Minneapolis voters will weigh in next month on a ballot question that could shape the future of the police reform movement nationwide.
City Question 2 will ask Minneapolis residents if they want to abolish the city’s police department and replace it with a new Department of Public Safety.
The site of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in 2020, Minneapolis has faced significant pressure from activists to overhaul its police department — despite undergoing the same spike in violence that has hit most major U.S. cities over the past two years.
Homicides in Minneapolis this year have already outpaced the number committed in the city last year, even though Minneapolis saw a dramatic increase in homicides in the summer of 2020 amid unrest in the wake of Floyd’s murder.
Here is how the police reform initiative would work.
DEPARTMENT OVERSIGHT
If passed, the initiative would strip the Minneapolis mayor of the sole authority he or she presently maintains over the police department and split it between the mayor’s office and the Minneapolis City Council.
Yes 4 Minneapolis, a progressive group pushing the initiative, argues the mayor can be elected by a wealthy, white minority of the city due to the “inequitable history of Minneapolis redlining, unjust districting, and disenfranchisement by voter suppression,” and thus can’t be trusted to run the police force fairly.
A structure that dilutes the mayor’s power and hands some of it to the City Council would serve as a more equitable solution, according to the group.
Mayor Jacob Frey, who is on the ballot for reelection in November, has said he opposes the oversight structure because it would “mark a major setback for accountability and good governance.”
MINIMUM POLICE
If a majority of voters approve the ballot initiative, the section of the city charter requiring Minneapolis to maintain a minimum number of police officers would be invalidated, and the City Council would be free to start formulating new force numbers.
The Minneapolis Police Department is already short of the 730 officers it is mandated to have on the force.
Over the summer, a handful of Minneapolis residents sued the city for violating the charter in continuing to operate the department without enough officers, citing safety concerns.
The ballot initiative would effectively end the funding requirements that have prevented the city from cutting the police budget despite demands from activists.
Without a minimum number of officers to maintain, the City Council and the mayor’s office could, in theory, develop plans to cut the budget without facing the same regulatory hurdles.
PEACE OFFICERS
Proponents of the ballot initiative say police officers aren’t suited to respond to all situations and say the new Department of Public Safety could employ a more diverse range of professionals focused on mental health and violence prevention, among other things.
The department could employ “licensed peace officers,” according to the language of the ballot question.
Minnesota already licenses peace officers across the state and defines them as law enforcement officers that function as police.
Essentially, the ballot question suggests that the new department could employ law enforcement officers — but does not require it to.
LANGUAGE FIGHT
The battle over replacing the police department has even included a dispute over the words that will be used to put the question to voters in November.
Yes 4 Minneapolis sued the city over the summer after officials submitted language for the ballot initiative that referred voters to an attached note explaining the police proposal further than the question itself. In mid-August, a judge ruled that the explanatory note had to go.
But Minnesota’s Supreme Court ruled in mid-September that the ballot question could proceed as written after a lower court had struck down the language written by the City Council.
The explanatory note presently appears on sample ballots and lays out how the Department of Public Safety would be structured.
“The Police Department, and its chief, would be removed from the City Charter,” the note reads. “The Public Safety Department could include police officers, but the minimum funding requirement would be eliminated.”
FAILED REFORM ATTEMPTS
Despite the heated attention given to policing in Minneapolis, Frey has resisted calls from activists to slash the police department’s budget.
He proposed adding funding to the department heading into 2022 and proposed a budget that would grow the force to 756 police officers.
While the city did approve a budget in 2020 that cut millions from the police this year, Frey argued in August that investments in more comprehensive public safety programs needed to be complemented by strong law enforcement.
WILL IT PASS?
There is limited polling available on the popularity of the initiative.
However, a poll published in late September suggested voters are relatively split on whether they want to replace their police department.
A KARE 11/MPR News/Star Tribune/FRONTLINE Minnesota poll found that 49% of voters surveyed supported replacing the police department, 41% of voters opposed it, and 10% remained undecided.
The group promoting the ballot initiative, Yes 4 Minneapolis, has raked in cash from liberal groups across the country, raising nearly $1 million by the start of August.
