of today’s artists, he said the core tenants of hip-hop guided him.
“When you start talking about real hip-hop culture, what are we talking about? We’re talking about peace, unity, love and having fun,” Henry said. “Those are the four food groups that go into hip-hop that I was raised on.”
Henry said he intends to make combating gun violence one of his first priorities and noted that the number of homicides in 2021 is double what the average was before the pandemic.
St. Paul needs more officers to tackle gun violence and do more police work in the community, he said, which is why recruitment and retention is another of his priorities. He said the department must spread awareness about what police do in order to correct misinformation.
The community may play a huge role in that by recruiting potential officers and working with police to deter crime.
“The police are the community, the community are the police, and we’ve got to work together,” Henry said, referring to the pitch he made in public meetings when he was vying for the job.
“I meant this when I said it in the forums, ‘The next chief is going to have to be as comfortable on a street corner as he is in the council chamber.’ You won’t hear what’s hurting the community unless you’re listening to them, and you won’t actually understand how the solutions you want to help them with will work for them, or they won’t work for them, if you’re not listening.”
On Thursday, Henry spent time listening to officers as he attended his first roll call as chief.
Some nodded in agreement when he said officers’ achievements in St. Paul make them diamonds of the industry. Others asked for support from the administration and for policy changes to help do their jobs.
Henry said everyone must work together to solve problems that face police and the city.
“There isn’t a single problem we’re going to be able to solve here without everyone throwing their shoulder in there a little bit,” Henry said. “If we can do something to do better for you, we want to know about it. Thank you for what you do, really.”
After months of maintenance problems and safety concerns in downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments, city officials condemned the building, forcing dozens of tenants to abruptly relocate to hotels this week.
On Monday afternoon, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the 11-story building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold.
To make repairs, the building’s water must be shut off — a move that would leave tenants without boiler heat and fire sprinklers, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in a Tuesday email to state Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represent the area.
After determining heat and water could not be restored quickly, Tincher wrote: “There was no other option than to conclude the building was not safe for residents to stay.”
Property manager Halverson and Blaiser Group (HBG) agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Tincher said. City staff worked with Ramsey County’s Housing Stability team and Metro Transit to help 71 residents pack and move.
Before then, the building belonged to downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, Madison Equities. After the January death of the company’s founder and longtime principal, Jim Crockarell, the dire state of the group’s real estate portfolio became apparent.
The Lowry Apartments, the sole property with a high concentration of low-income housing, quickly became the most troubled. Residents reported frequent break-ins, pest infestations, inoperable elevators and more, to no avail.
Star Tribune
Metro Transit allocated $12 million to boost security, cleanliness on Twin Cities light rail and buses
They will be soon. With more money to spend, Metro Transit plans to bring on 40 more this year. With their ranks growing, TRIP agents, clad in blue, have recently started covering the Metro C and D rapid transit lines between Brooklyn Center and downtown Minneapolis.
The big investment in public safety initiatives comes as Metro Transit is seeing an uptick in ridership that plunged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been slow to recover. This year ridership has been a bright spot, the agency said.
Through October, the agency has provided 40.1 million rides, up 7% compared with the first 10 months of 2023. In September, the agency saw its highest monthly ridership in four years, averaging nearly 157,000 rides on weekdays, agency data shows.
At the same time, crime is down 8.4% during the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, according to Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth. However, problems still persist.
On Nov. 29, Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was fatally shot on a Green Line train in St. Paul. Just a week earlier, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Earlier this year, a robbery attempt on the Green Line in St. Paul left a passenger shot and wounded.
“Our officers are spending time on the system and sending a clear message to everyone: Crime will not be tolerated on transit,” Dotseth said. “And we will work to ensure those commit those crimes are held accountable.”
The ACLU of Minnesota has sued Otter Tail County, its sheriff and correctional officers at its jail, alleging unlawful punishment of a man known to them who has serious mental health issues.
Ramsey Kettle, 33, a member of White Earth Nation and lifelong Otter Tail County resident, was jailed in February on charges that were dropped two months later. The ACLU says that the sheriff’s office attempted to cover up the mistreatment, but a whistleblower working at the jail reported the abuse to the state. A 46-page lawsuit was filed this week in U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
“Mr. Kettle was subjected to extreme, punitive treatment in violation of his constitutional rights and standards for basic human dignity,” the ACLU said in a statement. “Otter Tail County officers, with approval of the acting jail administrator, kept Mr. Kettle locked up in solitary confinement for days without food, water, or appropriate medical and mental health care.”
Otter Tail County spokesperson Shannon Terry said in an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune that “Due to the impending litigation, Otter Tail County has no comment or statement at this time.” Terry did confirm that Kettle was released from custody April 24, when the charges were dropped.
Kettle was immediately placed in solitary confinement after he arrived at the jail Feb. 9, the lawsuit says. Jail staff didn’t assess Kettle’s poor mental health, which the ACLU says was well-documented and known to officers. The ACLU says Kettle “exhibited increasing signs of physical and mental distress” and officers allegedly “laughed at him, mocked him, and left him to suffer.”
Kettle had been booked at the jail multiple times before. In March 2022, he was convicted of making terroristic threats and sentenced to two years. On the day he was scheduled to be released from Rush City Correctional Facility after serving his full sentence, he was charged in Otter Tail with four counts of aggravated witness tampering stemming from the conviction.
“Rather than going home on February 9, 2024, as he had anticipated for nearly two years, he was transferred to Otter Tail County Jail to await trial on these new charges. The new charges were unfounded and intended solely to keep Mr. Kettle incarcerated,” the lawsuit states.
District Judge Johnathan Judd dismissed the charges as lacking foundation.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings