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Minneapolis car thefts spike in 2026, St. Paul sees continued decline

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Minneapolis car thefts spike in 2026, St. Paul sees continued decline


Car thefts in the Twin Cities moved in different directions for the first couple of months of the year, with an increase in Minneapolis and a continued slowdown in St. Paul.

Both cities were experiencing a decrease in car thefts by the end of 2025. However, this year, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressed concern about a renewed spike, which he says began when an influx of federal immigration agents arrived in the city.

“You might see out there that just crime went down during this thing. That’s not true. Some crime did, other crime went up,” O’Hara told Minneapolis City Council members last week.

After a 37% decrease over the last two years, O’Hara informed council members that the city is now seeing a “significant increase in auto thefts and some damage to property.” City data indicated nearly 1,200 thefts in 2026 compared to 935 at the same time last year.

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“The problem is, if you pull investigators and you pull cops out of the neighborhoods, because you have to do all this order policing, we have a lot of work we have to get back to,” said O’Hara.

Across the river in St. Paul, Ramsey County Undersheriff Mike Martin credited the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Carjacking & Auto Theft (CAT) team and its work with St. Paul and other local police for a 61% decrease in auto theft over three years.

“The kids know, don’t steal a car in Ramsey County,” said Undersheriff Martin. He added that 80 to 85% of auto thefts in Ramsey County occur in St. Paul, necessitating close collaboration with the city.

The sheriff’s office posted on Facebook this week, “Focused deterrence pays off… And in the first two months of 2026, there were 195 stolen cars in St. Paul compared to 1,054 in Minneapolis.”

“I think the real story is Minneapolis staffing is way down… and they’re very limited on the extra stuff they can do, or the stuff beyond responding to 911, and investigating things that have already happened. So I think that’s a huge issue,” said Martin.

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While St. Paul was affected by Operation Metro Surge, Martin noted that fewer local law enforcement resources were needed in response compared to Minneapolis. “And the specialized units are your extra bodies. But it sounds like Minneapolis is refocusing a lot of their efforts, so I’m excited about that, where we’ve started really engaging with them again… and I think the more we can work together, the better off we all are,” said Martin.

The Minneapolis Police Department did not grant an interview request.

In response to questions, a spokesperson said in part:

“Recently, Minneapolis saw 84 auto thefts in a one-week period, the lowest weekly total since Week 2 of this year. That decline could be related to arrests made in several recent theft sprees.

“While the recent spike earlier in the year reversed the trend somewhat, the rolling 12-month data still shows that auto thefts remain 38% below their mid-2023 peak.”

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They also noted that Minneapolis historically has higher violent crime levels and lower staffing levels than St. Paul and that the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office has different “department policy, including pursuit policy,” as well as “charging practices by the respective county attorneys,” something Martin mentioned as well.

More on the CAT Team with Undersheriff Martin:

“They’re a combination of investigators who work the street, looking for stolen cars, tracking auto theft suspects, and trying to recover those stolen cars. But, they also do some prevention and intervention work, working with young people who’ve been in stolen cars but still can be changed. They can be taken to the right path with a little help,” Martin shared.

How does this team and its practices differ from what you guys have done in the past and from traditional policing, say, over in Minneapolis?

“Traditionally, police get a report of an auto theft. They take the report so that the person can turn it into their insurance. They’ll look for the car in the course of their regular duties, but they’re not proactively going out looking for the car. They’re not tracking, ‘Hey, we know this guy steals cars in this neighborhood, and they’re often recovered over here, so we go over here looking for them… because most of the auto thefts are done by prolific offenders. They’re people who steal, you know, 10 cars a week, and so those are the ones we really want to intervene with,’” Martin replied.

“So they’re not doing kind of the proactive stuff. Sometimes that’s a resource issue.”

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See additional response to questions by MPD below:

Does Chief O’Hara believe the primary reason auto thefts have increased year over year is because officers were responding to ICE-related calls instead of focusing on neighborhood patrols?

