The troubled Minneapolis police station won’t be replaced, after voters rejected a proposal to replace it with a new department of public safety
Voters in Minneapolis rejected a proposal to replace the city’s police with a new department of public safety, with the decision coming six months after a white Minneapolis officer was convicted of murder for killing George Floyd.
The filming of the murder of George Floyd led to several days of riots in the city and calls by many to “defund the police”.
Under the proposal, unlike the police, who report to the mayor – the department of public safety would have been jointly overseen by the mayor and the 13-member city council.
Mental health professionals would have been dispatched for most non-violent crimes, but police officers would have still been available should it be required that an arrest be made.
Minneapolis is currently seeing a severe rise in crime, with violent offenses on track to outrank last year’s record high. It comes as part of a national crime surge.
An investigation conducted by Reuters in September found that officer interactions with residents plummeted in the year after Floyd’s death in May 2020.
Critics say that the data suggested officers in Minneapolis had abandoned their duty to keep the peace among the city.
