Crystal Officer To Become Part of New Violent Crime Reduction Unit
A new state task force aimed at reducing violent crime will include a representative from the Crystal Police Department.
“That individual would be assigned to the task force, they’ll have a separate office outside of the Crystal Police Department, but yet they’ll still be an investigator for the police department,” said Lt. Pete Underthun of the Crystal Police Department. “They’ll be assigned cases that have a violent crime connection — if it’s a gun case, if it’s a shooting, a stabbing, a robbery — we’ll assign those cases to those officers. But the benefit of that is now we have an entire team that can go out, track these individuals down, conduct surveillance, execute search warrants, try to recover dangerous weapons, identify people and seek prosecution.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) recently secured money from the state legislature to launch a Violent Crime Reduction Unit.
Lt. Pete Underthun of the Crystal Police Department spoke with CCX News about the Violent Crime Reduction Unit.
That unit would be comprised of 10 officers from various east and west metro cities. Crystal was one of the cities selected by the BCA.
Crystal police say violent crime in the city has been steadily trending upward, but the goal for this unit is to help reverse that trend.
“Obviously, it’s a quality of life issue for our citizens here and anybody in the metro area,” said Underthun. “We want people to feel safe in their neighborhoods, and this is a step in the right direction. Putting a team together, funding the team to go out and actually find and confront violent crime and hopefully prevent violent crimes through the seizure of guns, the prosecution of violent criminals, the identification of criminal organizations.”
Crystal will likely place an officer in that role in June. The officer’s salary, including overtime pay, would be covered by the BCA for at least the next three years.
In addition to Crystal, the BCA has invited Robbinsdale and Brooklyn Park to join the Violent Crime Reduction Unit as well.
Related: Crystal Police Officers Recognized with ‘Lifesaving Awards’
