Whoever leads the city going forward must make public safety and police reform equal priorities.Īnd that governance structure, as the Editorial Board recommended, is set to dramatically change. We will not stop pressing for real rather than cosmetic changes that will translate into better, more effective policing and a safer community for all.Īs of the deadline for this editorial, it was unclear if Mayor Jacob Frey would be re-elected - and several council races were too close to call. Those and other reforms should be enacted - as the Star Tribune Editorial Board has argued for years. (And, yes, some of that work already is underway.) State laws that handcuff the police chief from dealing with such officers must also be revisited.Īdditional funds will be needed to rebuild the depleted department, ensure that more mental health professionals are available to answer calls, and expand violence prevention efforts. A union contract that has protected rogue officers must be renegotiated. The critical elements that allowed that culture to flourish would not have changed under the amendment.
Turmoil mean full#
There is hunger for real change that will finally rid the Police Department of the toxic culture that was on full display with the murder of George Floyd. No one, however, should take the rejection of the amendment as a vote for the status quo. It also would have extended the City Council's power over policing and put another layer of bureaucracy above the police chief - if one remained in the new structure - in the form of a commissioner. It would have rolled back minimum law enforcement staffing and funding requirements in a city that already has far too little of both. That was always the proposal's major failing.
In the face of rising crime, including a 40% increase in carjackings, Minneapolis voters on Tuesday rejected an empty plan that featured promises and interpretations of what might happen, but few actual details. The ill-conceived proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety has been soundly defeated.
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