Still no news about getting Third Precinct brought back to the Third Precinct.
Just about monthly for a while I’ve written about Minneapolis’ utter failure to bring the Third Precinct back into the Third Precinct. I’ve compared how long it has taken for little ol’ us in Minneapolis to build a building in a little ol’ neighborhood, compared to how long it took Paris to rebuild the Cathedral of Notre Dame, after its devastating fire in 2019. The comparison has not made Minneapolis look good, to say the least.
Readers, have you visited Notre Dame Cathedral? No doubt many of you have, many of you have not.
I have. It is one of the world’s most exquisite buildings. Gothic in style, with magnificent sculptures, illuminated rose windows, and much more. Its restoration was a massively large undertaking, costing about $737 million. Had to be done, well worth the cost.
Well, we’re just building a fairly small, utilitarian building. No sculptures. No Rose stained glass windows. No flying buttresses.
Yet as of August 1, we will have taken 2,256 days to do – or more accurately, to not do – what Paris did in 1,915 days. We’ve taken 16% more time to do nothing than Paris took to do everything.
While the City of Minneapolis has made no official announcements about this project in quite some time, I recently heard a forecast, from someone who I won’t name but who follows these matters closely, that Minneapolis Police Department expects to move into the new Third Precinct station in April or May of next year.
Given all the previously missed opening-date estimates we’ve heard, not sure we should believe this one, but let’s give the benefit of the doubt, and give it generously enough to believe they will open the new Third Precinct by April 1, 2027. If that happens, then we will have taken 2,501 more days, 31% longer, than Paris took to rebuild the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
That’s pretty outrageous, but let’s take a moment to reflect on the human impact on having cops respond to emergencies in their precinct from a location miles away. Effectively responding to emergencies is what matters most, and response time is a big part, maybe the biggest part, of responding.
I’ve looked for but not yet found official data of 911 response times, precinct by precinct. So I can’t be precise. But we know each of the other four precincts dispatch their officers from within their precincts, and the Third Precinct does not because it can not. So let’s assume average response time is just two minutes longer than average. I believe it must be more than this, maybe a lot more, but I have no data, so we’ll go with two minutes.
So how many emergencies waited two minutes longer for help than the city average? What happened in those two minutes? How many emergencies went from bad to worse, with bad and even fatal results? Do Third Precinct residents need to accept this for almost another year? If they do, can the city at least have the decency to publish an official intent-to-open-by date?
Mayor Frey, Council President Payne, Commissioner Barnette, please commit to a date. Create some certainty.
For the rest of you/us, who have no power in the matter, if you ever find yourself on the Seine River and close to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, do make sure to visit. You will be inspired. Inspiration seems harder to find in Minneapolis these days.
The writer fails to acknowledge that, while based outside the precinct, most 911 responders are in squad cars patrolling assigned areas within the third precinct. They just sit around the station waiting for a call.
to assess what impact there has been on response times, if any, one should compare third precinct response times year by year. Also, the reduced number of offciers since 2020 means fewer officers covering the same geogrphic area. That would also affect response times. This is far more complex than the author makes it seem.
I don’t dispute at all what the writer says. Indeed, most squads are in the assigned area. But not all, as would be the case in other precincts. Reduced officers is another factor and another indictment of our DSA-affiliated city council majority. We should be up to the charter-required police staffing, but the DSA majority has blocked us getting there every way they can.
Of course it is complex, public policy is always complex.
But the fact remains: Paris accomplished one of the world’s largest and most complex reconstruction projects in less time than our city has taken to do something pretty simple.
You are absolutely correct on that point. And I agree that if the precinct station is located within the precinct it will improve some aspects of police service. It is unbelievable that they can’t get this building done after six years.
The DSA members of city council are obstructing the police department when public safety is perhaps the single most important function of the city. Pathetic!
If you are a Mpls resident, it is important to stay up on things. A decision was made by the City Council on 11/1/23, so many years ago now, NOT to build back in the original location, but instead, the new site would be 2633 Minnehaha Ave for the South Mpls Community Safety Center.
All OLD news, for folks staying plugged in to the committees, city council, and the administration’s work on public safety.
https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/departments/police/precincts/precinct-3/
Excerpt…
“The need for a 3rd Precinct building”
“Officers from the 3rd Precinct are now operating out of a downtown building. Because of this, people within the precinct’s geographic area do not have the same level of access to community safety services compared to those in other areas of Minneapolis.”
* This excerpt on our City’s site is a gross understatement. Quite sad…all of it, both for our employees in the MPD and the 26 neighborhoods that the 3rd Precinct Police Station serves.
It seems as though very little urgency
was ever attached to this after the Council vote on 11/1/23, when they approved the purchase of 2633 Minnehaha Ave (the land and the existing bldg) for the 3rd Precinct’s permanent home.
The transaction closed in the Spring of 2024 and the public was told then it would take about a year before the bldg would be ready for move in. Since then, hardly anything has been mentioned by the City.
Maybe they think we forgot or that it does not matter. They are wrong on both.
I prefer it half burned and toasted. I take this time to thank the simulation for the entertainment and pure horror it has provided me. Watching the liquor store go up in a flash while people were still inside was the craziest thing I have ever seen, with the exception of when I was in Afghanistan and I saw the top of a mountain get blown off very close to our position by three 2k JDAMS. I was there when the autozone first got lit and I am here to tell you poor and clueless souls that agents of the government were everywhere in that crowd, I copped many of the ops as they are always so obvious. They wanted the protest to turn into a riot because that really is what the CIA does best. Happy times in the simulation as always.
And this has what to do with the 2,198 days taken so far to rebuild Third Precinct within the Third Precinct?
It has to do with it because if you know how crazy the situation was during those days in the neighborhood then you would know the police station is never getting rebuilt at that location. Everyone has PTSD and avoidance is a huge ptsd thing, so the government is just going to pretend that it doesn’t exist.
Didn’t see your reply until just now. But I’m well aware rebuild was not going to happen on original location. No one has even proposed this. But an alternative location (two, actually) has been identified in the Third Precinct, yet in six years we’ve not managed to get it done.
While I am a supporter of both, I do consider this ridiculously long delay, in getting the 3rd Precinct in at 2633 Mnnehaha Ave, back within the 26 neighborhoods served, AND after SIX very long years, a significant failure for both Mayor Frey and Community Safety Commissioner Barnette.