Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

A Minneapolis City Council committee on Thursday moved forward a $1 million contract with New York University School of Law’s Police Project to help the city implement more public safety alternatives to policing. 

report released by researchers at Harvard University this summe

 that aims for the city to build on alternatives to policing programs like violence interrupters and to create new programs that prevent crime. 

Newly appointed Office of Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette said the team will engage with residents across the city over the next two years to figure out the best way to implement the recommendations. 

“That report is a roadmap at how the city can transform and reimagine how we look at community safety by providing an ecosystem of services that are preventative, responsive and restorative,” Barnette said. “The report is the foundation for which the city’s design and implementation team will need to move forward.” 

Minneapolis native Antonio Oftelie of Harvard’s Leadership for a Networked World is among the experts who will work on creating the plan for implementation. He said they’ll be meeting with residents to clearly define what outcomes they want, which will dictate how the new services are implemented and scaled up. 

“In Minneapolis, what we’re hoping to do here under Mayor Frey is to make sure that we are the city that’s leading the country on this,” Oftelie said. “That in a few years we can look back and say, it was done here in this city first.” 

The team at New York University’s School of Law will also include a real-time dashboard on the services that provide alternatives to policing.  

“How are we doing with these services? And how do we innovate day in, day out to make sure they’re more effective, more efficient going forward,” Oftelie said. “Here’s all the services that have been stood up in the city, with the community, and here’s the status of them and here’s what’s resulting from those.” 

“It takes a whole lot of work to transform a system that’s been in place for a hundred years,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. 

Emergency calls are routed solely to police or fire. Frey said the goal is to add a litany of other crime prevention and social service options depending on the circumstances of the emergency call.  

“What resources and services does the city presently provide, what resources does the county provide, how do we fill in those gaps in a real and a practical way in between?” Frey said. 

The contract was moved forward by the city’s Policy and Government Oversight Committee unanimously and is expected to come up for a final vote at the full city council later this week. 

The million-dollar price tag covers a two-year contract until December of 2025 and is paid for by existing money in the city’s budget, including remaining philanthropy funds. 

“It’s really encouraging to see the direction we’re moving in,” said Council Member Jeremiah Ellison. But he acknowledged that the public will be asking challenging questions of the project.

Crime, Law and Justice

NewsPartners

Homepage

Jon Collins

Author

A Minneapolis City Council committee on Thursday moved forward a contract with New York University School of Law’s Police Project to help the city implement more public safety alternatives to policing. 

Minneapolis moves forward with $1M plan for policing alternatives

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox