BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — After a long and sometimes heated debate, the Brooklyn Center city council voted in favor of creating a public safety department for the city using $1.3 million dollars from the police department.
A 5-0 vote approved a plan that would add an unarmed enforcement department to assist with mental health calls and respond to low-level traffic violations.
To fund the plan, created in response to the April 2021 death of Daunte Wright at a traffic stop, the city will freeze three vacant positions on the police force, increase the lodging tax and use grant money.
Some changes were made to the plan to get it approved, like removing the director's position discussed at a previous meeting in April.
Even though the council voted to support the plan, Brooklyn Center's mayor is a supporter of the new plan, but wanted the director position to be left in.
"The community of Brooklyn Center has been engaged," said Mayor Mike Elliott. "They have supported this resolution and establishing this new department of community safety. Going forward and changing it and trying to do something else without that engagement is a huge mistake."
Making further amendments to the budget could be approved in the future.
Daunte Wright's mother was at the Monday night meeting, and said the council needs to make chances so that people in the city can feel safe.
"All I can continue to do is just keep asking that you guys fully fund this resolution, how it was originally written, save lives and continue to make sure that Brooklyn Center is a safe place for people of color," said Katie Wright.
These aren't the first changes made to law enforcement in Brooklyn Center this year. In September, changes were made relating to the police department's "cite and release" policy for misdemeanors and low level traffic violations like broken tail lights, or expired tabs.
These crimes, now including gross misdemeanors as well as misdemeanors, should receive a ticket and the suspect will be told to appear in court.
“The Brooklyn Center City Council’s vote is a big step toward attaining true public safety for all residents,” said ACLU-MN Interim Executive Director Ben Feist following Monday's vote. “Budgeting for an expanded public safety system will allow the city to take into account the needs of the community and the very real substance abuse and mental health issues people face, rather than relying on an armed-police-only model that too often leads to over-policing and police violence against BIPOC people.”
The change is part of the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution, named for two men killed by police in Brooklyn Center.