Brooklyn Park Police Unveil New Strategy To Curb Youth Violence
The Brooklyn Park Police Department says it’s time to pivot strategies to reduce youth violence.
“Quite honestly, I just think we could be more effective,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley told the city council on Feb. 26.
According to Bruley, one of the city’s largest efforts to reduce youth violence is through intervention work. That means street outreach workers without an affiliation to the police department are out hitting street corners, looking for at-risk youth.
However, police can’t typically give those workers real-time information on criminal cases.
“They just simply don’t have the intelligence to identify who is the high-risk individuals,” Bruley said.
As a result, Bruley has a new plan: to develop a Violence Intervention Unit within the police department.
This unit would provide tailored support and resources to at-risk youth shortly after interactions with police. Youth could also be recommended for intervention by partnering agencies like the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and school districts.
The program could help connect youth with basic needs like food, emotional needs like mentoring or mental health services, or other resources that can divert people away from the criminal justice system.
“The goal is to modify strategies to get the best outcomes for the youth,” Bruley said.
Instead of a broad-sweeping approach, outreach workers would focus on 20-30 youth that are at high-risk for contact with the criminal justice system.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley is planning to develop a Violence Intervention Unit inside the police department.
Building Trust
Bruley noted that often intervention work intentionally occurs outside the police department.
As a result, the the police will have to build relationships and trust with the community to be successful, he said.
“There is a group of people that believe that only the work of intervention can be done by community members,” Bruley said. “It cannot be connected to the police because police inherently suggest there’s mistrust or that there’s bad intent. That is certainly something I believe we can overcome.”
Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston, as well as Brooklyn Park City Council Members Boyd Morson and Christian Eriksen spoke in favor of the plan.
“I think this is work that lots of people have hoped for, talked about, dreamed about,” Eriksen said. “So many police departments seem reluctant or scared to venture into some of these things … I just appreciate the forward-thinking and the courage to try what hasn’t been tried before.”
Funding
The city applied for a $2.8 million Minnesota Department of Public Safety grant to pilot the program over three years. However, the city was only awarded $325,000.
Bruley called the funding “a drop in the bucket.”
He expects to seek more grant funding for the project. He may also look to the city council to allocate additional funding from other sources like the American Rescue Plan Act to fund the project.
New staff members, such as case managers, would likely be hired by the police department for the program.
