The city of Minneapolis is looking to hire a nationally recognized team to help guide its efforts to reimagine public safety.
Minneapolis considers $1 million contract with consultant for its beyond-policing plan
A team from NYU Law School would be paid up to $1 million over two years to drill down on vision.
November 13, 2023 at 8:54PM
On Monday, Mayor Jacob Frey introduced a proposal under which New York University School of Law's Policing Project would be paid up to $1 million over two years. The task: to figure out how to implement a public safety redesign plan commissioned by the city and completed this summer by a team based out of Harvard University.
The work is seen as the next step in Minneapolis' closely watched effort to transform its approach to public safety in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd — and the longer history of discriminatory policing in the city.
It follows the July release of a 143-page "Safe and Thriving Communities Report" from a team led by Antonio Oftelie, a Minneapolis native serving as executive director of Harvard University's Leadership for a Networked World. Oftelie is also the federal monitor of a decree between Seattle and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Minneapolis is currently operating under a state court-monitored settlement and is expected to be under a federal consent decree as a result of its legacy of policing that violates the Constitution, especially the rights of Blacks and Native Americans.
The NYU team was sought out specifically for the next phase of the work because it has unique expertise in monitoring policing alternatives in a number of American cities, including San Francisco, Denver and Chicago, according to Frey and Todd Barnette, Minneapolis' newly appointed commissioner of public safety.
The NYU team is expected to play a role in public meetings across the city and specifically within the Police Department's Third Precinct, where the city has committed to opening a new police station and an envisioned "community safety center."
The contract was approved Monday by a City Council committee and will be considered by the full council later this week. Funding would come from from a combination of unspent city funds and charitable donations.
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