Minneapolis police chief: No ’significant’ homeless encampments in the city due to new policy

NINA MOINI: Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara and Mayor Jacob Frey say a strategy to prevent homeless encampments from forming is working. Police have closed 17 encampments since starting a new policy in January, according to an email update from the city. Chief O'Hara said in a recent social media post that there are now zero, quote, "significant encampments" in the city and that this has reduced crime in South Minneapolis. Chief O'Hara joins me now. Thanks so much for being here, Chief.

BRIAN O'HARA: Hi, Nina. Thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: Could you, for starters, talk a little bit about the term significant encampments? What does that mean to you?

BRIAN O'HARA: So to put it in perspective, when I came to Minneapolis about 2 and 1/2 years ago, it was not uncommon for us to have even just one homeless encampment that was 100, 150 people in the encampment. And so large-scale encampments had become an ongoing reality. Even as the city had shut one down in one location, it would shortly thereafter pop up in another area within the same neighborhood. So as of last week, speaking with Enrique Velazquez, the director of regulatory services for the city who oversees the homeless outreach that the city does, the largest encampment in the city last week had four people in it, which is a remarkable, remarkable decrease from what had been really just the constant reality, I think, for our residents for nearly five years.

NINA MOINI: And I know specific to South Minneapolis, some communities and neighborhoods there, there have been a lot of encampments there. But are you speaking about the whole city? Or are you speaking about South Minneapolis.

BRIAN O'HARA: That is citywide. But it is absolutely 100% true that South Minneapolis has borne the brunt of this problem. And it really climaxed last year.

Last year, we had hundreds of overdoses in and immediately surrounding homeless encampments. We had a very significant increase in property crime everywhere where these encampments popped up. And worst of all, we had 15 homicides last year, either inside of an encampment or within one city block of an encampment. A nearly one fourth of all shooting incidents in the third precinct were within 500 feet of an encampment last year.

So it was a very, very serious public safety concern, violence concern, as well as all of the other issues that residents deal with-- quality of life deteriorated, a lot of cases-- smoke from fires and encampments going into people's houses, where elderly people live, where children who had asthma were having breathing problems. It's just a very, very complicated problem. If we are able to prevent them from forming in the first place, by doing that, we have seen very, very significant relief this year.

NINA MOINI: OK. And so what does that process look like? I mean, I've been covering encampments in Minneapolis probably since 2018, wondering, did this need to be implemented sooner? What is different about the strategy now under this order from the police department?

BRIAN O'HARA: So we're recognizing that these homeless encampments not only were a very significant concentration of violence last year but also open fentanyl use. And people suffering from addiction were able to do that within these encampments. And when they're in that situation, it's very, very difficult for a person who's suffering from that addiction to make good choices. So what we wanted to do was simply provide very clear direction to the police officers to try and proactively prevent these encampments from forming in the first place.

So that involves giving them clear direction on which laws to use and when, what to do when crimes occur within the encampments, and basically stop people who are coming, oftentimes from outside the neighborhood, to cut chains and take down fences and get into areas and then repeatedly set up encampments that had previously been closed before. It's simply giving very clear direction and expectation from the officers and directing them to work with community and residents who are reporting where people are breaking into places that they should not be to start these encampments.

NINA MOINI: What is your impression, Chief, of where all those people have gone that were-- you mentioned there were camps like Camp Nenookaasi and then different iterations of that, dozens and dozens of people in some cases. What is your sense for where those people have gone? And then do you feel that's the responsibility of the city of Minneapolis and the police department? Or is it sort of out of sight, out of mind?

BRIAN O'HARA: No, I do think-- there have been a number of services that have been available for folks. And then there's some additional spaces that have opened up since this year. At the same time, there's a women's center in South Minneapolis that has been very active in receiving outreach.

I think a key indication, a key aspect, of the problem is these encampments were simply too permissive for people that are suffering, particularly from fentanyl addiction. And again, folks not being able to make good choices, taking away this place for them to be hopefully has put more of these people into places where they can get help. But at the same time, there have been some locations around the city where then we've had problems inside of a couple of apartment buildings from people breaking in and so on.

But I know Director Velazquez has been firm when he stated that shelter and services have been available for everyone who is willing to accept them. And unfortunately, again, we've struggled with people being willing to take some of the services that have been available. At least that's what's been communicated to me by the people who lead those efforts.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And sometimes, too, it's about the-- I never really understood, to be honest with you, over all of these years. It seemed like it was sort of-- I would always wonder, how do we know when the city deems it appropriate to clear an encampment? How do we really know?

It seemed like people were just sort of feeling it out. I was really never clear on that. So is what you're saying-- and I don't want to put words in your mouth-- but say MPD officers come across an encampment of six or seven tents. Let's just say 10 or 12 people. Are you saying that, under your authority, they then have the authority to clear that before it gets any larger? And is that the strategy?

BRIAN O'HARA: The strategy is to stop people while they're in the act of setting them up, provided that there is a legal basis for doing so. And it gets complicated because not every property is owned by the city. You could be on a sidewalk. You could be on a city lot that is city property. And we know it. Or it could be on private property. Or it could be on state property and so on.

There's other times when police are responding to a crime. And there's a crime scene that has been impacted in a clear public safety risk. And then the officers can legally take action and clear it. But the priority is, whenever possible, to simply try and stop the encampments from unlawfully forming before they even get a chance to form because then it does become the situation that you mentioned, where generally it takes the city a lot longer to clear them out.

NINA MOINI: Are you relying, it sounds like, on neighbors in the area to, if they see something, say something, and then that provides the grounds to respond? And I've talked with a lot of neighbors in areas around encampments as well who have suffered from those experiences. What's the feedback that you're getting from neighbors?

BRIAN O'HARA: So yes, we are relying on neighbors in almost every case. Sometimes, it's officers proactive on patrol that know the problem, locations that neighbors have been having encampments on repeatedly. And they've taken action to stop it.

But I can tell you the phone calls, the emails, the cards I've gotten from residents who have been telling me-- I don't need to give the statistics. The statistics are the calls for service are down by 80% in these neighborhoods, literally, since this went into effect.

But neighbors are emailing us, telling us this is the first time in five years they've had a reprieve from constantly having a homeless encampment in their neighborhood. And then all of the things that brings about, all of the quality of life, the theft issues, their children being afraid to-- being afraid to allow their child to walk to the corner to wait for the school bus. All of those things have gone away because the encampments are no longer there.

NINA MOINI: Lastly, Chief, just what do you say to people who will say this is too much power for the police department, it's too aggressive, the city should focus more on helping the individuals stay where they are if they're in encampments and working with them over time to give individualized care? There are a lot of people who will disagree with your approach.

BRIAN O'HARA: Sure. Well, the reality is we are lawfully bound to enforce the laws that are on the books. And it is very, very clear, aside from the issues that neighbors have been raising constantly for five years, that these encampments are just entirely unsafe, both for the people in there and the people who live around them. 15 murders last year, hundreds of overdoses.

And the reality of the problem, there is a significant overlap with fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin, hundreds times more potent than morphine. People that are suffering from this addiction are not able to make good choices on their own. So we should not be providing an unlawful environment for them that is essentially equivalent to giving them a death sentence. I mean, I do think people need to be in some ways encouraged to get help then rather than us providing them a space to lead to their own demise.

NINA MOINI: Chief, I really appreciate you stopping by and giving us your perspective today. Thank you.

BRIAN O'HARA: Thank you, Nina.

NINA MOINI: That was Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara.