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'A Mother's Love' clearing thousands of drug needles from Minneapolis streets

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Published  July 16, 2025 6:40pm CDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 9
'A Mother's Love' clears drug needles from Minneapolis streets

'A Mother's Love' clears drug needles from Minneapolis streets

"A Mother's Love" is the only city contracted community group to pick up needles used for illegal drug injection in Minneapolis.

The Brief

    • "A Mother's Love" is the only city contracted community group to pick up needles used for illegal drug injection.
    • There are thousands laying around in various areas around the city.
    • The group goes out two to three times a week, four hours at a time to sweep the hot spots and collect from needle disposal boxes.
    • Work is potentially dangerous as there is a chance of being stuck by a needle that carries drugs or disease, but crew is trained.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Twin Cities group is doing its best to prevent violence and get drug needles off the streets. The only city contract to pick up needles used for illegal drug injection is with the community group, "A Mother’s Love."

What is A Mother’s Love?

The backstory:

"A Mother’s Love" is known for their anti-violence work and focus on improving the lives of women and children. But they also do needle pick-up.

Used drug needles are a major problem in Minneapolis, as drug use is a problem. 

While there are needle disposal boxes in the city, they’re often not used, and the used needles are tossed on the ground. 

Thousands of needles cleaned up

By the numbers:

In 2024, AML picked up about 2,500 needles. That included 311 calls and the street sweeps. It did not include the boxes the city places for needle disposal. The 2025 numbers do include that though, and it’s up to 2,700 collected so far this year. 

What do they pick up?

What they're saying:

The crew encounters all kinds of potentially dangerous situations picking up the used needles.

"Oh yeah, you have needles with blood, full of blood. Why? Because they didn't do it correctly or they shot it all in. Then they let the blood fill it back up and they took the needle out and just threw it," said crew leader Cordell Burton. He goes on to say, "I don't think nobody ever been stuck on our crew yet. Because we take precaution. We don't go through kicking stuff when you do stuff like that. That's when the needle can fly up and stick you in your leg."

Tracking the numbers

Dig deeper:

The Minnesota Department of Human Services collects information about recent injected drug use from people as they enter licensed treatment facilities. In 2021, 13,000 people injected illegal drugs. In 2022, 11,700 and in 2023, there were about 10,500.  The 2024 numbers are not in yet.

The Source: Cordell Burton, A Mother’s Love. Lisa Clemons, A Mother’s Love. Monique Flowers, A Mother’s Love and the Minnesota Department of Human Services

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Crime and Public SafetyMinneapolis