On Tuesday, voters in Minneapolis rejected a proposal to dismantle the police department and replace it with a new Department of Public Safety.
After the death of George Floyd, many called for reform in the city’s police system. The suggested plan would have changed the city charter so there would be no requirement that the city have a police department with a minimum number of officers.
The initiative would have also removed language from the charter related to the police, including minimum funding requirements. Control of public safety would have been divided between the mayor and City Council.
Opponents of the proposal argued that it had no set plan on how to move forward and warned it would make already at-risk communities more vulnerable.
According to results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, the initiative failed 57% to 44%. To pass, it needed 51% of voter approval.
Sondra Samuels, a Minneapolis resident, told Fox News, “I kind of trembled a little bit in the voting booth today because I live in one of the neighborhoods most impacted by crime and violence… and knew the correlation between the lack of policing and good policing”.
“We can have reform and we can have enough police to keep our children, our elderly safe. So this was a win tonight,” Samuels added.
It was suggested that the public safety department would have used a “comprehensive public health approach” to policing.
Kevin Rofidal, a retired police officer from Edina, said “The people spoke, but also there’s people in the community that really stood up in front of this and I think it sent a message nationwide”.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who was running for a second term, opposed the initiative, while others like U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar supported the idea. Omar recently claimed “The Minneapolis Police Department is the most dysfunctional in our state and probably in the country” when addressing rising crime in the city.