New patrol blitz in St. Cloud targets violent crime

ST. CLOUD - A steep increase in shootings over the past two years is prompting St. Cloud police to implement a targeted campaign to crack down on violent crime.

In early August, the city launched a new program — dubbed the Safe Streets Initiative — that's increasing patrols in neighborhoods prone to gun violence and other crimes.

But it's not just an increase in St. Cloud squad cars people are seeing. It's an influx of officers from several partnering agencies, including area counties — Benton, Morrison, Sherburne and Stearns — the Central Minnesota Violent Offenders Task Force and Minnesota State Patrol, which provides additional police dogs and helicopter surveillance.

"You're going to see a much higher presence citywide," Mayor Dave Kleis said. "But we're going to focus on some of those areas where there have been challenges."

That includes neighborhoods on the city's southeast and south sides, especially the area west of St. Cloud State University that used to be a mecca of student rentals but has changed in recent years as enrollment declined and some students moved elsewhere because of safety concerns.

It's the same neighborhood where the police and St. Cloud Public Safety Foundation opened the Community OutPost five years ago — replacing a crime-ridden house with the "COP House" that is home to police services, health and wellness services, after-school programs and more. But it's also the same neighborhood where four young men were shot on July 6 after an altercation with another group of young men.

Last year in St. Cloud, 19 people were shot — more than double the nine shot in 2020.

"We're still seeing more gun incidents," said Jeff Oxton, assistant police chief who is slated to become the police chief when Chief Blair Anderson retires this fall. But violent crime is trending downward overall, he added.

As of mid-August, 10 people had been shot in the city. And the number of aggravated assaults during the first six months of the year decreased by 32% from the same time in 2021, according to data from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

And after a record five homicides last year, the city has had just one this year.

Oxton said the Safe Streets Initiative is a temporary program but can resume anytime city leaders think it's necessary to increase patrols.

The initiative is similar to past patrol blitzes — like partnering with other agencies for extra enforcement during college move-in weekend — but this is the first time the city has partnered in this way to respond to violent crime in a very visible way, Oxton said.

In the first 10 days of the Safe Streets Initiative this August, law enforcement conducted more than 300 traffic stops, seized illegal drugs and guns, and arrested about 30 people on possible felony charges.

The crackdown is meant to target violent offenders, Oxton said. In recent years, the department has implemented a number of programs to help keep people with mental health or addiction issues out of the criminal justice system. One of those is the co-responder program, where a mental health professional is paired with a police officer to help with certain calls.

"On the flip side, the small number of people that are committing the majority of the violent crime need to be in custody because they're going to keep doing it," Oxton said, highlighting the July 6 shooting as an example: Three men are accused of shooting nearly three dozen bullets at four people — and two of the three men charged in relation to the crime are convicted felons who should not have been in possession of guns.

The visibility of the Safe Streets Initiative is also meant to make residents feel safer amid the increase in violent crime in the state and nation.

"Sometimes perception doesn't meet the reality of statistics. But that doesn't matter — if you don't feel safe, that's not good," Kleis said. "We need to make sure you feel safe, too."