It’s not uncommon for a big metro area to have crime, even little cities have crime. But Minneapolis needs help with crime scene clean-up.
A few weeks ago there was another homicide in the city’s north side community. After everything had faded from the limelight it appears that once again someone forgot to handle the mess left behind. About two years ago some of you may remember this happened before in the middle of the winter months. Blood was left in the snow bank after another murder for over a week before enough people complained to ct hall and a maintenance worker came by with a shovel and cleaned it up. At that time I reached out to the council woman and never heard a response. I get it, the council has a ton of things on their plate but I would have expected at least some kind of response.
Well last week the issues came front and center once again and KSTP asked for our expert opinion on the subject. While the actual interview in this clip is just a small portion of my discussion with them it was important. Even the scenes that Minneapolis Fire was cleaning I took issue with the outdated procedure they were using. For years cities all over the country have been using what they call a wash down. they take a high power fire house and wash the area with water. My issue is this, taking a high power house and spraying on a blood borne issue just create tiny airborne droplets that go everywhere. This is not solving the issue at hand and definitely not OSHA compliant. the area must first be treated and sanitized before this is done.
Update- I am happy to say the day after this story aired the Assistant fire Chief agreed that a different approach was needed and ordered all fire truck to carry bleach and brushes. Congrats MFD and thank you for taking this correct step in the right direction. I’m still wondering how they are going to handle the winter months but this is definitely a good start.
