Minneapolis City Council unanimously OKs downtown site for Third Precinct officers

Minneapolis City Council members on Tuesday unanimously supported moving ahead with a downtown location for police officers whose precinct building was ransacked and burned in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder.

At the same time, several council members indicated a desire to bar the dilapidated Third Precinct building in south Minneapolis from ever again housing police operations.

Many questions remain unanswered, such as what will happen to the barricaded, charred building at the corner of E. Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue — and when. The council's vote served as a rebuke of a yearslong city-led effort that had narrowed the potential sites for a new Third Precinct station to two locations amid significant discontent from those who live in the area.

That community engagement process was started under Mayor Jacob Frey, but on Monday he changed course, endorsing the idea of a third location downtown pitched by City Council President Andrea Jenkins.

The move affords city officials the ability to delay a controversial decision before an upcoming election cycle, in which several of Frey's biggest allies on the council are facing tough races.

It all coalesced at a City Council committee meeting Tuesday in which all members attended and grappled with the same issues of racial injustice and policing that have vexed the council for years.

Downtown location

In a unanimous voice vote, council members endorsed a plan to temporarily move the Third Precinct police station to Century Plaza on the southern outskirts of downtown, perhaps as soon as a year from now.

Technically, the measure, introduced by Jenkins, directs city staff to study the matter and come up with detailed a plan, including the estimated cost and timeline, by early September. An additional vote of the full City Council is expected Thursday.

The city was already preparing to move the First Precinct officers to Century Plaza around July 2024, and the new plan envisions both precincts operating on separate floors in the same building.

The proposed move is the latest development after last March, when officials announced a renewed search for a new Third Precinct building site had narrowed to two possibilities: rehabbing the existing building for about $12 million in 18 months, or erecting a new building at 2600 Minnehaha Av. at about twice the cost and time.

What followed was a public engagement process initially cast as an infrastructure siting question that revealed deeper sentiments left unresolved from the traumas of 2020.

Survey falls short

After nearly three years of inaction, city leaders partnered with a consulting firm to gather feedback from neighbors and local business owners about the Third Precinct building's fate.

The survey revealed mixed results, supplying a data sample that council members criticized as both "flawed" and largely unrepresentative of the approximately 139,000 people who live in that southeastern quadrant of the city.

The report, prepared by DeYoung Consulting Services, outlines six major findings culled from thousands of comments that demonstrate deep-seated skepticism and mistrust of the city's engagement process, as well as feelings of abandonment by elected leaders in the aftermath of Floyd's murder by a white police officer.

It also features a number of caveats about its methodology, including an acknowledgment that online survey results didn't capture the nuance of verbal feedback garnered during 13 in-person meetings this spring.

The city spent an estimated $100,000 to conduct all 13 community meetings, distribute the online survey and prepare the report, a city spokeswoman said.

Council Member Robin Wonsley, whose Second Ward encompasses the torched station, said no one who attended the public listening sessions this spring should be surprised by the results. She and several colleagues attempted to warn city officials about forcing residents to decide between two "false choices," Wonsley said.

In their presentation to the council, DeYoung's consultants recognized major limitations in the rollout, including the inability to prevent respondents from completing the survey multiple times from different IP addresses, verify a person's address or prevent partisan groups from mobilizing others to complete the survey.

The racial demographics of participants who attended in-person community conversations also skewed older and white.

"This is not a representative sample," said Council Member Andrew Johnson. "I think that the measure fell short here in a way that I have not seen in my 10 years on this council."

Charred building

The legacy and future of the Third Precinct building, which remains structurally sound albeit boarded up and fenced off by razor wire, is uncertain.

Council Member Jason Chavez, whose Ninth Ward is adjacent to the concrete structure, is leading a charge to ensure that whatever becomes of the place, it won't house police operations again.

Chavez announced his plans Tuesday, and the council will likely take up the idea Thursday. City Attorney Kristyn Anderson said the council may not be legally able to prohibit a use in that way, but it can clearly express its preference.

The Longfellow Community Council, along with a broad coalition of other south Minneapolis neighborhood groups, had long criticized the city's rushed community engagement process and, in May, vowed to reject whatever choice was ultimately made between the two proposed sites.

A third option felt like "a temporary win," said Rachel Boeke, the organization's executive director, who noted that residents overwhelmingly opposed putting officers back in the original location. "But it's not a stop."

She's hopeful that, given more time, elected officials can work to properly solicit feedback about the future of the blighted precinct building, which has remained an eyesore for three long years.

"Let's just make it not look like a crime scene," Boeke said of the razor wire that surrounds the structure.

Truth and reconciliation

Some of the most heated discussion Tuesday centered around the city's stalled plans for truth and reconciliation around racial inequities.

Wonsley and Chavez proposed taking $550,000 from police funds to jump-start the program, but they faced pushback from a number of other council members, including Jenkins, who authored the city's original plan in 2020.

Those pushing back said they might support the spending — but not without first vetting it through city finance officials and the council's normal budget process. Jenkins and a number of other council members said they didn't know the proposal was coming until Tuesday morning.

The plan was ultimately sent to the budget committee via a unanimous voice vote by all but Wonsley, who left the meeting moments before the vote.

Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the city doesn't own Century Plaza.