MINNEAPOLIS — Just days after the Minneapolis City Council voted to approve plans to move the police department's First and Third Precincts into a vacant plaza downtown, the body has now walked back those plans and instead, voted to move the issue back to committee for further review.
Interim Operations Officer Heather Johnston answered questions on Thursday during the Committee of the Whole about the proposal. When asked how long the Third Precinct would be using the temporary location, she said the city estimated 10 years, referring to the project as "long-term temporary."
"I guess I am looking to my colleagues to see if anyone is having any reactions to this?" Councilmember Andrew Johnson said during the meeting.
He says it was the first time the council was told the duration of time the Third Precinct would be temporarily out of the actual Third Precinct boundary and downtown. It raised a number of eyebrows from councilmembers including Councilmember Latrisha Vetaw.
"My ward is not in the third precinct, but I want to be fiscally responsible, and this doesn't feel that way for me," Councilmember Vetaw said.
An outline presented to the council Tuesday laid out the details for the co-location project. During a presentation, Minneapolis Finance and Property Services Department Director Barbara O'Brian says it would cost $30.5 million. She says the mayor has allocated $10 million for the 3rd Precinct in the 2024 capital budget, and $20 million in 2025. She says $500,000 would come from leftover funds from existing budgets.
The plan to move the Third Precinct into Century Plaza with the First Precinct, which is located at 1101 Third Ave. S. near the city's Convention Center and an Interstate 35W on-ramp, was originally green lighted by the council on Tuesday.
However, councilmembers decided on Thursday they want more time to discuss the financial investment and timeline. They will bring it back to committee later this month.
A community engagement survey completed in the Third Precinct neighborhood earlier this year revealed neighbors rejected other proposals to either build a new station in the same place it stood on Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue or a new site just a few blocks away. Survey respondents said they would prefer the precinct be erected in a more nuanced place than where they stood more than three years ago as it was destroyed.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara told KARE 11 in a statement Thursday that he believes the decision to relocate the Third Precinct should be made with input from "residents who are most affected."
“The location of the Third Precinct building is a decision for the governing body to make with input from those residents who are most affected," O'Hara said in the statement. "I do believe that the residents of the Third Precinct are entitled to the same access to police services as all other city residents. That includes access to a precinct station house within the geographic confines of the Third Precinct.”
The original Third Precinct building, which stood at East Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue in the city's Longfellow neighborhood, was destroyed during the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Floyd, a Black man, was killed when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a white man, held his knee to Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was ultimately sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for Floyd's murder.
While city council members were aware that Century Plaza was probably only a temporary home to the precincts, when in July, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey alluded to potentially putting a "Community Safety Hub" somewhere in the Third Precinct. At the time, his administration said that would help streamline MPD with social services, such as mental health response or violence prevention.
"We want to make sure we can provide safety and service in the immediacy to the residents of the Third Precinct," Frey said, "and simultaneously, look forward to that big vision."
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