BCA chief: Shifting structure of Twin Cities gangs brings new challenges

Twin Cities gangs are becoming more decentralized, creating new challenges for law enforcement officers and prosecutors, the head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Monday.

Gang activity is less about organized criminal enterprises now and more about smaller groups using violence to settle personal grievances, BCA Superintendent Drew Evans told MPR News.

“They have cliques or smaller groups, and they may not always even fit the definition of a traditional gang that we use in Minnesota. And so, group or gang violence are often used to describe them,” he said.

“They're often beefing right now and online, and they're not really focused on their activity related to drugs or other sorts of criminal activity, or protecting turf,” he added. “It really is interpersonal disagreements that result in these terrible results.”

A shooting outside the Eden Prairie homecoming football game on Oct. 2 has resurfaced concerns about gangs and their changing nature. Adam Abdihakeem Adam, 18, has been charged with assault and riot with a dangerous weapon. He posted bail over the weekend.

More than 40 local law enforcement agencies are vowing to work together on issues specific to violence among Somali youth, although they've decided not to establish a new formal task force.

There are resources and violence prevention task forces in place that pool resources in a similar way, Evans said. “All that work continues to go,” he said. “What needs to happen is to coordinate, share information, utilize resources across those various task forces.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. Below is a transcript of the conversation lightly edited for clarity.

Audio Transcript

Wurzer: It might be nice to get some context on this problem. Remember when the Metro Gang Strike Force was formed, and it operated, I think, for more than 10 years or so. Can you compare and contrast what is law enforcement seeing now compared to gang activity and violent crime back when there was the Metro Gang Strike Force?

Evans: Back when there was a Metro Gang Strike Force in Minnesota, there was what we often refer to as more traditional gangs. They used to be more localized. They used to be concentrated in our more urban environments.

And what we've seen today — and there used to be a hierarchy to them, so they were much more organized. What we see today, and it's not specific to Somali gangs that we have been seeing, is that they're much more decentralized. They have cliques or smaller groups, and they may not always even fit the definition of a traditional gang that we use in Minnesota.

And so, group or gang violence are often used to describe them. They're often beefing right now and online, and they're not really focused on their activity related to drugs or other sorts of criminal activity, or protecting turf. It really is interpersonal disagreements that result in these terrible results.

Wurzer: So I would think, then, as a law enforcement officer, it's tough to deal with something like this. Or am I wrong?

Evans: No, you're not wrong at all, Cathy. This is one of the challenges, and why, as you mentioned at the top, that there are 40 different law enforcement agencies came together because that's 40 different jurisdictions that have had some sort of challenge related to this particular issue.

And so, as you look to how you address this, it's different than having a smaller group of law enforcement coming together to focus on a problem. If people recall a few years ago, we were dealing with gangs in Minneapolis, often referred to as the Highs and Lows, we were concentrated in those situations, and we were able to really work together with the United States Attorney's Office and Andy Luger as we worked at that. And a number of those issues have largely gone away. This will take a more unique approach.

Wurzer: There seemed to have been some momentum for a task force, and I'm wondering why that idea was set aside?

Evans: Well, the idea is not fully set aside. The idea to form a specific task force for this would be then taking away from some of the other work that we're doing.

What we recognized as we were working together and working through this problem, is there are ways to organize and use existing resources and task forces that exist, to organize under that.

For example, we've been hosting what we call a Crime Gun Intelligence Center meeting every other week. That's organized with the ATF and BCA, the FBI is there, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, a number of different jurisdictions. That's been growing. They'll work to organize intelligence and then coordinate.

The BCA, for example, already has a violent crime reduction unit. That's a task force of BCA agents in local jurisdictions, comprised of 12 different local jurisdictions, and has room for more if people would like to join that. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office has a violent offender task force. All that work continues to go.

What needs to happen is to coordinate, share information, utilize resources across those various task forces. So, at the end of the day, you really arrive at the same result. You may not be just calling it a specific task force without additional resources that would be put into that task force.

Wurzer: What are you hoping the role of the Somali community would be in all of this?

Evans: To be a partner; That's what we need. And any time we face a challenge in any one of our communities — to be a partner and to work together with us and look for solutions so that we can divert and prevent the violence from happening to begin with.

So, that we look to really connect with those youth that are wayward at the moment and try to look for solutions that would be a win-win for both law enforcement — So we prevent these shootings from happening to begin with, and we make sure that these kids don't go down a bad path where they end up in jail or prison.

Wurzer: So there's a lot of work that's going on. As you know, the president is urging state leaders to request federal help. Is that part of the plan?

Evans: Well, federal help is always part of the plan. The ATF and FBI were at our meeting on Friday. We work closely with them on all sorts of things, and always have. They're also conducting investigations and have been working with us on this problem already. So this is something that's already underway.

Wurzer: Do you have an inkling — could there be, like, say, a National Guard deployment involved in something like this?

Evans: I see no need for a National Guard deployment. If we get to the point where we had National Guard deployment, that would be a different discussion. But right now, we face challenges with violent crime in all of our communities. The good news, and part of what we discussed, is violent crime is way down in Minnesota, even with these recent spikes.

That doesn't mean we don't have to come up with a comprehensive plan to be able to address the spikes in Somali youth gang violence at this point in time, but it also means that we have been making great strides towards driving violent crime down across Minnesota, and that will continue even with these recent challenges.

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