17 miles of Minneapolis streetlights are out from copper theft. The city is scrambling to fix them.

Thieves continue to gut public streetlight poles and make off with their precious copper innards, leaving neighborhoods eerily darkened in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minneapolis is committing $1 million of contingency funding to the problem, officials said Thursday.

"There's a couple pieces that you should be considering if you yourself are considering stealing copper wire from the street, you or any of your friends," Mayor Jacob Frey said.

"First is, you might break into the light, and there will be no copper wire there, and that is increasingly the case. The second is, we're going to be watching, and if you're breaking into our light posts, there will be consequences."

Minneapolis has about 22,000 streetlights. About 450 of them are out — from the Midtown Greenway to Lake of the Isles Parkway to the Bancroft neighborhood on the city's south side, where officials held their news conference.

Thieves have hit a total of 17 miles of streetlights. Replacing the stolen copper wire with less desirable aluminum wire will cost the city $40,000 per mile.

Workers have already repaired 4.5 miles of lights this year and will complete the remainder by November, said City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher.

"This is absolutely a core function of city government to be able to provide lighting," she said.

"Unfortunately, we had hoped that maybe with the state law changes and other things, copper wire theft would go down. That has not been the case at this point, and so we need to do something here to help our residents."

A new state law took effect this year requiring a license to sell scrap metal, in hopes of curbing the market for illegally obtained copper. The thefts have cost Minnesota communities millions in repairs, but the law was opposed by metal recyclers who feared it would damage the scrap metal industry.

Lights can be fixed only if residents alert the city by calling 311, Anderson Kelliher added.

The city did not have comprehensive data on arrests of copper wire thieves readily available Thursday. Police spokesperson Sgt. Garrett Parten said that on Sunday a man was arrested on suspicion of pulling wire from light poles in the Uptown area.

Last year, St. Paul police busted a copper theft ring with the help of a confidential informant.

In Minneapolis, the city is responsible for lights along parkways and the Park and Recreation Board is responsible for those inside parks.

"Hopefully, we can get this thing lit up," said City Council Member Andrea Jenkins said.