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In a meeting last week, the Minneapolis City Council called on police brass to answer questions raised by our recent cover story, which reported that the department's Sex Crimes Unit had been cut in half, with the result that 9 of 10 rapes have gone unsolved this year ("The Case of the Disappearing Sex Crimes Unit," 10/17/07).

Deputy Chief Sharon Lubinski's defense of the department echoed Chief Tim Dolan's statements to City Pages: The staff cuts were necessary because of budget constraints and pressure to put more cops on the street.

Councilmember Cam Gordon responded that neither he nor his constituents wanted to sacrifice critical investigative follow-up for neighborhood policing. Immediately after the meeting, Gordon wrote about it in an online letter to his constituents: "This article and conversation have strengthened my resolve to resist the pressure to commit a larger and larger portion of our police resources to patrol," Gordon wrote. "Right now, 75 percent of our officers are assigned to patrol. I am interested in having an open, public discussion about whether that's the right balance."

Councilmember Gary Schiff asked Lubinski to come back to the council with numbers gauging the success of all investigative units that deal with violent crime. In a letter to his Ward Nine constituents about the article and the meeting, Schiff wrote: "It doesn't make sense for a city to under-staff investigative units in favor of claiming there are more cops on the street."