St. Paul saw a decrease in some crimes in 2024, but gun violence was an obstacle that police leaders expect to continue into this year.
Police Chief Axel Henry said his department is also monitoring how President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies, which include mass deportations, will play out after his January 20 inauguration. St. Paul police will continue building trust with immigrant communities so they feel comfortable reporting crimes, Henry said.
Looking back at the past year and outlining goals for the new year, Henry identified gun violence as a key issue.
“We just have too many people settling their problems with firearms,” he said.
Reverend Richard Pittman, president of the St. Paul chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said gun violence is also a top concern for community members.
Most pressing issues
Henry said the department has made strides in reducing crimes such as carjackings and auto thefts, but substantially reducing homicide numbers was a challenge last year.
“Our homicide numbers are the ones that really plague us,” Henry said.
As of December 16, 2024, when Sahan Journal sat down with Henry, St. Paul had 30 homicides, compared to 33 at that point in 2023. Henry said he anticipates gun violence to continue to dominate in 2025.
The bulk of gun violence in St. Paul, he said, is attributable to group violence and the wide availability of firearms. Henry defined group violence as fights between “cliques” of people, which is different from organized gang violence.
The internet makes it easier for people, especially young people, to find ways to access guns, he said.
St. Paul has found some success lowering homicide numbers by targeting people who have been involved in previous shootings, instead of saturating a neighborhood with police presence.
“We focus on the data — the intelligence — to find out who those people are, and then we try to interrupt that process before it gets to something that we can’t ever fix,” Henry said. “Once a murder has happened, there’s no going back.”
Pittman said he is hoping to lead more regular meetings with residents about gun violence.
“We just want to dig in now and talk about solutions and responsibility and accountability, even to our own families, and what we can do to help heal and bring hope back into the community and try to avoid some of these interactions between community and law enforcement,” Pittman said.
Henry said increasing police staffing numbers is also a major challenge and a priority for the new year. He said the department’s staffing is down due to retirements and a lower number of applications. There were 522 sworn officers in the department as of December 2024; the city is budgeted to employ 619.
“The workload hasn’t gone down; it’s actually gone up,” Henry said. “So, we’re hiring back employees via overtime to fill those shift shortages, and that is expensive.”
Building trust with communities of color, immigrants
Pittman said he and Henry are meeting with other police departments to discuss an agreement the NAACP and St. Paul police entered in 2001 to address racial profiling. Pittman said he hopes other police chiefs in Minnesota adopt similar practices, which include supporting community-based crime prevention programs and to improve trust and communication with the Black community.
“I think some people have been resistant to it, because it maybe gets viewed from the outside looking in like it’s some kind of oversight,” Henry said. “It’s not, it’s a partnership, it’s literally a friendship.”
Pittman said they have also been updating St. Paul’s agreement to include issues that are more prevalent today.
Henry added that the department will continue its work diversifying the police force. Last year, the department promoted a Karen officer to sergeant for the first time.
Pittman said St. Paul police has been transparent with Black leaders, and that he receives a call from Henry if a Black resident is shot by officers.
“He calls. No matter what time of night it is, he’ll give me a call, let me know in less than 24 hours, and that’s kind of a commitment we have with one another. Then we work together to make sure that we get the correct information,” Pittman said.
With Trump taking office later this month, Henry emphasized that the department is “not involved in the immigration business,” and that it’s important that people feel comfortable reporting a crime or cooperating with an investigation regardless of their immigration status.
“If a group can’t report things to the police, you’ve now made them the very best victims out there,” Henry.
