The embattled Minneapolis Police Department has mostly ceased stopping and searching residents of the city, as resources are stretched thin by anti-cop protests and surging gun violence.
Official data released by the MPD show that cumulative stops fell 36 percent in the week after George Floyd’s death at the hands of three officers, sparking nationwide protests. That trend has persisted—over the week between July 6 and July 12, MPD officers made just 193 stops, down 77 percent from the same week in 2019.
Stops involving searches of people or their vehicles have also plummeted. MPD conducted just 20 over the week of July 12, and 11 the week before—87 and 90 percent declines, respectively, from the preceding year.
Such stops and searches are thought to play a critical, albeit controversial, role in keeping criminals and deadly firearms off the street—an analogous decline drove up homicide in Chicago. As such, the drop-off in searches may be fueling the ongoing violence. – READ MORE
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