MINNEAPOLIS — More than three years after the burning of the Third Precinct, Minneapolis city leaders unveiled a new proposal Monday that would temporarily place officers from the Third and First Precincts in a combined building on the southern edge of downtown.
Council President Andrea Jenkins, who crafted the idea, said she will introduce the plan to her colleagues at a committee meeting Tuesday. The building under discussion, known as Century Plaza, sits directly across from the Convention Center near Interstate 35W.
"We were talking about moving the First Precinct into this large building, Century Plaza, and it sits almost right on the border of the Third Precinct," Jenkins said. "So, my thought was, if we have the First Precinct moving into this building, why can't we really co-locate the Third Precinct there, while we work with community... and really try to come to some consensus that we haven't been able to come to up to this point."
The city previously announced two options for the Third Precinct: 1) Rebuilding at the current Lake and Minnehaha site for $12 million or 2) Building a new precinct a few blocks away on Minnehaha for double the cost.
According to a survey published Monday, 66 percent of respondents preferred the first option to the second. However, the consulting firm that conducted the study acknowledged that many people did not want a precinct in the neighborhood at all, and that "the results from the mixed-methods analysis show that the City faces a more nuanced set of decisions around the 3rd Precinct rather than a simple decision between the original and new site."
At a news conference Monday, Mayor Jacob Frey agreed, saying that the survey results were helpful but ultimately "inconclusive." He expressed support for Jenkins' idea of a combined precinct at Century Plaza.
"The direction we're going now is to provide yet another option that the council is able to consider to ultimately get to a decision," Frey said, "which is what I think the residents of the Third Precinct deserve."
For the past three years, officers in the Third Precinct have been working out of various temporary buildings downtown, largely out of sight from the public.
Community Safety Commissioner Cedric Alexander said his office spoke with Third Precinct officers about the Century Plaza plan and that "many of them are in support."
"Considering the fact of where they have been located," Alexander said, "has been somewhat of a challenge for them, in terms of the facility itself."
If the council approves the plan, the First Precinct could move into the Century Plaza building next summer, followed by the Third Precinct at the end of 2024. Alexander said that the First and Third precincts would both retain their own identities in the combined building.
However, the city does not envision Century Plaza as a long-term home for the Third Precinct.
In the long-term, the Frey administration envisions potentially putting a "Community Safety Hub" somewhere in the Third Precinct, which would streamline MPD with social services, such as mental health response or violence prevention.
"We want to make sure we can provide safety and service in the immediacy to the residents of the Third Precinct," Frey said, "and simultaneously, look forward to that big vision."
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