September 30, 1998 - Robert Olson, Minneapolis police chief, talks with MPR’s Gary Eichten about the decrease in crime in Minneapolis, and the elements of effective police work. Topics include downtown nightlife and higher arrest rates. Olson also answers listener questions.
February 18, 1999 - The family of a Minneapolis man killed in a high speed chase says police need more training to avoid similar tragedies. Last November a Minneapolis police officer struck Steve Winkel's truck while chasing a burglary suspect. Today, members of a Minnesota House committee approved a measure which more than doubles the pursuit training police must take. The measure also increases penalties for people who try outrun police. But the next House committee to hear the bill has questions about funding the measure.
April 1, 1999 - Minneapolis went the month of March without a single murder ... and police say the homicide rate for the year is down substantially from last year. Police credit CODEFOR, a computer-assisted program for pinpointing high-crime areas. But some community groups say CODE FOR enforcement is too aggressive, leading to harassment of innocent citizens.
April 9, 1999 - The Minnesota Gang Strike Force is seeking $6 million dollars from the state legislature to continue its work into the year 2000. Attorney General Mike Hatch is also seeking broad new gang prosecution powers. In its first year the force was responsible for 129 convictions and the seizure of drugs, money and firearms around the state. But activists have raised questions about the tactics used to identify gang members, and whether the strikeforce's work justifies its expense.
April 13, 1999 - MPR’s Eric Jansen reports on community complaints regarding Minneapolis Police Department’s CODEFOR program. Minneapolis’ mayor and police chief say CODEFOR has dramatically reduced crime in the city. Critics and civil rights groups claim the computer-assisted program that targets neighborhoods based on crime patterns encourages police harassment and makes some residents feel like prisoners in their own homes.
May 6, 1999 - John Lyght, former Cook County Sheriff, talks about being born and raised in Cook County, along Minnesota's far Northeastern corner. With his parents, and eventually 14 brothers and sisters, the Lyghts were the first African American family that settled among the Swedes and Norwegians on Lake Superior's North Shore.
August 13, 1999 - Another suspect in the juvenile prostitution ring broken up yesterday turned himself in this morning, bringing the number of people in custody to 10. Federal officials have indicted 15 members and associates of the Evans "Family" for allegedly running a prostitution ring that operated in 24 states and Canada over a period of 17 years. Police say they lured at least 50 women and girls, some as young as 14, into a tortured life of prostitution. Most of the girls and women are from Minnesota. Sargeant Andrew Schmidt of the Minneapolis police worked on the case for two years.
August 17, 1999 - Late last week, the FBI and Twin Cities' law enforcement officials arrested five men who allegedly ran a juvenile prostitution ring. Authorities say the men are members of a Minneapolis crime family who operated their prostitution ring in 24 states. They say at least fifty women - some as young as 14 - were forced to work in massage parlors or escort services. In St. Paul, the police department is also fighting prostitution, and it has a website featuring convicted clients and prostitutes. Michael Jordan is the spokesman for the St. Paul Police Department, and he's on the line now.
September 7, 1999 - A recent study by the U.S. Justice Department estimates that 283-thousand jail and prison inmates are mentally ill. That's four times the number of patients in state mental hospitals. Most mental institutions closed in the last few decades...under a policy aimed at moving the mentally ill back into the mainstream. But treatment programs aren't filling the gap, so, to a large extent, jails are.
September 8, 1999 - It's been five-and-a-half years since Greg Stampley died at Stillwater state prison. Stampley was a severely mentally ill inmate who died while locked in an isolation cell. The case raised questions about the treatment of Minnesota's mentally ill prison inmates. The state eventually aid Stampley's family to settle a lawsuit. In part two of our series on incarcerating the mentally ill, John Biewen of MPR's national documentary unit, American RadioWorks, reports on changes in the state prison system since Greg Stampley's death.