A committee in the Minneapolis City Council voted to eliminate the role of the police’s public information officer as part of its overhaul of the department.
Councilman Jeremy Schroeder, who co-authored the legislation to terminate the position, said that the press release following the death of George Floyd claimed that the 46-year-old black man had suffered a “medical incident” and died. Schroeder called the description “egregious” because it did not reflect that an officer had knelt on Floyd’s neck for several minutes before his death.
“We need to safeguard and rebuild public trust. And right now, shifting these operations to the city rather than the MPD is one thing we can do to restore trust and save costs in the process,” Schroeder said.
The legislation, which passed unanimously in the committee and is expected to pass the full council on Friday, would cut the department’s funding for a public information officer, a role currently held by John Elder. All formal communications from the department to the press and the public in the future would likely be routed through the council.
According to a report from Fox 9, the decision concerned some members of the press who felt the city does not do enough to protect reporters’ access to information. The public information officer is the main point of contact for reporters covering crime. Councilman Steve Fletcher said reporters do not always need immediate access to information.
“I think there’s a legitimate question about whether the 3 a.m. standup is a useful function,” he said. “At some level, it’s where most of the misinformation has come from.”
The recent legislation is one of many steps taken by the Minneapolis City Council to defund the police.
