U of M president, Minneapolis community safety commissioner meet with parents, students

University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel and Minneapolis Commissioner of Community Safety Dr. Cedric Alexander met with parents and students Wednesday night to lay out public safety plans for the upcoming school year.

Gabel told the group there had been a lot of progress in the recent weeks with making the campus and surrounding neighborhoods safer. The efforts include barricades in Dinkytown to discourage street racing and armed robberies, as well as additional law enforcement patrols.

“Particularly on weekend evenings and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has committed to providing two deputies for patrols in nearby off-campus neighborhoods, seven days a week, from 4 p.m. until midnight,” said Gabel.

Dr. Alexander said the campus and nearby neighborhoods have the full support of Minneapolis Police.

“And, we are going to beat this. And, we are going to defeat it,” said Alexander. “We’re going to have to work at it, we’re going to have to work differently, and we’re going to have to create more ideas and strategies because the world is changing all the time.”