“Yes, response to Operation Metro Surge was a contributing factor. Officers and investigators were consistently pulled from their normal assigned duties.”     

Are there other reasons? If so, what are they?

“Yes. In addition to the ongoing trend involving Kia and Hyundai vehicles, as well as thefts involving vehicles left running or left with keys inside, Minneapolis is also seeing signs of a broader nationwide trend involving the use of key-programming technology to steal vehicles…”

Does MPD specifically have investigators assigned to auto theft? And have they all been tied up with ICE response this year?

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“MPD does not have investigators assigned exclusively to auto theft. These cases are investigated by property crimes investigators within each precinct. In addition, fewer officers are assigned to property crime investigations compared to 2020, while the number of cases requiring investigation has increased.”

Does MPD, like Ramsey County’s CAT team working with SPPD, have a dedicated auto theft team?

“No. MPD does not have a dedicated auto theft unit. MPD does have one officer who manages the bait vehicle program.”

As of March, are officers back to their regular details?

“Yes. Officers have essentially returned to their normal assignments.”

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Are there specific strategies underway to reverse the increase in auto thefts seen during the first part of this year?

“Yes. Current strategies include:

  • MPD has implemented a pilot program that employs the targeted use of forensic scientists to process stolen vehicles for evidence.
  • Crime data indicates that a relatively small group of individuals is responsible for a significant share of auto thefts in the city. As a result, identifying and arresting these suspects often has a direct impact on reducing the number of auto thefts.
  • Continued collaboration between precinct-based property crimes investigators and the Juvenile Investigations Unit to identify suspects.”

Does the Chief expect these thefts to continue trending upward, or does he expect the city to resume the downward trend seen in 2025 as Operation Metro Surge winds down?

“There are indicators that the trend could continue upward, particularly because signs of key-programming technology are now appearing in Minneapolis. At the same time, recent arrests appear to have coincided with a downward trend over the last week.”



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Minneapolis, MN

Walking All the Streets of Western Northeast Park

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Walking All the Streets of Western Northeast Park


Editor’s Note: Max Hailperin is walking each of Minneapolis’ 87 neighborhoods, in alphabetical order. He chronicles his adventures at allofminneapolis.com, where the original version of this article was published July 4, 2026.

The Northeast Park neighborhood is arguably the northeasternmost in Minneapolis. Those that extend somewhat further east are nowhere near as far north, and those that are further north don’t extend as far to the east. Of course, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. I’m not trying to pick a fight with Waite Park, for example.

What’s inarguable is that the neighborhood divides into two quite distinct areas. West of Johnson Street, there’s a nearly square portion, bounded on its other three sides by Broadway Street, Central Avenue, and 18th Avenue. (I’ll omit the direction indicator NE, which applies to all streets and avenues in this area.) This western portion was the focus for this first walk in the neighborhood. Unlike the irregularly shaped area east of Johnson, it has a grid-based layout, albeit with substantial gaps.

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The main loop of my walk began and ended at the southwest corner, the intersection of Broadway and Central. The building on that corner, The Broadway, presents a low-profile facade toward Broadway, which is the uphill side of a sloping lot. The main tenant on this side is Spyhouse Coffee, which makes the most of the timber and brick interior. I chose to wait until the end of the walk to see other parts of the building.

The Broadway, 945 Broadway St. NE

Heading east on Broadway, the next building I passed was the National Guard armory, described more fully by the sign out front as the “Minnesota Army National Guard N.E. Minneapolis Training and Community Center.” A sprawling one-story structure built in 1992, it has none of the romance of the earlier castle-like armories or the vaulted art deco structure in downtown Minneapolis. Together with its parking lot, it occupies the entire triple-sized block from Tyler to Fillmore, with Polk and Taylor being absent in this area.

East of Fillmore, I continued in a forward-and-back spur two blocks to Buchanan, with a side spur north on Pierce. This reflects the fact that Pierce doesn’t cross the diagonal railroad tracks, one of the many ways in which the street grid of this area gives way to the realities of land use.

