The processing for recovered carjacked vehicles is backed up for six to eight weeks, some officers with the Minneapolis Police Department have said. Carjackings are happening across the Twin Cities, spilling out into the suburbs. In Golden Valley, Minnesota, the city experienced five carjackings in a span of 24 hours last weekend.
Audio from the Minneapolis police scanner obtained by Crime Watch Minneapolis shows officers discussing the delayed processing time. The Minneapolis Police Department could not be reached to confirm the backup or to explain why it was taking so long.
Car thefts have risen throughout the entire state. According to a Fox News report, carjackings in Minneapolis are up 537% compared to November of 2020.
Other cities in the metro area that have experienced significant rises in car thefts include St. Paul, Woodbury, Plymouth, Bloomington, and St. Louis Park.
Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Tom Arneson shared that the county has not been prosecuting all of the carjacking cases.
He said, “We have had 85 carjacking cases presented to our office so far this year, and I can tell you we have prosecuted about 85-percent of those cases. I would love to have that number be 100-percent and that every case submitted to us was prosecuted.”
The amount of cases has increased so much that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office will now be designating two attorneys to prosecute carjacking cases.
Crime Watch Minneapolis reported that local police confirmed the wait times of five to six weeks for the return of stolen cars. The forensics lot processing is backed up, supposedly due to the increase in carjackings.
According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), the increase in car theft has been occurring since 2020. According to its data, “Motor vehicle theft rose 19.7 percent in 2020 with 13,662 vehicles stolen as compared to 11,410 in 2019. The 2020 total is the highest since 2005.”
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
