Resolution Calls For Education, Not Enforcement, In Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS — The Bicycle Advisory Committee in Minneapolis on Wednesday published a resolution asking the city to reduce the role of police and traffic enforcement in its approach to street and community safety.

The resolution, which can be read in full online, calls on the city to remove funding from the Minneapolis Police Department and instead make investments in strategies that address violence, community instability and issues of safety for people walking, roller-blading and biking.

The resolution further asks the city to reconsider its approach to the Vision Zero Action Plan so it instead focuses on a "holistic, comprehensive approach to addressing unsafe behaviors by street users."

In a blog post on its website, the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) said the resolution was presented by Vice Chair Elissa Schufman and is the result of 18 months of discussion on what role traffic enforcement plays in Minneapolis' street safety.

The resolution states the BAC's vision is a city each resident can safely enjoy mobility without encountering violence.

"...the Minneapolis Police Department is a direct barrier to that vision, and is emblematic of the system of policing as a whole, whose U.S. origins are rooted in slave patrols and town watches that forced escaped Black slaves back into bondage, brutalized Black and Indigenous communities, and searched and confiscated property without cause," the resolution reads.

In June, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution to begin a year-long process of community engagement, research and structural change with the goal of creating a new model for city safety.

"The City Council will engage with every willing community member in Minneapolis, centering the voices of Black people, American Indian people, people of color, immigrants, victims of harm, and other stakeholders who have been historically marginalized or under-served by our present system. Together, we will identify what safety looks like for everyone," the council's resolution passed reads.

The BAC's resolution states the organization, along with Reclaim the Block, Black Visions Collective and Minneapolis residents, supports the council's approach to rethinking community safety.

The BAC also stated it supports the Minneapolis Charter Comissoin's recently proposed amendment allowing the requirement for a police department to be removed from the charter.

In the resolution, the mobility advocacy group voiced support for the amendment — which would require that the city maintain "a department of community safety and violence prevention" — and asked that it be placed on the ballot for the election taking place Nov. 3.

If approved by voters, the changes would become effective May 1, 2021.