Tim Walz spent the last two months telling federal agents to get out of Minneapolis.
Now Minneapolis has logged more than 1,000 stolen vehicles in just the first two months of 2026 – and Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey are pointing fingers everywhere except at themselves.
A law enforcement veteran just told Fox News exactly what's happening, and what he said should make every Minneapolis resident furious.
Minneapolis Car Theft Surge 2026: Over 1,000 Stolen Vehicles While St. Paul Recorded 195
The numbers are embarrassing.
Minneapolis recorded 1,054 auto thefts in January and February alone – a nearly 35% jump over the same period last year.
St. Paul, right next door, reported 195 stolen cars over the same stretch.
That's not a typo.
One city: 1,054 thefts. The other: 195.
The map published by Crime Watch Minneapolis tells the whole story – blue dots blanket the city like a rash, from north to south, neighborhood to neighborhood.
And March isn't looking any better.
On a single day – March 14 – at least 20 auto thefts were reported before evening.
Retired Minnesota State Patrol Lt. John Nagel, who spent 30 years in law enforcement, cut straight through the excuses when Fox News Digital called.
"This isn't an ICE problem," Nagel said. "It's a deterrence problem."
He went further: "Auto theft goes down when city leaders make it a priority and criminals know there will be consequences. We've seen that in St. Paul, where focused enforcement drove car theft down sharply, while Minneapolis is back over 1,000 auto thefts in just the first two months of this year."
St. Paul built a dedicated Carjacking and Auto Theft unit – the CAT team – with eight deputies and analysts working auto theft cases full time.
Minneapolis has one officer assigned to auto theft.
St. Paul's team has made the difference. Minneapolis leaders chose not to build one.
The Minneapolis No Pursuit Policy That Lets Car Thieves Walk Free
Here's what nobody in the Walz-Frey camp wants to talk about.
Minneapolis police don't pursue stolen vehicles.
That's not a talking point – that's official policy, confirmed by the Minneapolis Police Department's own spokesperson to Fox News Digital.
You steal a car in Minneapolis, the cops won't chase you.
Minneapolis County Attorney Mary Moriarty's office offered up this gem to Fox News Digital: motor vehicle thefts are "really tough for police to solve," noting that only about 3% of cases result in an arrest.
Three percent.
That's not a statistic – that's a business model for criminals.
St. Paul's Ramsey County Sheriff's Office operates under a different pursuit policy and, crucially, has county attorneys willing to charge offenders.
"The kids know, don't steal a car in Ramsey County," Ramsey County Undersheriff Mike Martin told KSTP.
Minneapolis kids apparently got a different message.
How Minneapolis Lost 40 Percent of Its Police Force and Never Recovered
Here's the part Walz and Frey really don't want to talk about.
Minneapolis lost 40% of its police force after George Floyd's death in 2020.
The city council stood on a stage with a "DEFUND POLICE" sign.
By 2023, Minneapolis had hit a record high for auto theft – averaging nearly one stolen car every hour of that year.
And now, in 2026, the Minneapolis Police Department spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that the department "continues to be understaffed."
Six years of radical leftist governance gutted this department.
Instead of owning that record, Walz and Frey spent the winter fighting federal agents in the streets, rallying protesters against ICE, and getting subpoenaed by the DOJ for allegedly conspiring to obstruct federal law enforcement.
Federal prosecutors opened a criminal probe into both men in January for alleged violations of a conspiracy statute – the theory being that their public statements worked to impede federal officers from doing their jobs.
While that investigation was heating up, thieves were working overtime.
Nagel put it plainly: Frey and Walz have "spent years making excuses, undermining deterrence, and tolerating a revolving door for repeat offenders – especially juveniles."
That's the real story.
Not ICE. Not Operation Metro Surge. Not cold weather.
Two politicians who chose ideology over public safety, then blamed everyone else when their city started paying the price.
Walz and Frey chose their fight.
They chose protests over policing, ICE press conferences over auto theft task forces, and federal obstruction subpoenas over the one officer they had assigned to stolen cars.
Minneapolis residents are paying for that choice every single day – and Walz and Frey are still blaming everyone else.
Sources:
- Andrew Mark Miller, "Map Shows Glaring Scope of Auto Theft Increase in Frey/Walz's Minneapolis: 'Deterrence Problem,'" Fox News, March 17, 2026.
- "Minneapolis Car Thefts Spike in 2026, St. Paul Sees Continued Decline," KSTP, March 11, 2026.
- "Minneapolis Auto Theft Spike Persisted Through February," Alpha News, March 4, 2026.
- "Feds Investigating Gov. Walz, Mayor Frey Over Alleged Obstruction in Minneapolis," Fox News, January 17, 2026.
- "DOJ Subpoenas Walz, Frey and Other Minnesota Officials," NBC News, January 20, 2026.
