Minneapolis city leaders say the necessary steps have been taken to ensure citywide failures during the riots that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd don't happen again.
An 86-page Hillard-Heinze After-Action Report report included 27 recommendations to ensure the city developed a higher level of emergency preparedness. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other city leaders came together during a press conference on Tuesday to announce they completed those public safety recommendations.
"Through 11 exercises, 29 courses, and 578 hours worth of National Incident Management training, our team has done the necessary work," Frey said.
The completion comes after the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Integrated Emergency Management Course almost two weeks ago in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
The four-day course tested the city's proficiency in responding to an emergency using the NIMS concepts, a national approach for all levels of government and community groups to work together during major events.
Overall, the after-action report provided four overall objectives:
- Apply the Incident Command System (ICS) approach to a situation
- Better organize the Emergency Operations Center concept
- Utilize MAC/ Policy groups to enable decision making among elected and appointed officials
- Improve the flow and dissemination of information internally and to the public through the use of a Joint Information System (JIS)
“The safety of our community is of the utmost importance to us,” said Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette. “Our community, our staff, and the people of Minneapolis are depending on us and holding us accountable, and it is important that we get this right. So, we will continue to learn, practice, and refine our process to maximize our preparedness across our organization. I’m so proud of our city staff and first responders for their commitment to completing and being engaged during this training.”
The preparedness efforts include a revamp of the citywide alert system. The updated system ensures residents receive up-to-date information about what is happening in the city through push notifications.
"This will allow residents to sign up and to be able to have a variety of types of information pushed out towards them," said City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher.
Residents can sign up for emergency alerts by texting MPLS Alerts to 77295.