Brooklyn Center May Revise 2021 Public Safety Resolution
The Brooklyn Center City Council may revise the public safety resolution it approved after Daunte Wright’s shooting.
The council discussed the matter on Aug. 29.
“The spirit of the intent is important,” said Brooklyn Center City Council Member Dan Jerzak. “However I do believe there are significant portions that have shown to be unworkable, unaffordable, duplicative, potentially even unenforceable.”
In May 2021, the Brooklyn Center City Council approved a resolution calling for sweeping changes to the city’s public safety response and structure.
The resolution called upon the city to hire mental health professionals or social workers that can respond to mental health-related police calls for service. The resolution also called for the creation of a team of unarmed civilians who would respond to non-moving traffic violations.
Specific language in the proposal requested the creation of new city departments to oversee these services.
The resolution was named after Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler, a 21-year-old on the autism spectrum who was shot and killed by Brooklyn Center police in 2019 during a domestic incident.
The resolution created an ad-hoc committee, referred to as Implementation Committee, that has spent the last two years planning these changes to the public safety structure.
Now, after two years of work, the council may revise the language in the resolution to better reflect the city’s funding constraints. A potential revision could also set new deadlines for the city to move its work forward.
The Brooklyn Center City Council may revise the public safety resolution it approved after Daunte Wright’s shooting.
Potential Revisions
Brooklyn Center City Manager Reggie Edwards said that the city has taken steps to address spirit of the resolution without necessarily adhering to its exact letter.
Some aspects of the resolution are not feasible for the city, he said.
For instance, the resolution specifically calls for the creation of a so-called “Community Response Department” and a “Traffic Enforcement Department.”
Likewise the resolution planned for an overarching “Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention” that would oversee all public safety departments including police and fire.
Instead, the city has created an Office of Community Prevention, Health and Safety, which works with but does not oversee the police and fire departments.
“In one way or another, the city has taken some action in the public safety act in its entirety,” Edwards said. “However, I would in the words of our attorney say, technically we haven’t done very much. Because it calls for [three departments] and it calls for very specific things. So we have not specifically created a department.”
The council could revise the language in the resolution to reflect the actions the city has taken and will take, or draft a new resolution in the same spirit, Edwards said.
Feedback
Brooklyn Center City Council members said they were willing to consider changes to the resolution.
The city is continuing to deal with issues related to the police department, said Brooklyn Center Marquita Butler.
“So many people have been harmed that are innocent,” she said. “We have a problem with the way in which some of our officers are engaging in community.”
She said she supported adding deadlines for action.
Brooklyn Center City Council member Teneshia Kragness said that she is interested in “cleaning” up the language of the resolution.
Brooklyn Center Mayor April Graves said that the Implementation Committee and other stakeholders need to be involved in the revision discussions.
“Trying to do much around this on our own also appears like we’re trying to move things backwards,” she said.
Katie Wright, mother of Daunte Wright, spoke against drafting a new resolution.
“To rewrite the whole resolution is not okay” she said. “It’s time to take action.”
The council hopes to wrap up any potential amendments to the resolution by 2024.
See also: Two Years After Daunte Wright’s Death, Brooklyn Center Committee Continues Police Reform Work
