MINNEAPOLIS — The city of Minneapolis continues to advance a plan to replace the abandoned Third Precinct with a "Community Safety Center," which would house both police and social services in a nearby building on Minnehaha Avenue.
On Wednesday evening, the city kicked off another round of community engagement with a meeting at the Powderhorn Recreation Center.
While the city has determined that police will work out of the Community Safety Center, Amanda Harrington with the Minneapolis Office of Community Safety said it's not clear yet which social services would be housed there.
Presumably, the building could include groups offering mental health support, addiction treatment or violence prevention.
"We've said all along, we're not going to decide what goes into the Community Safety Center. We really want the community to help us decide what they need and want in those spaces," Harrington said. "Part of the beauty of us having a diverse community in Minneapolis is that we have diverse opinions about what people want. We are really trying to meet the needs of all our citizens."
After years of debate about how to handle the Third Precinct, which was torched during the riots following George Floyd's murder, the city agreed to purchase the new Community Safety Center site on Minnehaha Avenue last fall for a price of at least $10 million. After crews finish inspections and environmental testing this spring, the city plans to close on the property in June before opening the center in early 2025.
Since 2020, Third Precinct officers have been working out of a temporary building in downtown Minneapolis, miles away from the neighborhoods where they patrol.
"For the police officers not to have a permanent home, to be in a building that wasn't created to be a precinct, to not have just the offices for roll calls and for staff," Harrington said, "that's absolutely been a challenge for them."
Kevin Barnes, who has lived in parts of south Minneapolis for decades, said he likes the idea of a central hub including both police and community resources.
"I think it's so important," he said. "To free up police to do what's needed for police to do."
At the same time, other neighbors are much more lukewarm -- or outright hostile -- toward the idea.
Rachel Boeke, the executive director of the Longfellow Community Council, helped organize Wednesday's meeting with the city. She said there's a mix of opinions among her neighborhood.
"What I'm hearing from the community, is there's some hesitancy from folks about placing police where other services are. That, some residents aren't going to want to go into a police precinct to get those resources, and it would be better to have them in separate spaces," Boeke said. "That's why we're hosting this tonight to hear from a larger perspective of people."
The city has more community engagement sessions planned about the Community Safety Center, including an event in Little Earth on April 8 and the Minnehaha Senior Living facility on April 26.
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