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SPEAKER 1: If you live in a high crime neighborhood in Minneapolis, it's not unusual to see police officers conducting traffic stops and arrests. And that's led to tensions between the police and some people of color who say they're being targeted by officers. Brandt Williams talked to African-Americans on the city's North side and reports on how they view the way police fight crime.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: About a half dozen kids play catch with a Nerf football on a grassy vacant lot in the Jordan neighborhood on a pleasant summer evening. Nearby a group of volunteers from the Jordan Area Community Council are serving free chicken wings, French fries, and potato salad to residents who stop by and take brief surveys.

Jordan typically has more reported robberies, burglaries, and assaults than many other parts of the city. Nearly half of residents are African-American, the largest racial or ethnic group in the neighborhood. Some Black residents, like Alvin McCoy, say the presence of police is a fact of life around here. And he says officers don't bother or harass him.

ALVIN MCCOY: Because I don't wear my pants sagging or-- I look like I'm going to do what I'm doing, going to work, going home. That's what I do.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Yeah?

ALVIN MCCOY: So I ain't bothering nobody, lottie, dottie.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: But others here say officers who patrol North Minneapolis are too aggressive. Johnnie Layne says last year police pulled him over and ticketed him for driving without a license. He says officers towed his car and made him walk home, which was just a few blocks away. Layne says he believes officers pulled him over just because he's Black.

JOHNNIE LAYNE: They said something about I've been through a complete stop at the stop sign. That was just a big lie.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Over nearly three year period, people arrested by Minneapolis Police for low level offenses were nearly nine times more likely to be Black or Native American than White. Officers made more arrests in North Minneapolis than in any other part of the city. And often the people arrested here also call the North side home according to an NPR News analysis of police arrest data. That presents a number of challenges for a police department trying to improve its relationship with people of color.

Inspector Mike Freisleben, commander of the fourth precinct in North Minneapolis, says officers need the community to help them fight crime. But he says people are reluctant to cooperate if they feel like officers unfairly stop them for minor offenses. Freisleben says he encourages officers, whenever possible, to explain why they stopped someone and apologize if they get the wrong person. And he says he wants the public to understand why the police do what they do.

MIKE FREISLEBEN: If we pull you over and we think a suspicious deal and it's not, and you think you get pulled over for no reason, and then you get attitude or you get volatile, it just-- one thing leads to another and now we're in this negative contact, where if everyone would just keep their cool, we can have a positive contact.

CLINTON COLLINS: I have a good relationship with the fourth precinct, with the Inspector Freisleben and his officers.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Clinton Collins has lived in North Minneapolis for 14 years. He's an attorney and chairman of the board of the Minneapolis urban League. Collins, who is Black, says officers on the North side are more savvy and less likely to engage in racial profiling than in the past. But he understands why some African-Americans still fear and distrust police.

CLINTON COLLINS: As there has been a history that's been checkered, and there have been some cops that engaged in inappropriate behavior. There have been some bad cops. But on the other hand, there have been some bad actors as well.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Collins says in his neighborhood, those bad actors are usually young Black men, and he's critical of people who protest against what he calls excessive policing but don't live on the North side.

But there are North Siders who think they are being overpoliced. Carrie Jo Felder is African-American and a member of the group Neighborhoods Organizing For Change. Like Felder, many members of the group live in North Minneapolis and often speak out against police misconduct.

Felder says officers sometimes cast too wide a net when they're looking for crime suspects. Felder says one night last month, she and members of her family were sitting on the front porch of their home when officers drove by slowly and flashed a bright spotlight in their faces.

CARRIE JO FELDER: That means, like, you can't just hang out on your own porch, on the property that your family owns without having suspicion or, you know, just a nasty feeling cast away.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Felder says she's also had officers flashlights in her face while she's driving. She says she called to complain about it, but was told the officers were just doing their job. Police Chief Janee Harteau has said she wants her officers to have a noticeable presence in neighborhoods where the most serious crimes are reported. But she doesn't want them there just to make a bunch of arrests.

JANEE HARTEAU: I don't put officers there with the expectation of enforcement. I put officers there with the expectation of being in the area. And that means engaging in the community, that means walking a foot beat, that means having conversations with people, that means being visible, being present, being engaged.

[CHILDREN PLAYING]

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Back in the Jordan neighborhood, Sy Jones sits on his front steps watching residents gather in the vacant lot down the block. Jones is Black and moved to the North side from Chicago 15 years ago. He says the neighborhood needs police. He just doesn't want them to discriminate against the majority of people who live in the area.

SY JONES: You know, you see a couple of African-American young men in the car. They might be car pooling, going to work just like, you know, some other ethnic groups. You know, but if they look like they're trouble, and if they break the law, I mean, you got to uphold the law. That's your job. Do your job.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Minneapolis Police leaders say they will keep up the patrols on the North side and anywhere violent spikes. So far this year, Minneapolis is experiencing an uptick in shootings and homicides. Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.

SPEAKER 1: If you live in Minneapolis, you can see how many arrests take place in your neighborhood. Go to mprnews.org. And tomorrow morning, we'll have a profile of the officer who made more low level arrests than any other cop. Plus, tomorrow at 11:00, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau joins Tom Weber on MPR News in the 11 o'clock hour.