Star Tribune
Minneapolis rolls out Smart911 emergency-alert text and app
Minneapolis has a new system for residents, workers and visitors to get alerts during emergencies, ranging from natural disasters to human-caused dangers.
The new system can be accessed from any device capable of texting, or from a smartphone via an app, or both. Here’s how to do it:
- Text MPLSAlerts to 77295
- Download the Smart911 app
Both methods require users to set up an account, including an address such as your home or office, to receive alerts. Users of the existing system, Swiftreach, will automatically be subscribed to Smart911, but creating a Smart911 profile will allow them to take advantage of features of the new system, officials said.
City leaders rolled out the new system as they announced a capstone in years of changes following the unrest, including protests, riots and police violence, that engulfed the city after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in May 2020.
Flanked by the city’s most senior staff, Mayor Jacob Frey held a news conference Tuesday to announce the city had completed all 27 items recommended in a report analyzing the city’s response, including numerous failings.
Frey said dozens of exercises and courses totaling hundreds of man-hours have improved the city’s ability to respond to emergencies with clear communications — internally and to the public — and a unified command system that leaves little doubt as to who’s in charge of what.
The final step was completed last week, when some 70 city employees, as well as several state and Hennepin County staffers, spend four days in Maryland on the campus of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, culminating in a one-day simulation of a citywide emergency Frey would only describe as “civil unrest.”
The message from Frey and his top appointed brass, including Public Safety Commissioner Todd Burnette, Police Chief Brian O’Hara, and Fire Chief Bryan Tyner, was clear.
“The next time that some form of emergency strike, we are prepared, in full,” Frey said, pledging that new processes and lessons learned can be handed off to successors as well. “You start to get the sensation that right now the city of Minneapolis is more prepared for an emergency than we have ever been at any time in our history.”
Star Tribune
Hours after being sentenced to five years in prison, Minneapolis drug dealer released from jail
A Minneapolis man with a lengthy criminal history sentenced to more than five years in prison for drug and weapons convictions last week walked out of the Hennepin County Jail hours later after he was released on an apparent clerical error.
He has been out ever since.
Court documents show that Hennepin County District Judge Marta Chou sentenced Timothy Wayne Wilson, 60, on Thursday, Dec. 12 after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of second-degree drug possession and illegal possession of a firearm. He was ordered to report to the department of corrections at 10:30 a.m. that morning.
While there are no official court documents, a Hennepin County jail document shows that approximately 90 minutes later Chou ordered Wilson’s release. The jail processed that request and Wilson was released Thursday evening. How it happened remains murky.
A statement from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the county jail, said they followed Fourth Judicial District policy in releasing Wilson. The policy dictates that the county jail will use an electronic court tab application “to determine if a defendant is to remain in custody or to be released.”
The Sheriff’s Office also said it cannot access the electronic court tab and the judicial order is transmitted via court staff to the jail.
The Star Tribune obtained a copy of the “Hennepin County Jail Court Tab Report.” Under a column labeled “judicial order” it shows Chou ordered Wilson’s release.
A statement from the Hennepin County District Court said, “Judge Chou confirms that she sentenced the defendant to 68 months in prison, that she expected execution of the sentence to occur immediately, and that she did not order the defendant’s release.” They said an investigation into how the order was issued and Wilson was released is ongoing.
The stopgap measure is needed because Congress has failed to pass its annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon and national security apparats, to the health, welfare, transportation and other routine domestic services. When the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, Congress simply punted the problem by passing a temporary funding bill that expires Friday.
But the inches-thick bill goes beyond routine funding and tacks on several other measures that lawmakers are trying to push through to passage before the end of this congressional session, especially as some elected officials will not be returning in the new year.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., a called it essentially a junk sandwich, using a swear word. The chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said a lot of lawmakers “are a little disappointed at how this last week has worked out.”
And then there’s the pay-raise.
Some lawmakers expressed concern that the bill turns off a pay freeze provision that was included in the previous short-term spending measure. That change could allow a maximum pay adjustment of 3.8% or $6,600 in 2025, bringing their annual pay to $180,600, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
Members of Congress last got a raise in 2009, when the salary was increased 2.8% to $174,000 annually. If member pay had not been frozen since 2009, salaries would be about $217,900.
Multiple sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Walz team was not pleased with steps Flanagan had taken to assume the governorship.
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