Amendment Would Save Crime-Stoppers

Southwest Minneapolis might keep two of its most critical police resources, after all.

Southwest’s City Councilmember Betsy Hodges (Ward 13) has proposed to fund the Crime Prevention Specialists with leftover money from the Police Department’s 2010-2011 contingency fund. The full council is expected to approve the amendment, passed Tuesday by the Council’s budget and taxes committee.

Crime Prevention Specialists Amy Lavender and Chelsea Adams toil away in relative obscurity for the residents of the Fifth Precinct. Until, that is, , a mobile drug-dealing operation starts cruising a neighborhood, or a block’s rental house starts to become a problem property. At those moments, all comes to the fore: organizing block clubs, working hand-in-glove with residents to track public safety issues block-by-block, and keeping the department’s busy officers appraised of what’s going on in the precinct.

Under the Minneapolis Police Department’s , two specialists would have been axed to help keep police officers on the beat. As it happens, Lavender and Adams are the specialists with the least seniority. If they were laid off, two specialists from other parts of the city would fill their shoes. It was a prospect that had many Southwest residents worried.

“(The Specialists are) a service that serves the Police Department and the citizens of Minneapolis very, very well,” said Hodges. “It’s one of the best public safety services people in my ward get.”

Southwest’s Councilmembers Elizabeth Glidden (Ward 8) and Meg Tuthill (Ward 10) agreed, praising the program.

Because the contingency dollars will only last for one year, Hodges and the rest of the committee also directed Police Chief Tim Dolan to figure how the department might fully fund the entire Crime Prevention Specialist program after next year.

As Councilmember Gary Schiff (Ward 9) pointed out, most of the program is funded with federal money through the Community Development Block Grant program, which faces an uncertain future as Congress looks for ways to trim the federal budget.