Hennepin attorney says she'll speed charges, help families to deal with youth car thefts
Twin Cities community leaders are calling for a collaborative system of early intervention to prevent juvenile crime — particularly car thefts by teens and preteens.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarity Wednesday promised changes to the way her office handles such cases, including quicker charging decisions and a closer collaboration with law enforcement.
In Minneapolis, thefts of unattended vehicles have nearly doubled, to more than 4,100 so far in 2023 according to the city’s crime dashboard. That comes even as violent crimes including shootings and homicides are down by a third compared to this time last year, and carjackings have fallen 42 percent.
Kias and Hyundais account for a large percentage of vehicle thefts in the Twin Cities and across the country. About 3.8 million Hyundais and 4.5 million Kias models are especially vulnerable because they lack electronic immobilizers, the microchip keys that have been an industry standard for decades. The problem grew when a social media video last year provided step-by-step hotwiring instructions.
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The thieves can be young. Last Monday Minneapolis police chased a stolen Kia that had been connected to several armed robberies. It crashed near Penn Avenue North and Olson Memorial Highway.
Six children were inside and the alleged driver was 12 years old. A man at a bus stop was hit. The driver of an uninvolved vehicle suffered minor injuries.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said that it’s often difficult for police to identify perpetrators when they wear masks, and it’s not always easy to tell who’s been driving a stolen car after it’s stopped.
“We aren’t getting very many cases from law enforcement, and that’s a frustration that they have. Even if they arrest somebody, that person will be held for 36 hours and then if they cannot send us a case, we can’t charge cases we don’t get,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty added that judges often find preteens legally incompetent to be tried because they’re too young to understand the process.
The Hennepin County attorney is promising much faster charging decisions — days instead of weeks — for youth who are arrested for auto theft. And another change starting next week is mandatory detention for children who flee police.
Though no leaders of police agencies appeared with Moriarty at her news conference on Wednesday, she said staff are meeting regularly with law enforcement to identify youth in need of intervention.
She also said social workers from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office plan to reach out to youth and families in need of services such as mental and chemical health care and housing.
Coincidentally, civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong had planned a news conference of her own about youth car thefts just after Moriarty’s. She and her fellow activists say the county attorney’s emphasis on early intervention in an effort to avoid detention and prosecution is a step in the right direction.
Levy Armstrong said the vehicle thefts are unacceptable and such behavior is putting both the young people engaging in it and the general public at risk, and many parents need help with their children.
She said the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder have brought into relief longstanding disparities, and there’s a lack of funding for constructive activities that would divert young people from crime.
“In the community, there are very few places to go,” Levy Armstrong said. “So we need to understand that race and socioeconomics are a factor, along with mental health, in terms of what is happening. That should cause us to dig more deeply, to ask critical questions, to have compassion, and to stand in solidarity in demanding the justice and resources that our community deserves.”
Levy Armstrong called on elected officials and the philanthropic community to fund programs in the mold of Homeboy Industries — a program that started in Los Angeles in 1988 that provides job training to people who’ve left prison.
She also says police need to stop vehicle chases like the one last week because they put too many people in danger.
Moriarty also noted that early intervention is available for families if they’re feeling overwhelmed with a child who’s having a mental or behavioral issue. It’s available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and she said social workers will respond anywhere in Hennepin County.
“They promise to be at that home within one hour. They promise to work with the family to try to set up a plan to make sure that that youth and the family are getting the resources that they need.”
That can be anything from housing to mental health and addiction treatment. The hotline number is 612-979-9511.