MINNEAPOLIS – Today, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Council Members Steve Fletcher, Lisa Goodman, and Phillipe Cunningham announced they are moving forward a series of public safety amendments. The proposals would step up investments in violence prevention while preserving Frey’s commitment to investing in the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) sworn capacity. The amendment places a strong emphasis on training and effectively adds a recruitment class, which will help the department bridge the gap between the sworn complement and active duty officers. The broad support from Minneapolis officials is the product of collaboration and partnership between the mayor’s office and the city council.

“Over the last several months, I’ve had extensive conversations with my council colleagues and residents throughout our city,” said Frey. “The amendments we’ve put forward today are a direct result of those conversations and reflect a sincere team effort to strengthen public safety in every neighborhood and work with community to prevent violence. We’ve placed our trust in Chief Arradondo and are committed to providing him with the resources he needs to carry out the hard work of building trust with community, keeping our city safe, and shifting the culture within the department.”

“For us to have safety in every corner of our city, we must invest in a spectrum of public safety strategies. This includes violence prevention and intervention, high-quality, accountable law enforcement, and re-entry efforts to support our neighbors returning home after incarceration,” Cunningham said. “I am grateful to Mayor Frey, my City Council colleagues, and Chief Arradondo for this collaborative effort to invest in a holistic approach to public safety.”

“By renewing and expanding our investments in violence prevention, we’re sending a message to everyone in the city that community violence prevention is core to our city’s vision, values, and work,” said Fletcher. “The Mayor and the Council have worked together to achieve an agreement that makes MPD staffing more predictable and transparent, and commits resources to safety strategies centered on the experiences of those most impacted by violence in our city.”

“Government working at its best is about compromise,” said Goodman. “All parties need to work together in order to craft budget solutions that solve a variety of competing interests. Today’s public safety compromise is an example of listening to multiple voices and points of view about public safety funding and in the spirit of collaboration crafts a good balance between violence prevention and funding the chiefs vision for a new cadet class.”

The policymakers put forth a series of additional measures that would:

• Move $105,000 in ongoing dollars from the MPD Records Information Unit and $37,000 in one-time funding from the MPD to the Office of Violence Prevention
• Move $150,000 from the MPD base operating budget ($50,000), Health Department base operating budget ($30,000), and the contingency fund ($70,000) to Group Violence Intervention funding
• Move $50,000 from MPD Community Navigator equipment to support an Intimate Partner Violence initiative
• Move $200,000 from the city coordinator’s office ($120,000) and the contingency fund ($20,000) and reallocate net debt bonds ($50,000) to support the 9-1-1 workgroup, implement preliminary recommendations, and conduct an MPD staffing and efficiency study

###