Violent Crime Rates Rise In MN, Including Attacks On Police: State

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota saw a 21.6 percent increase in violent crime in 2021, including a 35 percent increase in assaults on police, according to a report from the Department of Public Safety.

Police officers were assaulted in 900 different incidents that year, officials said.

Overall, violent crime in greater Minnesota rose by 16 percent in 2021. It rose by 23.9 percent in the seven-county metro area, which includes the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington.

There were 201 murders in 2021 in Minnesota compared with 185 in 2020, an increase of 8.65 percent, officials said. Reports of police shootings dropped in 2021 to 24, down from 29 in 2020.

"The Department of Public Safety has stepped up investigations and proactive patrols in partnership with our federal, state and local officers," the department's commissioner, John Harrington, said in a statement.

"By following the data, we hope these efforts will reduce victimization, improve focused and effective rapid responses, and hold offenders accountable."

Meanwhile, bias crimes rose in 2021 with 238 incidents reported, according to state officials:

• 40.3 percent were motivated by "anti-Black" or "African American" bias
• 10.5 percent were "anti-gay"
• 8.8 percent "anti-white"
• 8.4 percent were "anti-Jewish"

Other findings from the review of 2021 crime in Minnesota include:

• Firearms were used in 73 percent of 2021 murders, down from 75 percent in 2020
• There were nearly 11,000 aggravated assaults in 2021, a 33.7 percent rise from 2020
• Rapes increased as well, up to 2,472 in 2021 from 2,222 in 2020
  • Nearly half of the rape victims were minors — 46 percent — and 71 percent of rapes occurred in a home
• Car thefts rose by 8.5 percent in 2021, with nearly 15,000 vehicles stolen, the highest since 2021
• In 2021, the state began counting carjackings as a separate statistic from car thefts. There were 779 carjacking incidents in 2021.

Check out the entire 2021 report here.