Minneapolis officials are launching a new campaign to step up enforcement for public drug use and dealing.

City officials announced the initiative Thursday morning at the American Indian OIC on the city’s south side, alongside leaders in the local Indigenous community.

Mayor Jacob Frey said it’s aimed at stopping drug deals, crime and discarded paraphernalia on the streets.

“This is not about criminalizing addiction,” Frey said. “This is about addressing criminal behavior, exploitation and really dangerous conditions that are harming both the people within these gatherings and the surrounding community.”

Under the new initiative, law enforcement agencies plan to send out more officers to patrol areas with high open-air drug use rates and cite and arrest more drug dealers and users.

Officials said that will go alongside other city efforts to get people into shelters and addiction recovery services. Frey said law enforcement will offer “off ramps” to people facing arrest or citations, giving them the options for services instead. But officials said that those who refuse services or break the law need to face consequences.

Frey cited higher rates of drug use in and around homeless encampments and outdoor sites he referred to as “open air drug markets.”

“The primary driver here is not homelessness, and it is not a lack of shelter,” Frey said. “It is deep addiction and pain. It is traffickers that are preying on people that are vulnerable and making a whole lot of money off of it.”

The announcement came two days after federal prosecutors announced charges against two dozen alleged gang members for drug trafficking. Sheriff Dawanna Witt said Thursday that some of those drug deals happened in public places in Minneapolis.

Stepping up criminalization has been unpopular with some homelessness outreach workers and activists. Frey and the city council have clashed repeatedly over the city’s approach to homeless encampments, as some council members push to provide resources and stop encampment clearings. Frey also recently vetoed a city council attempt to decriminalize drug paraphernalia.

Local activist and homelessness outreach worker Vin Dionne said at Thursday’s announcement that he, too, was hesitant to put his support behind the new enforcement-focused initiative. But he said he sees a need for enforcement, as he’s heard from community members who are concerned about drug use in the neighborhood.

“Our elders are living in fear right now,” Dionne said. “We have single mothers out here that are worried for their children. We have people in recovery that are having a hard time staying sober because they come out here and they see all the open air drug usage.”

Some leaders in the Indigenous community have called on the city to do more to stop public drug use. Joe Hobot, the president of the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center, has called on the city to step up enforcement before. On Thursday, he said he welcomes the new approach.

“The urban Indigenous community of the Minneapolis city deserves so much better,” Hobot said. “We are your fellow citizens, we are Minneapolitans, and we want to be able to enjoy our lives in the same way as anyone else in any other neighborhood would want to.”

Officials said the new enforcement strategy will start right away.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.