Counterpoint: The cost of political games on public safety

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Good, thoughtful governance is the foundation of any city’s success. The Minneapolis City Council’s latest move to dismantle our city’s comprehensive community safety system is not only disappointing — it undermines our future and risks the progress we’ve worked hard to achieve. (“Some council members seek control of troubled anti-violence program,” news article, Feb. 7, and “Mismanagement of violence prevention puts residents in danger,” Strib Voices, Feb. 10.)

The city’s Group Violence Intervention (GVI) strategies identifies individuals engaging in group/gang activities and offers them wraparound services to help them safely exit that lifestyle.

The City Council’s recent proposal to cut $1.2 million slated for GVI and Youth GVI from the City’s Neighborhood Safety Department and sending it to Hennepin County is reckless. Here’s why:

• It would delay these critical services. We’re negotiating contracts with vendors. Substantial work would need to be done to transfer the process to the county, or the county would have to start a procurement process from scratch.

• It would add a bulky layer of bureaucracy. These strategies facilitate partnerships with police and contractors. Inserting the county would complicate a strategy that thrives by being nimble.

• It would jeopardize the expertise gained by experience. The city has spent years building this program. Transferring it to the county would risk quality delivery and delay progress.

This proposal looks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. GVI services have continued in Minneapolis, despite claims to the contrary. Through partnerships between law enforcement, probation and contracted service providers, we continue to identify those who are most at risk of gun violence and help them turn their lives around.

The timing for this council-proposed funding cut comes as we are negotiating new contracts, selected through a fair and competitive request-for-proposal (RFP) process. It’s an understatement to say that offloading an entire line of business to the county simply because some council members don’t like who was selected undermines all oversight and accountability at the city.

Despite significant progress in creating a safer Minneapolis, there continues to be an organized attempt by some members of the City Council to denigrate our efforts, divest resources and demoralize staff who have been working hard to build safer communities.

This is not good governance.

Just months ago, the council eliminated funding for our city’s successful 911 and police recruitment campaign — one of the key reasons we ended last year with more police officers on the force than we began with (for the first time since 2020) and now have an almost fully staffed 911 center.

The council also moved the City’s Behavioral Crisis Response program — a cornerstone of our expanded response strategy — from the Neighborhood Safety Department to a department with no additional administrative support capacity to effectively manage it, without taking the time to ask experts if this would even make any sense, and without giving staff the opportunity to develop a plan for a smooth transition.

And it doesn’t stop there. Through the budget process, the council has also earmarked millions of dollars for specific nonprofits in an effort to circumvent the very procurement procedures we’ve worked to put in place to ensure accountability for public funds. This disregards the transparency and accountability our residents rightfully expect.

The people of Minneapolis have made it clear: They want a new approach to community safety, one that is collaborative and balances effective law enforcement with holistic, community-based solutions. They deserve nothing less than a fully resourced, coordinated effort that prioritizes their safety and well-being.

Providing this level of service to our residents has been a top priority of mine since joining the city of Minneapolis a little over a year ago. And I’m proud to say that we’re making progress:

• Last week, the independent group charged with evaluating the Minneapolis Police Department’s reform efforts issued their first report, confirming that we are on track to meet nearly every goal in year one.

• Last month, an outside analysis highlighted that we’re already diverting 9% of calls for service to non-police response services.

• We’re building the first South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, where we will have an ecosystem of community safety services under one roof.

• We successfully negotiated a historic police contract and saw a 133% increase in applications for police officers in 2024.

• And we’ve put critical processes in place to contract with violence prevention services that keep our communities safe.

We have made tremendous progress over the last several years, but there’s still more work to be done. Our ongoing efforts will be guided by our north stars: the Safe and Thriving Communities Report, the Minnesota Department of Human Resources settlement agreement and the federal Department of Justice consent decree. But we are committed to working beyond compliance to bring sustainable, long-term reforms.

But to get there, we need good faith partners, not a council that hinders our efforts every step of the way. The only way we can succeed is to adequately fund and support this transformative work. Anything less is a disservice to the people we serve. We cannot afford to let political games jeopardize the progress we’ve made or delay the progress we must continue to make. The time for meaningful, sustainable change is now.

Toddrick Barnette is Minneapolis’ community safety commissioner.