Chief's Update: July 2011
When I was 17 someone broke into my truck and stole my fishing gear and some other valuables while my truck was parked. The theft occurred in the late 1980’s in the Miller Mall parking lot where I was working at the time trying to make a few bucks. I was steamed and wanted justice. Unfortunately, that never happened as far as I am aware. I did learn a lesson or two. Don’t leave items of value in your vehicle and police don’t always catch the crooks. Under current Minnesota law, when you enter someone’s vehicle with the intent to steal it is considered a misdemeanor- a relatively low level crime. Because of Minnesota’s unwitnessed misdemeanor law, if a police officer does not witness an auto burglary a citation will be issued and the person cannot go to jail (there are a few exceptions and stealing from a car is not one of them). Additionally, we have seen repeat offenders breaking into cars and getting caught time after time with little consequence. We see these offenders go to court and are allowed to continue about their business. Those convicted of this offense rarely receive curfew or geographical restrictions which further frustrates police in our efforts to reduce crime. This year, in an effort to reduce car burglaries, we worked with Representative Gauthier to increase the penalties for this offense. Representative Gauthier and St. Paul Senator John Harrington introduced bills in the House and Senate that would have made the second conviction for auto burglary a gross misdemeanor and the third conviction a felony. Currently, there is no increase in penalties with each conviction for this crime. I was surprised when the bill did not make it out of conference committee and fell in a vote along political party lines. We will continue our efforts to apprehend these crooks and to have the legislature increase the penalties for this offense. I am very appreciative of Representative Gauthier for his support and work on toughening the penalties for auto burglary. Continuing the theme of repeat offenders, in April a Pew Center on the States released an interesting study that found Minnesota had one of the highest criminal recidivism rates in the country (http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Pew_State_of_Recidivism.pdf). What is recidivism? It is probably one of the most talked about topics at our weekly meetings where we review crime trends and crime that is occurring in the City. Recidivism is defined by dictionary.com as “repeated or habitual relapse, as into crime.” It is the repeat offenders who are committing the majority of our crime in Duluth. While the validity of the Pew study has been argued by many Minnesota officials, your police will tell you we don’t know where we rank nationally, but we have a serious problem with habitual offenders. It would be great to see the increased use of GPS monitoring, curfews and geographical restrictions in offender monitoring. The repeat offenders who are not sent to prison should have mandated curfews, geographical restrictions, and police officers on the street should be provided the offender information (I had this information at my finger tips in Wisconsin as a police officer almost 20 years ago-something we still don’t have in Minnesota). If an officer finds them in violation they are authorized to bring them to jail. Too often we find chronic offenders out and about at two in the morning in an area they should not be, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, only to find out days later they are on probation. Oregon had the greatest reduction in recidivism in the Pew study. It found “Oregon also experienced the biggest decline in recidivism from 1999 to 2004, a drop of almost 32 percent. Oregon officials attribute their success to a comprehensive approach to reform and a commitment to change that reaches across all levels of government—from the supervision officer in the field, to the judiciary, through the state corrections department and up the ranks of legislative leadership.” While police are usually the ones who receive the criticism when crime occurs, it is my hope the Pew study will encourage a dialog among our policy makers to improve our State’s response to repeat criminal offenders. Minnesota’s response to repeat offenders simply needs to improve. Let’s hope we can move beyond the budget debate soon and get on with improving our criminal justice system’s response to repeat offenders. -Gordon Ramsay
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