Minneapolis Mayor Frey wants $1M investment in reimagining public safety beyond policing
MINNEAPOLIS — Mayor Jacob Frey wants to spend $1 million to help Minneapolis reimagine public safety, and he says it's about a lot more than just policing.
Minneapolis wants to be a leader in this country when it comes to overhauling accepted wisdom on public safety. Essentially, if someone calls 911, the vision is that you'd have a myriad of options beyond dispatching fire or police.
You'd have the ability to send more appropriate response teams to situations. But you'd also have proactive services like violence prevention and workforce development programs. And you'd have restorative programs, like substance abuse treatment and resources.
The approval of this contract means the city will spend up to $1 million over the next two years for the NYU School of Law's policing project to take a recent report, and assess the gaps in the city to build out these services.
That begs the question, when will we see some of these services in the city?
"Some of these services you are already seeing. We have a behavioral crisis unit," Frey said. "It's not going to happen overnight, it won't. And for those who want it to happen overnight, we could set something set up and it's going to be shoddy, so let's do this right, because we want these services to be serious and we want them to last."
This will start soon and go on for two years. There will be community input, a dashboard of sorts for people to track progress. And this will be paid for by a combination of city funds and philanthropic donations.
Recently, the city swore in Hennepin County Chief Judge Todd Barnette as the new commissioner of community safety for Minneapolis.
Barnette said he knows the country is watching what Minneapolis does with public safety and he is ready to be the leader in change.
"What I think I bring is a real desire to collaborate and to have partnership, because that's important to get work done," he said.
Among his top priorities is rebuilding the trust within the community. which was largely severed after the murder of George Floyd. It's something that takes time and something he said he's willing to invest hard work to achieve.