Day in the Life: April 27

When people think about public safety they don't often think about their own neighbors....but it's the neighbors throughout the city who have been the key to most of the best crime fighting stratgies.....and today proved that point very well:

The Minnesota Gang Strike Force finished a six month investigation of gangs in North Minneapolis today by issuing warrants for 38 people charged with selling crack or marijuana to undercover officers.   The work could only be done because residents of north Minneapolis helped identify the key places and players.   We couldn't talk about the investigation but Mike Martin, the excellent Minneapolis officer on loan to the Strike Force, said he was very satisfied earlier this week when neighbors gave a list of the worse offenders and he knew eight of them were on the list that were to get the warrants today.

Tonight I saw another great example of neighbors helping public safety when I went to Little Jaxs in northeast for the Eastside Exchange Club's annual event to honor the police.   Every year the group gets together to honor two other officers....It's really a great gesture to the officers who are protecting people every day.

Earlier today I spent two hours with a really interesting group of business leaders who are part of a task force of the Itasca Group.  Itasca is the newly formed group made up of CEOs developing a civic agenda for business leaders.  We have worked together on a comprehensive transportation agenda for the region.  The subcommittee I'm now on is addressing income and academic disparities...our report will be out in several months but it's really interesting work to find a way to mobilize business leaders to help close the gap in a metropolitan area that has one of the largest gaps between haves and have nots of any metro area in the country.

Over the noon hour I had my bi-monthly open house.  About 10 people with issues ranging from Somali community issues, to zoning, to special Olympics, to schools, to police community issues.    I do these twice a month and anyone can come down on a first come basis.

Tomorrow is the weekly Code 4 meeting.  This meeting is when the police go over the crime stats for the previous week and the actions being taken to address them.   Chief McManus and I have made them public so anyone is invited down to City Hall at 12:30 on Thurdays...we also broadcast them on cable...It's a way to open up the information to the public so they can help the department address crime.