A drop in people shot and killed in Minneapolis has city leaders encouraged and families feeling grateful for safer streets.

On Friday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey highlighted a “significant” decline in both shooting and homicide victims during the first quarter of the year.

According to recent data, gunshot wound victims have dropped to levels lower than those before the pandemic. Homicides are on par with first-quarter numbers from 2019, police said.

The City of Minneapolis says they have not had a homicide since Feb. 15 — that span of time has not occurred since Jan. 31, 2017, when the city went 45 days without a homicide.

“These results reflect the dedicated efforts of our officers, and our law enforcement and community-based partners,” said Chief O’Hara. “Shootings and murders are what keep me up at night, and to see them drop to pre-pandemic levels—even with hundreds of fewer officers than what the MPD had before 2020—is truly remarkable. Morale in the police department is higher than it’s been in years, and that says a lot about the strength and resilience of the men and women serving this city. I’m incredibly proud of their hard work, and we intend to keep pushing forward.”

Minneapolis police attribute the positive trend to several strategies:

• Focused enforcement in areas most affected by violent crime.
• Targeted attention on a small number of high-impact offenders.
• Community collaboration with outreach groups to disrupt violence.
• Partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to identify and prosecute violent criminals.
• Prevention of homeless encampments
• Robbery Pattern Response Protocol
• Juvenile Curfew Taskforce

MPD says that while other crimes, like burglary, have decreased to pre-pandemic levels, aggravated assaults, robberies and auto thefts are still occurring at rates higher than those before the pandemic.

Police add that those three crimes have shown year-to-date declines, however.

“We’re seeing positive change in our city,” said Mayor Frey. “Gun violence and shootings are down, and it’s thanks to the hard work of our police, community partners, and everyday Minneapolis residents. This is a strong start, but our work is far from over. We’ll continue our efforts to make Minneapolis a safer place for everyone.”

As the MPD shared this, Painter Park in south Minneapolis was packed with skateboarders, people playing basketball and families on the playground. Among the families were the Childs setting up to sell Girl Scout cookies… something they wouldn’t have done a few years ago given the surge in violence. 

“It was actually getting really out of hand at a point where I wasn’t bringing my children or my little siblings outside,” Lanaya Childs said. 

“This year, [it] has really decreased,” Childs added about the drop in violent crime. “I’m able to actually bring them outside to have fun. Usually, I’m not able to do that because I worry about my babies.”