
© Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNSA protester sits in the street in front of a group of federal agents and Minneapolis police officers at West 27th Street and Nicollet Avenue after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis.
The MPD prioritized preventing large-scale civil unrest over responding to calls from residents concerned about unlawful force by ICE, and racked up huge OT costs doing it.Minneapolis police rarely responded to immigration-related emergency calls during Operation Metro Surge, even as the department spent $10 million on overtime and standby pay preparing for unrest that largely never materialized.
In December, then-Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara
urged citizens to call 911 if they witnessed apparent kidnappings by masked people in the street and were unsure if they were actually law enforcement. He also vowed to fire officers who failed to intervene in cases where federal agents used unlawful force.
A rise in emergency calls about ICE followed.
In early December, a Minneapolis grocery store owner called 911 to report agents were in his parking lot, harassing customers and refusing to leave.
In January, a Minneapolis resident complained to a 911 dispatcher that about a dozen agents were tear-gassing protesters near downtown.
Two days later, another caller reported being chased by an SUV as agents inside pointed their firearms.
Comment: Colorado's prison system was not kind to the grandmother.
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