Police abolition movement in Minneapolis

In the U.S. state of Minnesota, a police abolition movement in Minneapolis emerged after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, during an arrest incident on May 25, 2020. The manner of Floyd's death, captured by a bystander's video and that showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck as he struggled to breathe, resulted in prolonged local unrest and worldwide protests. In Minneapolis, the city's third police precinct station was destroyed during heavy rioting on May 28, 2020, as demonstrators lit the building on fire after the police abandoned it. In the aftermath of Floyd's death and unrest, local political activists sought to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with another system of public safety and divert its budget towards social services programs in the city, such as affordable housing, violence prevention, education, and food security. A public pledge by nine of the 13 elected members of the Minneapolis City Council on June 7, 2020, to "defund police" garnered significant attention for the police abolition movement, as well as considerable political backlash. 
The goals of the "defund police" pledge were never fully defined by city counselors at the time of the June 7, 2020, pledge and the effort largely collapsed in the following months. A majority of Minneapolis city residents, including in the Black community, opposed a reduction in the size of the city's police force. Public discussion in 2020 about changing the city's policing policies came during a surge in violent crime rates, which disproportionately affected people of color in the city. At the end of 2020, the city council's decision to shift 4.5 percent of the city's police annual budget to violence prevention programs fell well short of the sweeping changes demanded by activists and pledged by local lawmakers earlier in year, and it became a case study for how idealistic calls for major structural changes fail. Though the city council committed to maintaining the same number of police officers in the city, attrition and disability claims left the department with 200 fewer police officers, and city residents grew frustrated by the lack of a police presence and slower response times to 911 calls. 
Background.
Following Floyd's death and the resulting civil unrest, Minneapolis Public Schools, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, multiple private businesses and venues, and the University of Minnesota severed ties with the Minneapolis Police Department. Civil leaders in Minneapolis and elsewhere began calling for reforms of the city's police force, including the defunding, downsizing, or abolishing of departments. The concept and movement was not new for Minneapolis. The local advocacy group MPD150, which had previously published a report in 2017 recommending the Minneapolis Police Department be abolished, argued that "the people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises" and that first responders should be social workers and mental health providers.
Protest events.
Protest march, June 6, 2020.
On June 6, 2020, thousands of protesters marched in Minneapolis in an event led by local organization Black Visions Collective. Protesters gathered at the city's Bottineau Field Park, marched past the Minneapolis Police Federation's union headquarters, and ended at Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's private home. The march featured chants of "George Floyd!" and "Black Lives Matter!" and pleas to defund the police. At Frey's home, the crowd demanded that he come outside, and then when Frey appeared asked if he supported abolishing the city's police force. After Frey responded that he did not, the crowd ordered him to leave and booed him away. At the rally, United States Representative Ilhan Omar, whose Minnesota's 5th congressional district encompassed Minneapolis, denounced the city's police force as "inherently beyond reform".
Powderhorn Park rally, June 7, 2020.
On June 7, 2020, at a Powderhorn Park rally organized by Black Visions Collective and several other black-led social justice organizations, nine of the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council vowed before a large crowd to dismantle the city's police department. Onstage taking the pledge were Council President Lisa Bender, Vice President Andrea Jenkins and Council Members Alondra Cano, Phillippe Cunningham, Jeremiah Ellison, Steve Fletcher, Cam Gordon, Andrew Johnson, and Jeremy Schroeder. At the rally, Bender said of the pledge to abolish the city's police force, "Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period." Council Member Linea Palmisano attended the rally as an audience member, but did not go on stage or take the oath, and Council Members Lisa Goodman and Kevin Reich did not attend nor agree to the pledge. The June 7 pledge by nine city council members, though it represented a veto-proof majority, did not actually disband the Minneapolis police force and details about the next steps in the process were not defined at the time. Some activists wanted to consider the idea of unarmed crisis response personnel and re-purposing the police department's $193 million annual budget for education, food, housing, and health care.
City charter process.
2020.
Council approves city charter referendum.
The city council voted unanimously in late June 2020 to revise the city's charter to permit dismantling of the police department, a step towards possibly replacing the police department with a civilian-led Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, and with goal of putting the issue before voters on the ballot in November. The charter required the city to “fund a police force of at least 0.0017 employees per resident”.
Private security hired for city councilors.
Several city council members received death threats in the wake of the pledge to defund the city's police. It was revealed in July 2020 that on June 7, 2020, the same day that they pledged to "begin the process of ending" the police department, Council Members Cano, Cunningham, and Jenkins used $152,400 in city funds to hire private security guards. All three had pledged on stage to "defund police" in the city. Several activists felt it was it was hypocritical for councilors to have extra security when the same privilege was not extended to families of the black men who were killed by police. According to the mayor's office, the three council members had not asked for a Minneapolis police vehicle to park outside their home to maintain a security presence.
Opposition from Black leaders.
In June 2020, the council's move to amend the city charter drew opposition from some Black leaders and activists who felt that the council was "pandering", in the words of a local pastor. Others felt that the council had not adequately included voices from the Black community in the process and expressed the need to address public safety concerns as black residents were disproportionately victims of crime and witnesses of crime in the city, just as they were disproportionately victims of excessive police force. 
City charter referendum blocked.
In August 2020, the Minneapolis City Charter Commission voted to block plans to hold a vote on the proposed city charter amendment in November 2020, citing a need to for longer review and greater public input. The charter amendment still had the potential to be put before voters in November 2021 with the city's mayor and city council seats up for re-election.
