The Minneapolis City Council has voted to dissolve the Office of Community Safety, the department created in 2022 to bring the city’s police, fire, 911, emergency management and neighborhood safety operations under one leader after the murder of George Floyd.
The council voted 9-4 on Oct. 29 to dissolve the office and move some of its responsibilities elsewhere. The ordinance also eliminates the community safety commissioner position as part of a broader restructuring of city government. The departments the office oversaw would remain and report directly to the mayor or a designee.
The vote pits council members who say the office added costly bureaucracy without results against a city administration that says it made Minneapolis safer. But some of the community groups doing violence prevention on the ground say neither side has given their work the support it needs…