While gains in the number of people riding the bus or the number of taxpayers getting answers to their questions brighten the assessment of Mankato’s livability, violent crime stands as a significant negative and should create an urgent call to study and action.
The city recently released its State of the City report for 2025 detailing gains or losses in everything from new housing to audience growth at municipal event centers. And the overall portrait of the city shows many signs of growth and achievement.
We applaud the city for conducting such an assessment from year to year using credible metrics to let taxpayers know just what kind of return on investment they are getting. Many cities, including those near Mankato, conduct no such assessment or undergo a more muted effort.
And the good news is that most crime is down in the city, according to data from city police reports. Group A crimes, a broad category that includes murder and shoplifting, fell 11%. Less serious Group B crimes including DUI and trespassing fell 6%. Total calls for police service fell about 1.5% to 32,030 annually. Ambulance calls for assistance were up 20%, an alarming increase that will no doubt push costs higher.
But the increase in violent crime stands out at 17%. The FBI metrics include violent crime as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Those crimes went from 110 in 2024 to 129 in 2025. And while at first glance the numbers don’t look huge, we have to remember Mankato’s population is just 46,914, a growth about 500 residents in the past year.
Mankato had an overall crime rate of 5,702 per 100,000 persons in 2025, down from 6,467, a 13% reduction, according to FBI data.
But violent crimes have been showing up in Free Press headlines far more frequently than typical historical trends. Four murders were reported on in 2025, as well as three non-lethal shooting cases.
In a report to the City Council in December, Public Safety Director Jeremy Clifton pointed to THC vaping cartridges as a factor in the violent crime. They are a risk to public safety because they hide use of illicit drugs. He suggested much of the violent crime can be connected to underage drug use, noting there were few random violent crimes against others.
“The THC vaping cartridge has become the product of choice. And because demand is high, there’s a lot of money that goes along with that sale,” Clifton told the City Council in December. “And with that money comes the potential of robbery and violent crime that surrounds it.”
And that problem seems to be growing. Drug and narcotic violations are up 29% year to date through March in Mankato, according to city crime data.
Population growth can contribute to more crime. Clifton noted Mankato’s growth is making it a “smaller big city,” with the second largest university in the state bringing in a lot of young people.
We applaud the City Council for asking Clifton to explain the violent crime and support efforts to combat it. We must now keep laser-focused on solutions.
The department has adopted a new Community Risk Reduction model that aims to work with social workers, mental health workers and various other organizations to develop crime-prevention strategies. The program focuses on community engagement for risk reduction, holding criminals to account through enforcement and helping support offenders to try to break behaviors that would lead to future crime.
The department also was hiring a new crime analyst in 2026 who could help better connect the cause and effect of violent crime. That’s a good start to attacking the problem.
The Mankato Department of Public Safety reported in late 2025 that it was still nine officers short of its intended staffing of 58. Hundreds of agencies in Minnesota are short officers and in the market to hire.
We would like to see staffing get up to par as soon as possible.
Crime in Mankato, as Clifton mentioned, is a little unsettling to those who are from Mankato or have been here for a long time, as it has not been as prevalent or as high profile. That’s undoubtedly true, but people may find little comfort that they’re not a victim of crime knowing they one day could be.
You can view Mankato’s monthly police call logs and crime data at https://www.mankatomn.gov/residents/public-safety/about-public-safety/call-logs