I rather like how commercial, residential and recreational uses are mixed together, leading to buildings of widely varying age, style, and size. Some of them have also gained a new look and new purpose over time. For example, a concrete-block building on the corner of Broadway and Pierce, which looks like it started life as an automotive business in the 1970s, now has a sharp paint job and signage announcing its repurposing as Abra Kadabra Environmental Services: “When nature creeps in, call us.”

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blue concrete block building
Abra Kadabra, 1101 Pierce St. NE

An even more striking example lies in the first block north of Broadway on Fillmore, a house now prominently exhibiting mural art by Yuya Negishi, but upon closer examination showing signs of its origins as the Samuel Moyer Gospel Lighthouse.

house with mural on front and side
Yuya Negishi Mural, 1121 Fillmore St. NE (Former Samuel Moyer Gospel Lighthouse)

Take another look again at that mural-adorned former chapel, this time with an eye toward how its form fits that of its neighbors. To its right and further to its left, there are houses with similarly pitched roofs. But this appearance of consistency is somewhat illusory. The neighbor immediately to the left (or north) only came into view as I walked a bit further.

That immediate neighbor, a flat-roofed two-story structure, was built in 1901 as an apartment building. Today its four rental units are guarded by three metal roosters.

boxy residence with two metal roosters on front porch roof and one in lawn
1123 Fillmore St. NE (1901)

All of these residence are directly across Fillmore from the United States Postal Service’s Vehicle Maintenance Facility, just north of the armory. At the time of my walk, its lot was packed full of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, which I assume were being readied for their initial deployment.

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I walked 13th Avenue east from Fillmore to its dead end just beyond Lincoln Street, where Interstate 35W cuts through. So far as getting anywhere goes, I was wasting my time to go that extra half block beyond Lincoln. But the whole point of this project isn’t to get anywhere, it’s to see what there is to see. And you never know when you’re going to see a giraffe in someone’s back yard.

backyard with giraffe visible through fence
Backyard of 1301 Lincoln St. NE from 13th Ave NE

A few roosters or a giraffe are nothing compared to the lawn ornaments on one of the Lincoln Street houses just south of 12th Avenue. The horizontal lines of flower boxes and whatnot balance out the vertical totem-pole-like collection of cartoon characters (Minnie Mouse, a pig chef, baby Yoda, a cow and I don’t know what else).

front yard full of ornaments
1130 Lincoln St. NE

With that behind me, you’ll understand why, after wrapping around to Buchanan Street, I was unsure about the turkey resting on a loading dock. Was it like the metal roosters, the giraffe, the pig? I waited. Eventually it swiveled its head, answering my question in the negative.

concrete block building with turkey on loading dock
1135 Buchanan St. NE (1960)

The very presence of a loading dock amidst residences is not something one would see in more rigidly zoned neighborhoods. The residences vary in age, with my eye particularly drawn to one a couple blocks further north that turns out to be from 1902.

one-and-a-half story cross-gable house with front porch
1319 Buchanan St. NE (1902)

The street grid is interrupted again at 14th Avenue, this time by Northeast Athletic Field Park, the defining feature of the neighborhood. I walked a spur east along 14th Avenue as far as Johnson Street, then turned west to continue my main loop. The athletic fields themselves are just athletic fields, nothing that struck me as out of the ordinary. (I’m notably non-athletic.) But the restroom building in the block between Buchanan and Pierce is a standout for its Creatives after Curfew mural celebrating “the heart of Northeast Park.” It was painted in 2021 by Leslie Barlow, Maiya Lea Hartman, Thomasina Topbear, Maria Robinson and Claudia Valentino, sponsored by the Northeast Park Neighborhood Association.

building with mural wrapping around it
Building at Northeast Athletic Field Park (Mural by Creatives After Curfew, 2021)

Once I was headed back northbound on Fillmore, I detoured off to the west on the entrance driveway leading to Sociable Cider Werks. For a pedestrian, it’s actually easier to access this business from the north, but I wasn’t sure yet whether that was blocked off or not, so I took the driveway. I enjoyed a brief rest stop on their patio, consuming a Freewheeler cider and an oil-stained paper bag of seasoned french fries from the resident food trailer, Smashed Patty’s.

building with food trailer
Sociable Cider Werks and Smashed Patty’s, 1500 Fillmore St. NE

The All of Minneapolis project has been an on-and-off part of my life for a decade now, and though there has been change over that time, there have also been constants. One of those constants has been my struggle with how to balance the interesting and the beautiful in my choice of photo subjects.

