Third Precinct Update

Dear community,

Many of you have been engaged in the 3rd Precinct conversation and I am reaching out with an update regarding last minute changes by Mayor Frey regarding the potential site location. Late Friday, Mayor Frey shared with the Council an intention to move forward with a new location for a “Community Safety Center” at 2633 Minnehaha Ave. The Mayor previously attempted to relocate the 3rd Precinct at this site in the fall of 2020, but robust community opposition ended consideration of the location. 

Earlier this year, the Mayor proposed relocating the 3rd Precinct at one of two sites nearby: 3000 Minnehaha or 2600 Minnehaha. During the 3rd Precinct engagement process, residents rejected both locations, with clear demands that the city needs to deliver on promises of truth and reconciliation and a new model of public safety beyond policing before making multi-million dollar investments into any new buildings. Due to this response, the administration has now started talking about not just a 3rd Precinct, but a “3rd Precinct and Community Safety Center.”

Community pressure has forced the administration to call the 3rd Precinct by a different name. However, a rebrand is not the same thing as a plan. Moving forward without clear commitments leaves open the risk that preventative, restorative, diversionary, healing, and alternative response programs will fall through the cracks, while the status quo of policing remains intact. For the better part of almost two years, my office has persisted in asking the Frey administration questions on how the city plans to move to a comprehensive safety model and how we would restructure our property use around this model. Every question has either been met with resistance, deflection, or outright confusion. Nonetheless, persistence in City Hall, continued organizing by residents, and two consent decrees have forced the administration to concede that policing and precincts must look different moving forward. 

I know residents of Ward 2 have been ready and eager to move forward to an actual community safety center that responds to our local safety needs, but they also recognize that in order for this work to advance, there has to be a detailed plan for comprehensive alternatives to policing and serious investment into that plan. 

Not only is there no plan, the fiscal note in the Mayor’s request only includes funding for a Precinct, not for the additional unspecified “community safety functions and services.” This further confirms that the administration’s intention is to maintain the status quo of policing, but rebranding it with a new name. 

While the administration has failed to take the initiative on advancing the Safe and Thriving Communities report, public will for a comprehensive public safety system that goes beyond policing remains as strong as ever.  This is why at tomorrow’s Committee of the Whole, I will be bringing forward a legislative directive that aims to hold my colleagues and the administration accountable to deliver a new model, rather than a rebrand of the status quo. I am optimistic that my colleagues will support the directive and we can move forward with long-term investments into comprehensive public safety that are accountable to our communities. 

Tomorrow’s vote does not end the conversation about the “community safety center.” There are significant unanswered questions that will likely move on to the next term. I am committed to working with you all and will continue to provide regular updates related to this issue as they come through my office. 

Sincerely, 

Council Member Robin Wonsley