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On a recent evening in north Minneapolis, a group of volunteers from the Jordan Area Community Council served free food to residents who stopped by a vacant lot and took brief surveys.


It's not unusual to see police officers conducting traffic stops and making arrests in the area. That's led to tensions between the police and some people of color, who say officers target them.


Jordan typically has more reported robberies, burglaries and assaults than other parts of the city. Nearly half of Jordan's residents are African-American, the largest racial or ethnic group in the neighborhood. 

Low-level arrests across Minneapolis


Some black residents, like Alvin McCoy, say the presence of police is a fact of life in the area. And he says officers don't bother or harass him, because "I don't wear my pants sagging." He said he looks like somebody who's "going to work, going home. That's what I do." 


But others say officers who patrol north Minneapolis are too aggressive. Johnny Lane said that last year, police pulled him over and ticketed him for driving without a license. He said he believes officers stopped him just because he's black.


"They said something about, I didn't do a complete stop at the stop sign," he said. "That was just a big lie." 


Over a nearly three-year period, people arrested by Minneapolis police for low-level offenses were nearly nine times more likely to be black or Native American than white. Officers made more arrests in north Minneapolis than in any other part of the city. 


And many of the people arrested on the north side also live in the area, according to an MPR News analysis of arrest data.


That presents challenges for a police department trying to improve its relationship with people of color.  Inspector Mike Friestleben, commander of the 4th Precinct in north Minneapolis, says officers need the community to help them fight crime. But he says people are reluctant to cooperate if they feel that officers unfairly stop them for minor offenses.


Friestleben says he encourages officers — whenever possible — to explain why they stopped someone and apologize if they've stopped the wrong person. And he says he wants the public to understand why police do what they do.  


"If we pull you over and we think it's a suspicious deal, and it's not, and you think you're getting pulled for no reason and then you get attitude or you get volatile," he said, " one thing leads to another and now we have this negative contact. Where if everyone would just keep their cool, we can have a positive contact."


Clinton Collins, who is black and has lived in north Minneapolis 14 years, said he has "a good relationship with the 4th Precinct, with Inspector Friestleben and his officers."


Collins is an attorney and chair of the board for the Minneapolis Urban League. He said officers on the north side are savvier and less likely to engage in racial profiling than in the past. But he understands why some African-Americans still fear and distrust police.


"There has been a history that's been checkered," Collins said. "And there have been some cops that have engaged in bad behavior. There've been some bad cops. But on the other hand, there've been some bad actors as well."


Collins said that in his neighborhood, those bad actors are usually young black men. And he's critical of people who protest against what he calls excessive policing, but don't live on the north side. 


But there are north siders who think they are indeed being over-policed. 


KerryJo Felder, an African-American and a member of the group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, lives in north Minneapolis. She said that when cops are looking for suspects, they sometimes cast too wide a net.


One night, she and members of her family were sitting on the front porch of their home when officers drove by slowly and flashed a bright spotlight in their faces. 


"That means you can't just hang out on your own porch" Felder said, "on the property your family owns, without having suspicion or just a nasty feeling cast your way."


Felder said she's also had officers flash lights in her face while she was driving. She said she called to complain about it, but was told the officers were just doing their job.


Police Chief Janee Harteau has said she wants her officers to have a noticeable presence in neighborhoods where the most serious crimes are reported. But she doesn't want them there just to make a bunch of arrests. 


"I don't put officers there with the expectation of enforcement," she said. "I put officers there with the expectation of being in the area. And that means engaging in the community. That means walking a foot beat. That means having conversations with people. That means being visible; being present; being engaged." 


Back in the Jordan neighborhood, Sy Jones sat on his front steps watching residents gather in the vacant lot down the block. Jones is black and moved to the north side from Chicago 15 years ago. He said the neighborhood needs police; he just doesn't want them to discriminate against the majority of people who live in the area.


"You see a couple of African-American young men in a car," he said. "They might be carpooling, going to work just like some other ethnic groups. But if they look like they're trouble and if they break the law, you have to uphold the law. That's your job. Do your job."


So far this year, Minneapolis is experiencing an increase in shootings and homicides. Minneapolis police leaders say they will keep up the patrols on the north side and anywhere violence spikes.

Map: Low-level arrests across Minneapolis

From January 2012 through the end of September 2014,  Minneapolis police made nearly 100,000 low-level arrests — for non-felony offenses such as loitering, trespassing or disorderly conduct. Most people arrested were not booked and jailed. Instead, 

they were given citations and ordered to go to court.

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?q=select+col2+from+1uduVRX7CWcu0Z86D8lwfJm4OVWOBKCz923H4r05x&viz=MAP&h=false&lat=45.00496247101259&lng=-93.27796406577659&t=1&z=11&l=col2&y=2&tmplt=2&hml=KML

Source: Minneapolis Police Department, Jan. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2014

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Some black residents of north Minneapolis appreciate the extra attention their area gets from police. Others deeply resent it.

In a high-crime area, Mpls. cops fight crime and perceptions

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