Alternatives to defunding: Who goes to help when police aren't needed?
Metro Transit: Since 2023, the transit agency has employed civilian Transit Rider Investment Program (TRIP) agents to check fares, provide customers with information about transit schedules and social service programs, and issue administrative citations, which are non-criminal fines. The 60 TRIP agents — which could grow to 100 agents by the end of the year — supplement the work of the Metro Transit Police Department and its community service officers, who are officers-in-training.
In addition, the transit agency's Homeless Action Team works with outreach staff from Mental Health Minnesota to offer services to passengers in crisis. Metro Transit plans to issue a request for proposals from more community-based outreach organizations later this year.
St. Paul: Under the direction of Mayor Melvin Carter's office, the city launched the Office of Neighborhood Safety in 2022 to implement the mayor's 'Community First Public Safety' framework, which oversees grants and investments in 'addressing the root causes of crime.' The office is run by director Brooke Blakey, former chief of staff to the Metro Transit police chief, and has funded violence intervention grant outreach and other prevention-based programs.
Last year, after ending a police unit dedicated to mental health follow-ups, the city launched a 'Familiar Faces' initiative to target support services, including housing, to the few dozen most frequent users of emergency services.
St. Paul Downtown Improvement District: The St. Paul Downtown Alliance and the Downtown Improvement District employ about 35 street ambassadors who walk streets and skyways and are available to escort downtown workers to their cars at night. Some are assigned cleaning duties for litter and graffiti. About eight to 16 street ambassadors are deployed at a time, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. The improvement district also coordinates a Safety Communications Center, which supports communications between the street team, private building security teams and the city police department.
Ramsey County: Through a pilot program started in early 2024, four St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health responders can be dispatched by the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center to calls involving substance abuse that aren't overdoses or medical emergencies. Participating cities include Little Canada, New Brighton, Falcon Heights, Maplewood, Mounds View, Shoreview, Vadnais Heights and White Bear Township.
St. Paul Public Schools: In June 2020, the school board voted to stop paying the police department to staff the public high schools with school resource officers. In their place are 40 unarmed school support liaisons trained and paid by the school district alone, who try to build relationships with students and head off problems before they escalate.
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Yahoo
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- Yahoo
Hackers post 43 gigabytes of St. Paul data after city refuses to pay ransom
Hackers post 43 gigabytes of St. Paul data after city refuses to pay ransom originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Mayor Melvin Carter says that hackers have posted 43 gigabytes of data stolen from the City of St. Paul on the dark web after the city refused to pay a ransom. Providing an update Monday evening on the July 25 cyberattack, Carter said that the gang with the stolen data has been described by federal authorities as a "sophisticated, money driven organization" known for stealing and selling massive volumes of data – measured in the terabytes – with its primary targets major corporations, hospitals, and governments. Carter said that the 43 GB of data posted online Tuesday is a small fraction of the 153 TB (terabytes) of data hosted by the city online, and that the data shared appears to have come from a single shared network drive used by the city's Parks and Recreation Department. Carter says the drive is a place where employees "have stored their personal files over time." Sign up for our BREAKING NEWS newsletters "These are not core city systems like payroll permitting and licenses," Carter said, describing the data as "varied and unsystematic," including to everything from work documents, copies of employee IDs submitted for travel, and even personal items shared by staff, such as recipes. "After we refused to pay ransom, they chose to post the data publicly without trying to sell it," Carter said. "While the scope of what they published against us is far smaller than elsewhere, the fact remains someone was inside our systems and once that happens there's no guarantee they have not accessed more." Carter says that the FBI, Minnesota National Guard and other authorities were immediately notified by the city once the cyberattack was identified. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Aug 12, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
12-08-2025
- CBS News
Group behind St. Paul cyberattack alleges they posted 43 gigabytes of data online, mayor says
The group behind the cyberattack on St. Paul has claimed to have posted online 43 gigabytes of data stolen from the city's systems, Mayor Melvin Carter said Monday evening. IT workers were first made aware of "suspicious activity" on July 25 and moved systems offline shortly after to minimize damage, the city said. Carter said Monday that the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency posted an advisory three days before the breach about the group responsible. "The advisory describes a sophisticated, money-driven organization known for stealing and selling massive volumes of sensitive information from large corporations, hospitals and governments," he said. "Operations that have resulted in stolen data measured in the terabytes." The files posted "appear to come largely from a single shared network drive" used by the Parks and Recreation Department, and are "varied and unsystematic," according to Carter. "They include everything from work documents, copies of IDs submitted for HR or travel or even personal items like recipes," he said. The city allegedly posts more than 153 terabytes of data on its servers. "In other breaches by this group, they have stolen and sold terabytes, thousands of gigabytes from a single victim," Carter said. The group demanded a ransom, according to Carter, which the city did not pay. The city is offering 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection insurance to every full-time, part-time and seasonal employee, regardless of whether their data was breached. Since the attack, residents haven't been able to use Wi-Fi at public libraries or pay their water bills online. Some city phones connected through the internet were also impacted. Carter said in an interview with WCCO on Sunday that around 3,500 city workers are getting their devices checked and passwords reset in what officials are calling "Operation Secure Saint Paul." As of Monday evening, over 2,000 of those employees have already been through the process. The operation is expected to run through Tuesday. St. Paul declared a state of emergency after learning of the incident, and Gov. Tim Walz deployed the National Guard's cyber team to assist. The FBI said in a statement to WCCO that it was lending its "investigative expertise" to city officials. Amid the attack, the city has warned residents to be on the lookout for fraudulent invoices, advising them not to click on any suspicious links or email attachments. This is a developing story and will be updated. Caroline Cummings contributed to this report.
CBS News
11-08-2025
- CBS News
Man accused of fatally shooting bar patron outside Midway Saloon in St. Paul
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