"Defund police" pledge reinterpreted.
The June 7, 2020, pledge by nine of the 13 Minneapolis city councilors to abolish the police department largely collapsed in the following months. Council members who took it had different interpretations about its meaning when reflecting back on it several months later. Council Member Johnson, for example, said the mantra of the pledge was meant "in spirit" and not to be taken literally. Some advocates, however, were expecting complete abolition of the police force. When asked directly in October 2020 by Minnesota Public Radio if they still supported abolishing the police department, no Minneapolis council member directly answered "yes", and Council Members Ellison and Goodman declined to respond to the survey at all.
Municipal election results and aftermath.
With 86% of the vote in the election on November 3, 2020, Minneapolis voters approved a referendum about the timing of municipal elections, putting city council seats temporarily under two-year terms with the next election scheduled for 2021. A few days after the 2020 election, Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender announced that she would not seek reelection to her tenth ward seat. Bender said her decision was made before the period of prolonged unrest in the city sparked by George Floyd's death. In December 2020, Council Member Alondra Cano declined to seek reelection to her seat representing the city's ninth ward that sustained heavy damage during the May 2020 riots. Bender and Cano were among the nine city councilors that pledged to abolish the city's police department. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced his intention to run for re-election in 2021.
Violence prevention pilot programs established.
By late 2020, public polling revealed mixed views among Minneapolis residents about reduced funding for the police, with more than half of the city's residents opposing a reduction in the size of the police force. Decisions about the allocation of city resources and size of the police department came as Minneapolis had tallied its highest levels of violent crime in decades.
In December, the Minneapolis city council voted to redirect $7.7 million of the police department’s proposed $179 million budget to mental health crisis teams, violence prevention programs, and for civilian employees to handle non-emergency theft and property damage reports. The council placed $11.4 million of the police budget in a reserve fund that requires ad hoc council approval for police recruitment and overtime. By a narrow 7-6 margin, the council voted to keep in place the police department target level of 888 officers by 2022. The 4.5 percent shift in the police budget was considered "not nearly the sweeping change that activists and some lawmakers had demanded" after Floyd's death and the resulting unrest, and it became a case study for how idealistic pledges often fall short of the intended structural changes.
2021.
Council renews plan to replace the police department.
In January 2021, Minneapolis City Council Members Phillipe Cunningham, Steve Fletcher, and Jeremy Schroeder introduced a new city charter amendment to establish a Department of Public Safety in Minneapolis to oversee policing, violence prevention, and community safety programs, and remove the direct oversight of the police by the mayor's office. The amendment would also remove the city charter requirement to maintain a minimum number of police officers based on the city's population. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he opposed the approach. The councilors hoped to put the amendment before voters in the 2021 November municipal election.
Outside money enters the 2021 campaign.
The Open Society Policy Center based in Washington, D.C. donated $500,000 to create a new political committee and non-profit, Yes 4 Minneapolis, to advance the police abolition movement in Minneapolis and influence the 2021 municipal elections. The new entity sought to work closely with two existing local organizations, Reclaim the Block and Black Visions, that led police abolition protests rallies in June 2020.
Reduction in police officers via attrition.
The city charter's minimum number of police officers was set at 0.007 percent of the city's population, which in the most recent census equated to about 730 sworn officers. By January 30, 2021, Minneapolis had 817 sworn officers under employment, but 155 were on continuous leave due to post-traumatic stress blamed on the response to civil unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. By February 2020, Minneapolis was down to only 638 officers that were capable of working, which was well below the 2019 average of 851 sworn officers. Due to the shortage of officers, the police department focused on responding to 9-1-1 calls as the city dealt with a surge in violent crimes such as homicides, shootings, and robberies. Residents complained that the police were less responsive than before, and some formed their own safety patrols. A group of north Minneapolis residents sued the city for not adequately staffing its police department.
Petition drive.
A coalition of progressive organizationsYes 4 Minneapolis, Reclaim the Block, and TakeAction Minnesotalaunched a petition drive in February to put the future of the city's police department before voters on the November 2021 ballot. The petition sought to amend the city's charter to remove the police department and instead create a public safety department to oversee policing and a force of licensed peace officers.
On April 30, 2021, advocacy organizations delivered more than 20,000 petition signatures to the Minneapolis city clerk's office to meet a deadline imposed by the city's charter commission for the measure to be considered for the November ballot. By city law, at least 11,906 register voters, or 5% of votes cast in the last general election, must be certified by the clerk by May 17. The clerk certified 14,101 of the signatures as valid, which advanced the proposal for review by the city attorney, and put it a step closer to being on the November 2021 ballot when voters will also vote for city council seats and the mayor. To be enacted, 51% of city votes would have to approve it.
City council approves plan.
On March 12, 2021, the city council approved by an 11-2 vote, the plan by Cunningham, Fletcher, and Schroeder to create a new Department of Public Safety. The change would require an amendment to the city's charter, and the council's action was just a step toward putting the issue before city voters on the November 2021 ballot. If eventually approved, the new city department would have oversight of various public safety and health functions. The council's plan would also eliminate the city charter requirement to maintain a police force of a minimum number of officers based on the city's population and it would remove some mayoral authority over policing. Council members Palmisano and Goodman were the only two dissenting votes. The city's Charter Commission, under the charter amendment process, was given until August 2021 to review the council's recommendation. 
The council's proposal was nearly identical the plan outlined in the petition drive. 