Public Safety will be on the ballot, more people are going to be wondering,
writing and talking about what it would look like in Minneapolis.
Naturally, and wisely I think, many of the details have not been worked out.
Before investing in the careful, inclusive, transparent, democratic and
thoughtful process such promising and serious work will require, I believe the
first step is to see if the will of the people is to change the framework and
create the department in the first place. Still, much of what will follow is
predictable and will be built from what has come before.
So, let’s say that Ballot Question #2 is approved by the voters in November.
Here are some of my thoughts about what might happen next.
The first action that would likely occur would be the appointment of a new
Commissioner of Public Safety and likely her or his first priority would be to
take the lead in developing a timeline and plan for studying, engaging
stakeholders and considering options for the new department. The Council and
Mayor may even choose to appoint an interim commission prior to January in
order to allow the newly elected group to do a more extensive search and choose
the appointee.
That, and updated our documents to reflect the new charter language, would
likely be the only formal action taken during the 30 days following election
day.
The other formal action that would follow, would be the drafting of amendments
to the appropriate ordinances, including the Police Department Ordinance, and
the creation of a new ordinance governing the new department. The shape of that
would be up to the newly elected Council and Mayor. I think that the most
obvious first things we might bring into the new department would be all of our
Police Department, 911 Emergency Communications and our Office of Emergency
Management staff and resources. We might also consider including Traffic
Control, Fire Inspections, Animal Care and Control, our new Behavioral Crisis
Response division and the Office of Violence Prevention.
To get a better understanding about what a Department of Public Safety might
look like, you might want to look at how some other cities, counties and states
have organized their Public Safety Departments. You can look at our state
Department of Public Safety here
https://dps.mn.gov/pages/default.aspx#<https://dps.mn.gov/pages/default.aspx>
You can get a feel for the general national picture of Departments of Public
Safety, (according to Wikipedia) at -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_public_safety
You can find two examples of other larger cities with Departments of Public
Safety at the following. First for Denver, Colorado at
https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Departments/Department-of-Public-Safety/About-Us.
Second for St Louis, Missouri at
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/public-safety/index.cfm
I suspect any reorganization and additional City functions would first be
agreed to in a new ordinance and then take months, and likely years to
accomplish and I know that there is a big interest right now at exploring how
to better prevent crime and violence and looking at safety from a Public Health
perspective as well as a Criminal Justice perspective.
In Minneapolis, through our Health Department and with a lot of work being done
under the leadership of former Mayors Rybak and Hodges, we have been taking a
look at using a public health approach for many years. You can learn a little
about the history of Violence prevention in Minneapolis at
https://www.womenspress.com/a-public-health-approach-to-violence/. You can
learn more about Violence Prevention and the Public Health Approach generally
at these 2 links with information from two well-known and credible
organizations, the World Health Organization, and the United States Center for
Disease Control:
https://www.who.int/violenceprevention/approach/en/
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/publichealthapproach.html
You can also find some excellent resources at
https://citiesunited.org/#resources
To get an idea of what this Council, in particular, might be interested in, in
terms of some of the safety initiatives in addition to or instead of policing,
you can also look back at the Safety for All Budget Amendment that the Council
passed last year:
https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/news/step-toward-safety-all-minneapolis. At the
same meeting where this was approved, we also approved funding to support the
training and hiring of 3 new classes of new licensed law enforcement peace
officers and a mental health professional to be part of 911 to help identify
calls that could be assigned to the new crisis response teams.
I also encourage people to see what one expert in the field has offered as a
possible framework for consideration of what a new department might include.
This was written several months ago by Michael Friedman. Michael is the former
executive director of the Legal Rights Center and served for 3 years as chair
of the Minneapolis Civilian Police Review Authority.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/07/17/what-happens-when-we-dismantle-the-police-department-heres-a-plan/
Finally, If this measure passes I am confident that there will be many people
standing up and coming forward to help ---- including community members,
professionals who work or study safety and health from academia, other
nonprofit organizations, and governmental entities from throughout the country
and even internationally. Hundreds, and likely thousands, of people are ready
and willing to offer their input, insights, best ideas and guidance to help us
develop, implement and evaluate our new Department of Public Safety.
We will make history and we will become a model for others to follow. I am
excited about the work to come. I hope you are too.
Together, we will make our city safer for everyone.
Cam Gordon