Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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In Minneapolis, intentionally setting a fire is a crime too many offenders are getting away with. The city should move quickly to put more resources into arson investigations to bring perpetrators to justice.
Last year, there were 134 arson fires in Minneapolis; of those, only 10 arrests were made and three suspects charged — a case clearance rate of about 7.5% — according to a Star Tribune review of police data. The year before, in 2022, 104 fires were classified as arson, leading to five arrests and four suspects charged.
Nationally, Statista.com reported the 2022 clearance rate was nearly 25% either by arrest or because of “exceptional means,” or circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibited an agency from arresting, charging and prosecuting the offender.
One critical reason for the poor rate in Minneapolis is the low number of investigators the city has to pursue the cases. For parts of 2022 and 2023, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) had zero investigators to follow up on cases that fire officials deemed to be arson. That must change.
Staffing is a major reason arson cases go unsolved, Office of Community Safety spokesman Brian Feintech told the Star Tribune. Four Minneapolis Fire Department investigators determine whether suspicious fires were caused by arson. Those cases are passed along to the MPD, whose one arson investigator was hired last spring.
MPD’s overall staffing problems persist. The department had nearly 900 active sworn officers in 2019 but only 560 last month.