Bubbles as a violence de-escalation tactic? The Minneapolis mayor loves the idea. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is excited about the idea of using bubbles to quell downtown violence.

Yes, bubbles.

Frey shared the potential strategy during a weekend panel at MinnPost Festival. 

“Apparently, if you’ve got a whole bunch of people that are looking to cause trouble – if you put bubbles out there, it’s really hard to look tough when you’ve got bubbles floating around,” Frey said.

Axios Twin Cities reporter Nick Halter, who moderated the Saturday panel, followed up, asking Frey: “We’re talking about (bubbles), like at a kid’s birthday?” 

“Yeah. You think I’m joking. I’m actually not,” Frey responded. “It’s a bubble machine – and the people who are looking to cause trouble are like, ‘I can’t look tough around these bubbles.’ So they disperse and it deescalates the situation and people who aren’t looking to cause trouble love bubbles.” 

Frey said he’d heard from his staff about a new public safety strategy on his drive over to the event held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, calling the bubble tactic “very premature… But obviously I thought it was pretty innovative.” 

Using bubbles is not an official Minneapolis Police Department strategy, MPD officials clarified this week. However, some downtown businesses do use bubbles in parking lots to deter crime, according to the mayor’s office spokesperson Ally Peters. For example, they are deployed at the 414 Hennepin parking lot and outside the Brass Rail Lounge, also on Hennepin downtown.  

Similar in concept to bubbles, Twin Cities businesses have tried using classical music to deter crime, including in 2006 at Gameworks on Block E and, more recently, at Midway Marketplace in St. Paul.

Related | Nick Halter from Axios talks with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey at MinnPost Festival

So, while dispersing bubbles may not be a standard tactic in crime prevention, it isn’t an unheard of tool. And there is a reason why seeking new methods to deescalate violence has been on the mayor’s mind. Prior to a few weeks back, the city had seen a significant reduction in crime across the board, including downtown, Frey said, crediting the city’s late night downtown safety plan and a push to get record numbers of guns off the streets. But, “these last couple weeks were bad,” he said. 

Over the last few weeks, violence has returned and escalated twice at one of the city’s hotspots for fights. On Sept. 14 and Sept. 21, three people were killed – ages 16, 20 and 21– and many more injured as conflicts escalated at the corner of Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street .

This area has long been a scene for fights, often among teenagers. Over the last five years or so, those getting into fights, having guns and committing other crimes like carjackings have been younger and younger, Frey said. 

“There’ll be a beef or a fight between somebody – that starts oftentimes online, sometimes it’s about a girl – and they’ll get in an argument and it leads to: ‘I’ll see you at 11 p.m. at Fifth and Hennepin,” he said.  

MPD has been working to address the downtown violence, with a focus on teens, but bubbles have not been a recent talking point within MPD, Sgt. Garrett Parten said. Instead, MPD increased officer presence over the weekend. The department also has deployed a unit designated to interact with teens prior to the downtown curfew. Youth under the age of 12 must be out of downtown and home before 10 p.m., under the age of 14 by 11 p.m. and ages 15-17, by midnight. 

“When you talk to a private company (using bubbles), this was in addition to several other efforts they had, including added security, using gates, towing vehicles, things like that,” Parten said. “So it’s hard to know how much effect bubbles actually had because it’s just one part of a concerted effort.” 

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