The movement was right about public safety all along

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On Wednesday, the Minneapolis City Council's Public Health and Safety Committee received an updated report from the Harvard University Leadership for a Networked World project. The city contracted the Harvard team in April 2021 to identify gaps in the city's community safety, policing and human services models, and to help the mayor, City Council, department heads and key partners be ready to activate new models of public safety by weaving together current efforts and strategies.

The Harvard team, led by Antonio Oftelie, confirms and validates the demands of diverse working-class communities across Minneapolis who have consistently supported the expansion of public safety services such as mental health response, substance abuse services, and diversionary and preventive services. The key finding of the Harvard team is that "community is demanding an array of capabilities and services, not just sworn police officers." Oftelie proposes four key components to safety: prevention, restoration, resilience and intervention, all of which require significant investment but especially innovative newer programs already being led at the city, including the Office of Violence Prevention and the Behavioral Crisis Response Teams.

Many residents were already organizing for more investment in human services and comprehensive public safety services before the murder of George Floyd. Since 2020, investment in comprehensive public safety beyond policing has been a consistent point of agreement among residents, with differing opinions about the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and the role of police.

I have advocated for a comprehensive public safety system beyond policing for many years. Following the killing by police of Amir Locke in February, I brought forward a proposal to create a Department of Public Safety to centralize comprehensive public safety services so that they could be better resourced and coordinated. Unfortunately, my proposal was voted down after the mayor urged the City Council to oppose it.

The community continued to express the urgency of expanding comprehensive public safety programs, prompting Mayor Jacob Frey last month to propose creating an Office of Community Safety. This office, like what I proposed in February, would put various public safety services into one centralized system.

It is important to note that the council and the public still have no guarantee that the mayor's proposed Office of Community Safety will actually make needed investments in comprehensive public safety programs. The first reading of the draft language for the office is scheduled for July 21, and the mayor will publish his proposed 2023 budget in August. These documents will reveal whether the mayor is investing in comprehensive services or is using the Office of Community Safety to rebrand the MPD without making significant investments in other crucial comprehensive components of public safety.

Concerningly, the mayor has chosen to nominate a commissioner of the Office of Community Safety before outlining the plan for the office itself. The City Council is being asked to confirm the nominee, Cedric Alexander, before the office is created. I've shared multiple times on the record that this is an illogical way to set up a new public safety system at a time when our city desperately needs it. In the coming weeks, the public should stay closely vigilant as the mayor publicizes the details of the Office of Community Safety.

Community organizing is what has gotten us this far. City Hall is often hostile to working-class people and tells us our demands are impossible. But the sustained dedication, brilliance and resilience of residents organizing for comprehensive public safety beyond policing has moved the needle and forced the establishment to concede that the movement's demands are not only possible but exactly what we need. In the coming weeks, community pressure has the power to determine whether this Office of Community Safety is just another rebrand of the status quo or is something transformational.