Ahead of federal decree, policing alternatives moved forward in Minneapolis in 2024
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The Minneapolis City Council signed off Monday on a long-awaited consent decree from the justice department, that — if signed off by a federal judge — will bind the police department to robust reforms and federal oversight.
While the consent decree is meant to ensure constitutional policing, part of the 171-page document calls on the city to look beyond policing. The justice department says the city and police department should consider alternative approaches to law enforcement, in order to effectively protect residents.
The consent decree follows a Department of Justice investigation that slammed Minneapolis police for years of excessive force and discriminatory policing that targeted Black and Native American people in particular. Since the police murder of George Floyd in 2020, city officials have been working to build out a new system that relies less on the police —- that, as the justice department points out, can help counteract racial disparities.
“When, pursuant to the requirements of this decree or its own analysis, the city and MPD find that a law enforcement strategy produces significant racial disparities, the city and MPD shall meaningfully consider alternative approaches, including alternatives to law enforcement, that effectively protect public safety while reducing significant racial disparities,” reads the decree.
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In 2024, the city of Minneapolis stepped up efforts to divert calls for help to non-police responses — including rerouting about 9 percent of calls for help to 311, traffic control, animal control and the Behavioral Crisis Response team.
The BCR is made up of mental health professionals who can respond to calls that don’t require uniformed police officers. Supporters of BCR and other alternatives to policing want to reduce interactions with armed law enforcement that could escalate into use of force or exacerbate a mental health crisis. Calls to the BCR increased by about 58 percent from 2023 to 2024, taking in more than 11,000 calls for help last year.
Part of the consent decree also mandates the city have a “mobile crisis response” program, to respond to people with behavioral health needs that don’t warrant a law enforcement response — or would benefit from a response including mental health professionals. The justice department had concluded that the city and police department discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls for help.
Council member Robin Wonsley, who co-chairs the council’s Public Health and Safety Committee, said she wants to lean more into these alternative approaches.
According to NYU Law’s Policing Project — a group that is contracted with the city to help implement its public safety blueprint — about 47 percent of calls to Minneapolis police have the potential to be diverted to an alternate response.
“It’s no longer just MPD anymore. It’s this whole broad range of public safety professionals who are ready to respond to your call and give you the right response that you need,” Wonsley said, following a press conference from leaders of the public health and safety committee late last year. “There’s a buffet right now.”
That “buffet” includes social workers embedded in each police precinct, which has been in place since late summer, when the council secured an agreement with Hennepin County. It also includes unarmed violence interrupters who patrol streets in groups, ready to intervene in situations before they escalate.
The city’s violence prevention programs are housed under the Neighborhood Safety department (formerly the Office of Violence Prevention), which has had a bumpy transition since it was moved out of the health department and into the new Office of Community Safety (OCS).
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the creation of the OCS after voters approved a ballot measure in 2021, which restructured the city government. In that transition, the department lost administrative infrastructure and staff support, and the process to rebuild has been slow.
Last year, the department faced additional scrutiny and calls for accountability from the council, when violence-prevention groups reported lapses in contracts and workers on the streets without pay. The department also faced a lawsuit for allegedly unlawfully and arbitrarily awarding millions of dollars in funds without proper accountability.
“All this year, when the department was not functioning — meaning when we heard from violence prevention professionals that they had not been paid — that means they were not on the streets,” Wonsley said, going further to add that the consequence is less protection for residents. This was of particular concern over the summer, during a string of weekend shootings, she said.
Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette said a primary focus of 2024 was to continue building the infrastructure for that department in order to take on public safety initiatives.
“Now that we have that structure in place, we can do some of the things that they weren’t able to do when I first got here last year,” he said.
The Minneapolis City Council passed a budget amendment for this upcoming year that funds two full-time Neighborhood Safety positions — a data analyst who will help analyze efficacy and assess where best to deploy resources, as well as a position to help manage contracts.
In the first Public Health and Safety Committee of the new year, Luana Nelson-Brow, neighborhood safety director, said those additional positions will be crucial for finally being in a position to “do the work that we need to do,” including using data to assess outcomes.
The Office of Community Safety is also anticipating the Southside Community Safety Center to open later this year. That’s intended to be a more comprehensive public safety resource hub that will include social workers, crime prevention specialists and other community organizations. It will also house the new Third Precinct police station. A temporary safety center was piloted late last year, along East Lake Street.
