For the first time in weeks, Minneapolis police say downtown saw no significant violent incidents over the past weekend.

MPD credits an expanded safety plan, including a new approach to curfew enforcement — implemented for the first time this past weekend — for groups of teenagers that have been hanging out there, escalating to violence near the intersection of 5th Street and Hennepin Avenue.

Instead of police dispersing the crowds, they’ve enlisted several additional violence interrupter groups known for mediating and de-escalating through relationship-building with young people and their families. It’s called the Curfew Task Force, police said.

“It was probably six different organizations downtown, all communicating via group text, and that was monumental,” shared Tray Pollard, founder and CEO of one of those violence interrupter groups, We Push For Peace.

Over the weekend, MPD says they connected with 49 juveniles ahead of county curfew — all either accepted services or were taken home. Fewer young people showed up as the nights passed, and police credit the collaborative effort, according to the press release.

What I commend MPD for is, again, the easy thing to do is to bring a couple of buses down there and enforce curfew — put everybody on the bus, take everybody to the detention center… They took a different approach. They reached out,” Pollard said.

Although it’s been just one weekend, Pollard is confident the decrease in violence will become a trend.

“100%,” he said. “We just have to stay consistent with what we’ve already started doing. And like I said before, We Push For Peace will be there Thursday through Sunday again this week as well.”

A spokesperson for MPD confirmed the Curfew Task Force will be out again through this weekend. Chief Brian O’Hara will decide from there whether to keep it going beyond that based on effectiveness and need at the time, the spokesperson added.

Police also said there have been no new arrests related to the Sept. 21 shooting, and it’s still an active investigation.

A dashboard from the City of Minneapolis shows crime in Minneapolis HERE.