Minneapolis mayoral candidate Raymond Dehn proposes disarming police of guns

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - State Representative and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Raymond Dehn is calling for major policing changes, proposing to take away guns from the majority of officers.

Dehn is one of several candidates running to beat current Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges in the fall.

He recently won the support of voters at the Democratic Farmer Labor convention and now his call to disarm police of their side guns is garnering major attention.

"I'm not saying they don't have access to that, just like they have access to more lethal weapons in their cars, I would believe they would still have access to their guns in their cars," said Dehn.

Dehn says there needs to be drastic changes in how officers are trained.

He would be open to officers using other means to protect themselves like a night stick or pepper spray.

"I think as we look at how to change policing and how we get officers to not react to use their gun in situations, but learning skills around de-escalation training I think are important," he said.

Mayor Hodges disagrees with Dehn's proposal.

"And if we are going to talk about changes in gun policy, we shouldn't start with police officer who are going to be operating in a world with people who have guns," said Hodges.

Dehn says the details of his no gun proposal are still in the early stages and he wants to sit down with police officers and come up with a strategy that keeps both the community and law enforcement safe.

But the head of the police union, Lt. Bob Kroll, says there's not a chance this idea would fly with any cop.

"I don't think the people in Minneapolis are logically ready for anything like this,” said Kroll. “Who would ever do the job of policing again? It's absolutely an absurd thought.”

Fox 9 reached out to several of the other candidates running for mayor. All agreed that there needs to be substantial reform within the police department, but they say stripping officers’ guns is going too far.