Trump credits federal surge for reduced crime in Minnesota, but MPD chief says trend started years before crackdown

Over 2,000 federal agents are still on the ground in Minnesota. The Trump administration says they've made 4,000 arrests during the immigration crackdown, which is something President Trump says translates to a reduction in overall crime across the state.

"Because we have taken out thousands of criminals, their crime is down," the president said when speaking about Minnesota. "Not because of anybody else, it's because of us their crime is down."

In the city of Minneapolis, crime is down in several categories, including homicides, robberies and gun violence. Publicly available data on a city dashboard shows fewer calls for shots fired and fewer victims with gunshot wounds. 

So far this year, there have been 10 gunshot wound victims, compared to 24 people last year. Burglary numbers are down, as are vandalism.

But in an interview with PBS News, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara says these trends started prior to Operation Metro Surge.

"That's something that was happening a few years ago, that's not something that happened or started happening a couple weeks ago," O'Hara said.

O'Hara credits community and law enforcement partnerships in that effort.

"That includes federal law enforcement, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA; they've all been a part of helping us go after the people who are actually are the worst of the worst," O'Hara said on PBS's Firing Line with Margaret Hoover.

Though not all categories of crime are on a downward trend; sex offenses, assaults and car thefts are up. The city dashboard shows 683 cars stolen so far this year, compared to 516 stolen last year at this time.