Trio of Group Homes Responsible for Hundreds of Crystal Police Calls

Crystal police say most of the 90 group homes in the city handle their business as expected, but one operator has been a drain on police resources.

Empathy Home Care, which is based in Brooklyn Park, has three group homes in Crystal.

These three homes had nearly 500 calls to the Crystal Police Department in a 14-month period, police said.

“When you only have a couple officers working and your getting those calls with that frequency, that becomes pretty overwhelming on the resources,” said Brian Hubbard, deputy chief of the Crystal Police Department.

Hubbard characterized that call rate as “staggering.”

A small number of residents within those homes generate a majority of the calls, he said.

Meanwhile, Hubbard said most of those calls did not require an emergency response. 

“It has nothing to do with responding to these facilities, but when we have these issues that come up that clearly should have been — it would seem to us — managed by the staff that families are paying to have that care provided, that’s where it becomes a problem,” he said.

Request for Fraud Investigation

Hubbard says the police department worked with the company in an effort to reduce the volume of calls, but were unsuccessful. 

“Then we start to go to some of the regulatory bodies to try and figure out how they can be helpful to us in this, and what we have found is this web of everybody saying it’s somebody else’s responsibility,” Hubbard said. 

According to Hubbard, the department has requested that the Minnesota Attorney General’s office investigate Empathy Home Care for potential fraud.

“At minimum, some of these agencies were billing for services for individuals that we know, based on what was happening with them at the time, were not in the facility,” Hubbard said.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office said he could not confirm or deny the existence of the investigation.

The owner of Empathy Home Care and the company are also being sued in Hennepin County District Court in a wrongful death case. 

The lawsuit is tied to the death of a 21-year-old vulnerable adult who overdosed twice on fentanyl in four days. She was in a group home ran by Empathy Home Care in Brooklyn Park at the time of her death.

That case is scheduled for a jury trial early in 2026.

See also: Group Home Owners’ Federal Suit Against City of New Hope Dismissed

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