Brooke Blakey, the first director of St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety, is stepping down this month.
She said Tuesday that it’s time to pass the baton because the work “is not a sprint, but a marathon.”
And she’s looking for better work-life balance. In supporting gunshot victims and their families, Blakey’s work brought her to hospitals and crime scenes in the middle of the night.
After Mayor Melvin Carter appointed Blakey, she took on the job in the newly-formed Office of Neighborhood Safety in February 2022. It’s centered on what Carter calls “community-first safety,” which he’s said means “preventing crime before it happens — by investing in strong neighborhoods.”
Blakey and her office have been leading Project PEACE, “a methodical, individualized gun violence intervention that connects gun violence involved individuals with evidence-based community led programming, and wraparound supports,” according to Neighborhood Safety’s website.
“Director Blakey is a key architect of the Community-First framework that drove double-digit decreases in every category of violent crime in our city,” Carter said in a Tuesday statement, thanking her for making St. Paul “a stronger and safer community.”
There have been nine homicides in St. Paul this year, compared to 20 in the city at this time last year. Forty-nine people were injured in nonfatal shootings as of Sept. 17, according to preliminary information; there were 77 during the same time last year.
The office started with Blakey and the Neighborhood Safety Community Council, and now has a staff of nearly 20. Its budget is about $2 million.
The Office of Neighborhood Safety includes the Familiar Faces program, which has outreach workers connecting with people who are “familiar faces” at shelters, emergency rooms, jails and other places.
Blakey said her last day will be Oct. 17. The 49-year-old, who has two children and one grandchild, said she hasn’t decided what she’ll pursue next.
She’s looking to “support community while making time to focus and balance my personal life. My commitment to St. Paul and Rondo remains as strong as it could ever be.”
She grew up in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. Her father, Art Blakey, was Minnesota State Fair police chief for 37 years and a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy who rose to the rank of commander. Her mother, Carolyn Carroll-Blakey, worked for St. Paul Mayor Larry Cohen and Model Cities, and retired from human resources at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center.
She previously was an investigator at the Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office and then a Metro Transit police officer where she led the design and implementation of the Homeless Action Team.
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Blakey and another Metro Transit officer filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Council, which oversees the Metro Transit police department, in February. They allege in the suit that then-Metro Transit Police Chief Eddie Frizell violated Minnesota anti-discrimination laws. Frizell demoted Blakey from captain to sergeant and then to officer.
An internal affairs investigation and review by an external investigator concluded that Blakey and the officer violated ethics policy on accepting gifts in August 2021 when their children were given backpacks with laptops as part of a community organization event in Minneapolis.
But the lawsuit, which is ongoing, says the event sponsors gave the backpacks directly to the children and they “were treated like every other child participating in the community event.”
