Maple Grove Police Look Closer at Rise in Shoplifting as Other Crime Stats Down

Maple Grove Police Chief Eric Werner said his department is seeing an increase in shoplifting incidents and officers are continuing to find ways to enhance enforcement and other tactics to bring those figures down.

Maple Grove Police Chief Eric Werner talked about crime statistics for 2023 and what his department is learning about its enforcement in the community.

Werner shared this and some other information about the department in his quarterly Chat With The Chief segment on CCX Media with Rusty Ray.

Maple Grove’s 2023 preliminary statistical crime report shows a 16% drop in violent crimes, and a six percent drop in other, more non-violent crimes, Werner said.

“What we did see a drop in is our assaults have gone down,” said Werner. “Burglaries have gone down. Catalytic converter thefts have gone down. I think that was our prevention efforts that have helped with that, along with what happened at the legislature. We’re very pleased to see those numbers going down.”

Officers are also continuing to work with retail business owners to crack down on shoplifting incidents, he said. 

“We do pay attention to shoplifting because we’re the second-largest retail space in the state, and one of the city goals we looked at is how we look at retail crime prevention and enforcement, and can we do some things innovative?” said Werner. “We want people to come to our city and visit, eat, shop in a safe manner.”

Werner said he wants to find as many solutions as possible to help curb these figures so it doesn’t become a larger trend.

“We’re also going to be looking at technology,” he said. “We have a couple of firms where we can put cameras up throughout our retail area that will help us get the information after a crime happens but we’re also thinking that will help us with our prevention efforts.”

Werner will present the crime statistics to city council in the near future, and they will be part of the department’s annual report, also.

Maple Grove | Twin Cities

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