Brooklyn Center City Council hears resolution on policing changes
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) - Sunday marks one month since the shooting death of Daunte Wright, and now the city of Brooklyn Center is looking to change policing in the city.
A resolution presented Saturday would create multiple new public safety and crime prevention departments and committees. The resolution, laid out by the mayor, is named after Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler, both killed by Brooklyn Center police officers.
Mayor Mike Elliot called a special meeting to discuss the proposed changes.
"The good news is we have the ability to start creating these changes now, today," he said.
First, the resolution would create a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention that would oversee the city's fire and police departments. It would also create two new unarmed departments: the Traffic Enforcement Division, that would be responsible for enforcing non-moving traffic violations, and a Community Response Department, which would be made up of trained medical and mental health professionals.
"This resolution will transform our system so that police are not the only available response for everything,"
Members of the public got up and shared their support for a new approach.
"We want people to be able to call people to get help for their friends and family. We want to be able to drive in peace without being harassed. Please, you can make a difference," said Billie Jean Van Knight with the Racial Justice Network.
But City Council members are making it clear, this is not something they will be immediately voting on.
"I’m looking at the resolution, I don’t have anything that I’m overtly opposed to. I feel like there needs to be time, if we’re talking about working together as a community there should be time for the council to talk about it as well, which we have not done yet," said Brooklyn Center Councilmember April Graves.
Councilmember Graves said the council only received the resolution Friday, so they need more time to talk it over.
It's not clear when a vote might be taken on the resolution.