Brooklyn Center leaders meet to finish work on police reform efforts
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A lot has happened in the two and a half years since Daunte Wright was killed in Brooklyn Center by former officer Kim Potter.
In that time, Potter was charged, convicted, sent to jail and released. The city settled a lawsuit from Wright's family for millions, and just this week, work finished on a memorial to Daunte Wright — just feet from the spot where he was killed.
"It's a place where community are, they're able to remember who my son was," Katie Wright said. "But they were also able to remember what happened there, and hopefully bring light to a system that needs that needs change."
One thing that hasn't happened, is any structural change in policing policy, despite a change in chief, mayor and several council seats.
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"It was frustrating, disheartening. I wanted it to be as quick as possible, as a lot of community members did," Katie Wright said.
But it's not for a lack of trying — and those efforts could soon see results.
Thursday night, city leaders and committee members spent two and half hours in a meeting, finishing their work on police reform, focusing on traffic stops and searches.
"This was really the first time we were able to get the council, the community members that have been part of making those recommendations from the implementation committee, as well as some of our police staff, in the room at the same time, to have that conversation," Mayor April Graves said.
"This was actually the first time in two years that I could walk away from a city council meeting with a smile on my face and feel like we accomplished something," Katie Wright said.
Graves says the council should be ready to vote on their police proposals at their next meeting scheduled for Monday evening.
