[KSTP] Monday, the Minneapolis City Council Budget Committee approved amendments to the proposed 2021 budget from the Safety for All Budget Plan that was proposed by a number of council members. The amendments would redirect $7.77 million meant for the police department to "other approaches to preventing violence and building community wellbeing."
If passed, the Safety For All Budget Plan would redirect some emergency calls to other departments, build a non-police mental health crisis response and violence prevention programming in the city.
Minneapolis city councilmembers propose 'Safety for All' budget plan to revamp city's public safety system
The Safety for All Budget was authored by Council Members Phillipe Cunningham, Steve Fletcher and Lisa Bender.
"It is our duty to protect the people of Minneapolis, and our current public safety system fails to do so. The Safety for All Budget Plan will keep the residents of our city safer by meeting the urgent safety needs in our city now while also laying a path towards much-needed transformation in our public safety system," Cunningham said.
The City Council will hold another public hearing on the proposed budget Wednesday. After the hearing, the council will debate and vote on the final passage of the budget.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued the following statement regarding the budget committee's approval of the amendments:
"Pre-emptively reducing the sworn capacity by 138 officers prior to having alternative responses in place or completing the mutually-agreed upon staffing study is irresponsible. We've given the Council every opportunity to join us in a both-and approach that gives Chief Arradondo the flexibility he needs to move forward and ability to scale up new safety solutions. Last week, we joined private, faith, and community leaders to launch a new, $5 million initiative that would better integrate mental health and social services into our emergency response system. We continue to stand ready to collaborate and support the safety beyond policing initiatives, but I am actively considering a veto due to the massive, permanent cut to officer capacity."