Brooklyn Center Approves 10 Members to Serve on Police Reform Implementation Committee
The Brooklyn Center City Council approved on Monday night 10 members to serve on an implementation committee tasked with rolling out several police reform initiatives.
Brooklyn Center Police Reform Implementation Committee
The committee was initially approved last May under the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Act. The city approved $1 million in a budget vote last December for several public safety initiatives. Those include a new mental health unit and a new civilian traffic enforcement unit for non-moving traffic violations.
Included on the committee is Katie Wright, the mother of Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old who was shot and killed during a traffic stop when former officer Kim Potter mistook her gun for a Taser. A judge sentenced Potter to 16 months in prison last month.
Another committee member is Amity Dimock, whose son, Kobe, was killed by police in 2019 following a 911 family crisis call.
Other members include:
- Lori Bardal, friend of Amity Dimock. Her application was not published in Monday’s city council packet.
- Julie Bourque, a children’s mental health case manager, who wrote in her application that she’s “watched countless numbers of clients be profiled, targeted and brutalized by the police.”
- Matthew Branch, executive director of Root Youth and Family Services, a Brooklyn Center youth engagement nonprofit, founded after the death of Daunte Wright.
- Joecelia Dalmeida, who checked on her application that she’s a representative of the immigrant community.
- Joylenna Garcia, friend of Amity Dimock and Katie Wright. She checked that she represents formerly incarcerated individuals on her application.
- John Solomon, a retired social worker and a former police officer in Washington, D.C. Solomon currently serves on the Brooklyn Center School Board.
- Mark Viste, council president at St. James Lutheran Church in Crystal. Viste, who is white, wrote that he has heard “many reports from my non-white neighbors that they are not treated by the police in the same way I am.”
- Kia “Kiki” Welch. Her application states she lives across the street from the police department.
All committee members live in Brooklyn Center, except Dimock, who now lives in Baxter, and Wright who lives in north Minneapolis. Mayor Mike Elliott will also serve on the committee.
The city received 28 applications with 24 candidates interviewed. David Zaffrann was hired to serve as manager of the Public Safety Implementation Committee.
Concern about diversity of thought
While the vote was unanimous on the members selected, there was some concern raised about the absence of young Black men on the committee and whether it had enough diversity in opinion.
“The absence of young Black men on this committee was troubling because, of course, young Black men in our city, or everywhere, are the most vulnerable, most likely to suffer negative experiences, negative encounters, even tragic encounters with law enforcement,” said Brooklyn Center City Council member Dan Ryan.
Ryan and council member Kris Lawrence-Anderson also raised concern about whether a broad spectrum of well-informed opinion will be heard.
“I want to make certain that we have a diverse segment of people in their perspectives and what they bring,” said Lawrence-Anderson.
The 10 candidates approved were initially selected through an interview panel that included Elliott, Zaffrann and other city staff.
Elliott assured council members that the voices of other applicants will be heard, even if they were left off the committee. The mayor mentioned there will also be subcommittees to the committee “where quite frankly a lot of the work will take place.”
“No one really is being left out,” said Elliott. “I can’t stress that enough.”
The first meeting of the implementation committee is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 5, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Brooklyn Center Community Center.
