Many cities have anti-crime laws. The DOJ says one in Minnesota harmed people with mental illness

The Minneapolis suburb of Anoka sits where Minnesota’s meandering 150-mile (241-kilometer) Rum River ambles into the mighty Mississippi. Like other communities, it touts itself as an agreeably placid place to live.

But last year, a federal investigation found Anoka illegally discriminated against residents with mental health disabilities, saying the city gave landlords weekly reports over five years revealing personal medical information of renters who received multiple emergency calls to their homes.

In at least 780 cases, the city also shared details about mental health crises and even how people had tried to kill themselves, all under the guise of enforcing an ordinance designed to deter crime and eliminate public nuisances, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Laws like Anoka’s, one of hundreds enacted across the U.S. since the 1990s, have long drawn criticism for unfairly targeting poorer neighborhoods and communities of color. Now they are under scrutiny as sources of mental health discrimination.

“It’s horrific,” said Elizabeth Sauer, an attorney for Central Minnesota Legal Services, which serves low-income people. “Can you imagine having the most intimate details of your life just broadcast to every landlord in the city you live in?”

Anoka’s “crime-free” ordinance was enacted in 2016 and, at the time, City Council members said they were fighting crime and making neighborhoods safer. Jeff Weaver, who still sits on the council and did not respond to requests for comment, described the problem then as “some dirtbag landlords.”

“It’s like a cancer on these neighborhoods,” he said at the 2016 meeting shown in an online video.

Reported crimes in Anoka dropped by 57% from 2016 through 2022, according to FBI statistics, though crime rates were falling before then. The city’s annual financial reports show that by 2022, police had seven full-time employees, 16% of its staffing, on the team enforcing the ordinance.

Among other things, Anoka’s ordinance requires landlords to screen potential tenants, respond to resident complaints and attend a course on property management. It allows the city to suspend a landlord’s rental license if police answer four or more “nuisance” calls in a year. Before that, a landlord can be fined up to $500.

The ordinance says a nuisance call involves “disorderly conduct,” such as criminal activity and acts jeopardizing others. It also covers “unfounded calls to police” and allowing a…