Juvenile Criminal Apprehension Team

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Hennepin County Juvenile Probation Officers collaborate with local and federal law enforcement officers in an award-winning partnership recognized for targeting, pursuing, and apprehending chronic juvenile offenders in Minneapolis and the surrounding communities. The team assembled to assist a juvenile justice system that was overwhelmed with the mounting number of warrants issued for noncompliant offenders. Known in neighborhoods as JCAT, the Juvenile Criminal Apprehension Team enhances public safety by swiftly pursuing juvenile offenders who have active warrants for failing to appear in court or violating terms of their probation. Their crimes range from assault and terroristic threats to aggravated robbery and selling or using drugs. Most have ties to local street gangs. Since its inception in 2006, the team has conducted hundreds of high-risk warrant sweeps in more than 2,700 residences in neighborhoods most plagued by juvenile crime.