Minnesota adopting New Jersey model to curb gang violence

Here at 6.30, my name is Tim Blotz. And I'm Simone Bullridge. Minnesota's top cops have a new framework for reducing gang crime. And the plan involves more than 40 agencies, and it's modeled after a strategy from New Jersey. Fox 9's Emily Pohlfall reports on what this strategy is and also why it works. The New Jersey strategy is all about information sharing between jurisdictions. Vital, the Minnesota BCA says, because these current gangs are more mobile than gangs of years past. Bloomington, Edina, and Eden Prairie, a string of shootings tied to emerging gangs. The groups, investigators say, don't stick to a turf. They travel and are loosely organized. And that requires an approach that's unique compared to some of the things that we've done in the past. Investigations more often involve multiple jurisdictions. So 46 agencies in Minnesota signed up to share information following a strategy introduced in New Jersey 20 years ago. The New Jersey strategy in part boils down to regular meetings, oversight by the Attorney General's office, and increased use of federal databases. Minnesota agencies in this new collaboration will share gun evidence through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN. It's how shell casings from one crime can be tied to a gun used in another city. When we combine these capabilities with the intelligence and resources of our law enforcement partners together, we can more effectively identify those responsible for the shootings. The New Jersey Attorney General says this strategy is responsible for a more than 50% drop in shootings in 10 years. Minnesota BCA Superintendent Drew Evans says here the group isn't using a singular database to track gang members, but they will track how well this model works here locally and adjust if necessary. We use data that we have to identify those individuals that are trigger pullers, that are out shooting in our communities, and then have that laser focus by the right entity that are standing up here behind us, wherever that might be in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Right now, the model is multiple local task forces working together under one umbrella, but the BCA superintendent didn't rule out the idea of one large regional task force on gang violence if the issue persists. In St. Paul, Emily Pofall, Fox 9. In Ramsey County, Sheriff Bob Fletcher pointed to a recent shooting on Highway 100 in St. Louis Park as an example of this strategy already working. Ballistics analysts analysis, I should say, connects casings recovered on the highway to a cycle of retaliatory gang shootings across the West Metro, including a shooting in Burnsville last February. Those casings were linked to four other serious shootings in the metro area. So what Drew's trying to do here is tie the dots together. And we need to do that. We need to share information because, you know, not everybody shares on a regular basis right now. But Drew's driving that train, and we're going to get there.