A Minneapolis ordinance that bans groups of people from standing together on sidewalks and streets is on its way to being removed from the city code.

Wednesday, the City Council's public safety committee voted unanimously to repeal the rule, which some council members say is too vague and could be used by police to disproportionately target people of color. The issue will go to the full council next week.

The ordinance, implemented in 1960, prohibits three or more people from standing together "or near each other in any street or on any footwalk or sidewalk so as to obstruct the free passage for pedestrians." It is rarely used; in the past five years the City Attorney's Office charged people with the offense 31 times.

City officials did not provide demographic information about those cases, but Council Members Elizabeth Glidden and Blong Yang said the ordinance could be a problem if a citation was challenged in court. Last year, racial equity advocates included it on a list of low-level ordinances they said are overly vague, outdated and used as a reason for police to stop and arrest people of color more frequently than white people.

Two other ordinances on the list, which banned spitting and "lurking," were repealed by the council last year. Arrest data for the lurking ordinance showed that 59 percent of the 400 arrests made between 2009 and 2014 were of black people, while 24 percent were white.

Yang said Wednesday that the ordinance banning groups on streets and sidewalks was also problematic.

He pointed out that the ordinance would technically prohibit all sorts of activities, including when he gathered with the mayor, a U.S. congressman and the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during a walking tour of north Minneapolis last year.

"It just screams of First Amendment violations, just screams of it," Yang said.

Council Member Cam Gordon said he's confident police will still have enough tools to cite and arrest people for unlawful behavior. He pointed to two in particular: one that prohibits people form obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic and another that prohibits "interferences" with pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Gordon said he believes other ordinances that are "wide open for discretionary use" may need to be reviewed by the council in the future.

Meanwhile, committee members said they're looking forward to a month of community meetings that will be set for discussion of the city's proposed policy for body cameras.

Officials said they plan to schedule the community meetings by March 7, about two months before the city begins issuing body cameras to its officers.

Meetings will be held around the city, including some targeting African-American, American Indian, East African, Southeast Asian and Latino community members.

Erin Golden • 612-673-4790