Minneapolis chief pleads with voters
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo on Wednesday urged voters to reject a ballot question that would replace the city’s police department, saying it would do nothing to address the issues laid bare with the death last year of George Floyd.
Voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve a new public safety unit that would take “a more comprehensive public health approach” to policing. The ballot question would also drop a required minimum number of police officers and give City Council members more oversight of police.
Opponents have said the proposal is vague, with no specific plan for the replacement.
“To vote on a measure of reimagining public safety without a solid plan and an implementation or direction of work — this is too critical of a time to wish and hope for that help that we need so desperately right now,” Arradondo told reporters.
Arradondo, usually a reserved and deferential chief, was animated and smacked the lectern at one point in his remarks.
He described the city as “flatlining,” citing the department’s deficit of nearly 300 officers, or about onethird of its authorized 888 sworn officers — with much of the attrition due to retirements, resignations and disability leaves.
He said he wasn’t sure what the ballot question would do, but he said he was sure it would not stop police having dangerous interactions with citizens, would not help recruiting and retention and wouldn’t suddenly change a police culture that critics say is brutal.
He also expressed concern about language in the ballot question that describes the new department as including police officers “if necessary.”