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The police abolition movement gained momentum in the U.S. city of Minneapolis during protests of the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and culminated in the failed Question 2 ballot measure in 2021 to replace the city's police department with a public safety department. The measure would have removed minimum staffing levels for sworn officers, renamed the Minneapolis Police Department as the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety, and shifted oversight of the new agency from the mayor's office to the city council.[1] It required the support of 51 percent of voters in order to pass. In the Minneapolis municipal election held on November 2, 2021, the measure failed with 43.8 percent voting for it and 56.2 percent voting against it.[2]
The ballot measure was part of the political movement in the aftermath of Floyd's murder by local political activists that sought to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with another system of public safety and divert its budget towards social services programs in the city, such as affordable housing, violence prevention, education, and food security. A public pledge by nine of the 13 elected members of the Minneapolis City Council on June 7, 2020, to "defund police" garnered significant attention for the police abolition movement, as well as considerable political backlash.[3][4][5] The goals of the "defund police" pledge were never fully defined by city council members at the time of the pledge and the effort largely collapsed in the following months. A majority of Minneapolis city residents, including a large number of persons from the Black community, opposed a reduction in the size of the city's police force.[6][7]
Public discussion in late 2020 about changing the city's policing policies came during a surge in violent crime, which disproportionately affected people of color in the city.[8][7][9] At the end of 2020, city council shifted 4.5 percent of the city's annual police budget to violence prevention programs, but the incremental move fell well short of the sweeping changes demanded by activists and pledged by local lawmakers earlier in year.[5][10] Though the city council committed to maintaining the same number of police officer positions, attrition and disability claims left the department with 200 fewer police officers, and city residents grew frustrated by the lack of a police presence and slower response times to 911 calls.[11][12]
After the failed vote, public attention shifted away from ambitious police reform measures and towards crime reduction and more incremental reform strategies.[13][14]
- ^ Navratil, Liz; Mahamud, Faiza (September 17, 2021). "What you need to know about the Minneapolis charter amendments". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on November 9, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:19was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Searcey, Dionne; Eligon, John (June 7, 2020). "Minneapolis Will Dismantle Its Police Force, Council Members Pledge". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ Solender, Andrew. "Minneapolis Votes To Disband Police Department". Forbes. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
:3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Navratil, Liz (November 26, 2020). "6 months after George Floyd's killing, how much has policing in Minneapolis changed?". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
- ^ a b Rao, Maya (2 July 2020). "Some Minneapolis Black leaders speak out against City Council's moves to defund police" Archived February 14, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Star Tribune
- ^ Navratil, Liz (February 3, 2021). "National money flowing into fight over Minneapolis Police Department". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
- ^ Sawyer, Liz (December 2, 2020). "'Staggering' surge in violent carjackings continues across Minneapolis". Star Tribune. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ Herndon, Astead W. (September 26, 2020). "How a Pledge to Dismantle the Minneapolis Police Collapsed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:13was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Navratil, Liz (February 4, 2021). "Minneapolis has about 200 fewer police officers available to work". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
- ^ Pearson, Jake (October 24, 2022). "More Than Two Years After George Floyd's Murder Sparked a Movement, Police Reform Has Stalled. What Happened?". ProPublica. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:8was invoked but never defined (see the help page).