Violent Crime Rising In Mid-Sized Cities
Minneapolis, Minn., conjures up images of the Twins and the Mall of America. Crime is not likely to spring to mind, but as CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts reports, the city's murder rate is simply through the roof.
"It's pretty much just try to swim and keep our head above water," Officer Rich Jackson says.
Officer Jackson is a member of the Minneapolis Police Department. On a typical day, he's at work at 10 a.m. and still there by 3 a.m.
Police forces everywhere are stretched thin these days, particularly in mid-sized cities like Minneapolis, St. Louis and Cleveland. Last year, the murder rate increased by 8.7 percent, while the rate for bigger cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago increased by only 0.6 percent.
"A lot of the violence I'm noticing is from our youth," Jackson says.
Minneapolis has tried to fix the problem, using the "zero tolerance" approach that's cut crime in New York: arresting kids for small offenses, before they commit a major crime. But like so many cities its size, resources are strained. On burden is dollars diverted to homeland security, and another is the war in Iraq.
"We have probably 30 to 40 officers that are serving in Iraq right now," Jackson says, adding that they have not been replaced.
Since 2004, the government has cut funding for state and local police departments by nearly 50 percent. And with fewer police officers, more at-risk kids and more gangs go unwatched.FYI: Is Crime On The Rise Where You Live?
V.J. Smith, a former gang banger and addict, runs Mad Dads, a local group trying to reach troubled kids. He says when families migrated to Minneapolis from many of America's big cities, they brought more than their dreams with them.
"What they brought with them was some baggage, and the baggage had guns," Smith says. "And the baggage has drugs, and the baggage had issues."
The new spike in violence is also part of an old problem, the aftermath of the crack epidemic of the '80s and '90s, which sent mothers and fathers to prison.
"Those bitter kids are now the gang members we see today," Smith says.
It's a work in progress in mid-size cities across America, where the spirit is willing, but the resources are in short supply.