Many in Minneapolis have been asking for police reform following the murder of George Floyd over a year ago. Now, the upcoming ballot in the city looks to make a change to who runs the Minneapolis Police from the mayor to a panel of 14 individuals, plus the mayor and city council.
To discuss this, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined New Talk 830 WCCO's Chad Hartman where he shared his thoughts on the change in charter and why he supports it.
"I believe better police-community relations mends themself to public safety," Ellison said. "Where people feel comfortable and safe calling the police department and cooperating with the prosecution, that means there's less space for criminal wrongdoers to run around."
Related
Ellison believes the change to the charter is necessary and he also called attention to the hesitancy for some Minneapolis residents to call the police, being that they do not have a good relationship with law enforcement. For him, this is the biggest problem.
"There's no doubt that we have a relationship problem," he said.
Ellison first shared his support for the charter change on Twitter.
If the charter changes, a new agency would decide whether or not police are sent out in certain situations, but it would not remove police from the streets entirely, Ellison said.
Related
The new charter would only require armed officers to respond to violent crimes, not issues where they are deemed unnecessary. Ellison said he doesn't support defunding the police entirely, only reforming the way they do business.
"Police are self-evidently necessary; there's no doubt about that," Ellison said.
Ellison thinks if police reform is embraced, community relations will be improved, and people will be more willing to interact and work with officers, but first steps have to be made to show improvement. One way he thinks this can be done is by deploying new tactics.
"We gotta have mental health people more involved in public safety deployments," he said. "If we make this change, we will be better off."
Related
While some view having 14 different individuals running the police as problematic, Ellison wants to make the change.
"Every single system in the world needs to be examined and refined as time marches on. We aren't talking about holy scripture here; we are talking about the charter," Ellison said.
"I think that it is time for change."