North of the park on Fillmore, there are two quite similar buildings, each built in the late 19th century by Aaron Carlson as a duplex and then extended by him in the 1920s and subdivided. I decided to photograph the slightly older of the two (1897 versus 1899), even though I can’t count the obscuring of the original facade in the category of beauties. It simply is too interesting a glimpse into the evolution of this Minneapolis housing to be ignored. And that’s even before the name “Aaron Carlson” meant anything to me. (Later in the walk I saw the name on a smokestack and looked it up.)

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tan building with boxy protrusions
1703 Fillmore St NE (1897 with 1921–1922 Additions)

As I walked by other residential properties, mostly from varying decades of the 20th century, I was frequently as interested by the flowering bushes and trees as by the buildings. Likewise, when I came around to the Johnson Street side of the park, I was as drawn to the daffodils planted around the sign as I was by the water park visible in the background.

Northeast park sign with daffodils
Jim Lupient Water Park at Northeast Athletic Field Park, 1520 Johnson St. NE

After following 16th Avenue along the northern border of the park, I turned north on Buchanan Street and found myself walking alongside a school building for which the playground equipment already signaled that it wasn’t just any school. Yinghua Academy is a Mandarin Chinese immersion school.

dragon-headed playground equipment
Yinghua Academy Playground, 1616 Buchanan St. NE

Before I turned onto 17th Avenue and saw the front of the school (complete with a fitting Little Free Library), I paused to consider the white duplex at 1709 Buchanan. The horizontal lines and white color made me think of one of the less common styles of modernist architecture, loosely inspired by the Secession Building in Vienna. I don’t know whether that was intentional; the history of the building’s construction and expansion is complex.

white two-story building with protruding flat roof
1709 Buchanan St. NE
Little Free Library
Little Free Library, Yinghua Academy, 17th Ave. NE

Once I was back to 18th Avenue, I headed west from Pierce Street to Central Avenue, with southward spurs down Taylor, Polk and Tyler Streets. This is a rhododendron-enhanced residential area dead ending at the railroad-adjacent industrial zone that now contains Sociable Cider Werks and the former Industrial Machinery Company building, fancifully called “The Alamo.” I saw the front of that building once I turned onto Central Avenue.

rhododendron
Rhododendron, 1701 Taylor St. NE
limestone building facade stepped up from one story to stwo in the center
The Alamo, 1519 Central Ave. NE (Former Imperial Machinery Co., 1902)

To access the part of this industrial area that is south of the tracks, I turned east on 14th Avenue. Extending south of there on Tyler Street is the former Crown Iron Works, redeveloped by Hillcrest Development. Today it is the Crown-Arts Center, billed as a “Creative Office Campus.” Sadly, one of the tenants I visited, Bauhaus Brew Labs, has closed in the interval between my walk and completing this writeup.

glass roofed industrial architecture
The Shed, Crown-Arts Center, 1321 Tyler St. NE
building signed as Bauhaus Brew Labs
Bauhaus Brew Labs, 1315 Tyler St. NE
colorful interior of taproom
Bauhaus Brew Labs, 1315 Tyler St. NE

Tyler Street also brought me back to The Broadway building, where I had begun my walk. Across the parking lot from it is a 2023 apartment building featuring a mural by Chuck U. The parking lot also provides a good view of the historical signage (“The Land-O-Nod Co., Bedding Manufacturers”) and is the site for a sculpture by Zoran Mojsilov.)

