The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously on Friday, 12-0, to approve an amendment that would eliminate requirements from the city’s charter for the city to have a police department.
“Under the current charter language, the city council is required to fund a police force of a size proportionate to the city’s population. Changes being considered in the amendment would remove that requirement along with an entire section on the police department,” Fox 9 reported. “The proposal replaces that language with a new department: the Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. It would be managed by the City Council, marking a key power shift for a council frustrated with limited authority.”
The city council also removed the minimum number of officers that are required within their new proposed “safety department,” Fox 9 added. “Along with the department of community safety, the amendment would add a Division of Law Enforcement Services, which would be composed of “licensed peace officers” under the purview of the director of the Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.”
The news comes as Fox 9 separately reported that some of those same city council members are now receiving private security, paid for by taxpayers, after they started getting threats.
“The City of Minneapolis is spending $4,500 a day for private security for three council members who have received threats following the police killing of George Floyd,” Fox 9 reported. “A city spokesperson said the private security details have cost the city $63,000 over the past three weeks.”
Three of the members on the Democrat-controlled city council are now receiving private security, including Andrea Jenkins (Ward 8), and Phillipe Cunningham (Ward 4), and Alondra Cano (Ward 9).
Fox 9 noted that all three have been “outspoken proponents of defunding the Minneapolis Police Department.”
