Funding in question as crime keeps rising

The Dec. 2 stabbing death of a man on the East Side pushed St. Paul over a line no city wants to cross. The 35th murder in 2021 set a single-year record. Last year, the city tied a the previous record of 34 homicides set in 1992.

That new record was set during a time when the city's population is growing — as is the need for more police officers. To help with that, last month city leaders learned that St. Paul had received approval for a $3.75 million grant from the federal Department of Justice to hire more cops.

Now St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and his administration are considering rejecting the grant because the money comes with financial obligations. DOJ would fund a portion of 30 salaries for the next three years, with the city picking up an additional $1.8 million per year.

Yet given the concerns about increasing violent crime and the need for more officers, Carter and the City Council should find a way to accept part or all of the DOJ funds.

The homicide record is not the only one recently set. Last year, the city had just over 2,300 reports of shots fired — more than twice as many as the year before. Also during 2020, at least 220 people were injured by gunfire — the first year that number was greater than 200. So far in 2021, 219 people have been shot.

St. Paul has 554 sworn officers, and the city expects to be down 80 officers from its authorized total of 620 by the end of the year, according to a St. Paul Police Department spokesperson. The city also has a recruit class of 61 in process, and those officers will come on board by July. In the recently approved 2022 budget, council members wisely added another $1.5 million above the mayor's request for another recruit class because they understand the need to get closer to a goal of 620 authorized officers.

Meanwhile, the other twin city has moved closer to breaking its own homicide record while facing an even worse officer shortage. A Sunday morning shooting resulted in the 94th homicide this year, according to the Star Tribune's database. That's edging closer to the city's 1995 record of 97, when a New York Times story dubbed the city "Murderapolis."

The sworn-officer count in Minneapolis — also a growing city and larger than St. Paul — is down to 583, with a goal of getting it back up to a maximum of 888. Last month, when the St. Paul grant was announced, Mayor Jacob Frey told an editorial writer that he wished his city could have received that kind of federal support. But he noted that a subcommittee of the City Council in 2020 voted against even submitting an application for a similar federal DOJ grant that would have helped hire more traffic officers.

Hopefully the strong-mayor system adopted in the Nov. 2 election will prevent that from happening in the future.

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul have experienced serious increases in gun-related and other violent crimes, including carjackings and assaults. Both also need to continue work on policing reforms and rebuilding trust, especially in communities of color. And both cities will be looking for new chiefs of police next year because of retirements.

Even as those searches are underway, city leaders should be looking for ways to strengthen their police departments to bolster public safety — including adopting budget adjustments to add more officers.