apartment building with mural
Tyler Street Stacks with Mural by Chuck U (2023), 1180 Tyler St. NE
brick-faced two-story building with painted signage for The Land-o-Nod
The Broadway, 945 Broadway St. NE, from Tyler St. NE (Land-o-Nod, 1921)
sculpture
Torso (Zoran Mojsilov, 2007) at The Broadway

The parking lot also provides access to the side of the building opposite Tyler Street, where there is a sheltered area between the building itself and the retaining wall of Central Avenue, which ascends to Broadway. That area contains a stone amphitheater and a patio served by Padraigs Brewing. There I capped my walk off with an N.E. Porter and a Potter’s Pasty.

stone amphitheater
Amphitheater at The Broadway
glass of dark beer on picnic table
Padraigs N.E. Porter at The Broadway
pasty
Potter’s Pasty at Padraigs Brewing, The Broadway

All photos by Max Hailperin



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Feds release key evidence in Minnesota ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti

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Feds release key evidence in Minnesota ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti


Federal prosecutors have turned over key evidence in the fatal ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti to Minnesota investigators after months of legal battles, marking a major breakthrough in the state’s effort to investigate the deaths.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday that the evidence was released by U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen’s office after a lengthy dispute over access to the materials. The transfer includes previously withheld hard drives containing witness statements, police body-camera footage and Good’s damaged SUV.

“The wonderful thing now is we have all the evidence,” Moriarty said in a video statement. “Any time the government is responsible in whatever way for taking the life of a community member, we need to have a full and thorough investigation.”

The Minneapolis immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” ended in February after being billed as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever.

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A private autopsy found that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot three times by a federal immigration agent during a Jan. 7 traffic stop, including a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot and killed during a Jan. 24 protest. The medical examiner ruled he died after being struck multiple times by federal agents.

At least nine people have been killed nationwide in encounters involving ICE agents since the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign began last year. No one has been charged in connection with the deaths, and the federal government has argued that state prosecutors lack jurisdiction to investigate federal officers.

The latest development also comes as questions continue to surround other recent fatal ICE shootings. An ICE agent fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, while prosecutors in Houston said federal officials are still withholding key evidence in their investigation into another deadly shooting involving an ICE officer last week.

New video of Minneapolis ICE shooting from agent’s perspective (CNN Newsource)

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Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration in March, accusing federal authorities of refusing to provide evidence needed for the state investigation.

Court filings suggest the breakthrough came after federal prosecutors sought evidence gathered by state investigators in a separate case involving ICE agent Christian Castro.

Castro, 52, has been charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime in connection with the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Prosecutors allege Castro fired through the front door of a Minneapolis home while pursuing another man, striking Sosa-Celis in the thigh.

State and local prosecutors told federal officials they would share evidence in Castro’s case only if the federal government agreed to reciprocate in the investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti.

“We are willing to share evidence with you if the exchange is reciprocal,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans wrote in a court filing.

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Lawyers for Good’s family called the evidence transfer “an important and meaningful step toward justice and accountability.” The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which has taken custody of the materials, said “great strides have been made” to ensure a “thorough and complete review” of both shootings.

But an attorney for Pretti’s family said Rosen’s office still declined during a Monday meeting to confirm whether any formal cooperation agreement exists between state and federal investigators.

“No family should be required to beg federal authorities to do their job,” attorney Steve Schleicher said in a statement. “Without a public commitment by federal authorities to cooperate with the state, it is difficult—if not impossible—to pursue justice that holds the individuals accountable for Alex’s death.”

The evidence transfer marks the first significant cooperation between state and federal investigators since Minnesota filed its lawsuit, potentially allowing the long-stalled investigations into both fatal shootings to move forward.

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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.



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MN weather: Dangerously hot week ahead

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MN weather: Dangerously hot week ahead


A sunny and dangerously hot Monday begins a prolonged stretch of 90-degree weather across Minnesota. An extreme heat warning remains in effect for central and northern Minnesota through Thursday.  FOX 9 meteorologist Cody Matz has the forecast.



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