Public Safety Story

 For several days, there's been this ballot referendum from Minneapolis that has been on my mind.  It's pushed up by the city council, and will be voted up later in the year by residents of the city.

The general wording?  The police department would basically go away.

What you'd have is a safety department.

Composition?  'Licensed' police officers, mental health responders, substance abuse specialists, violence 'interrupters' and violence prevention professionals.

I've sat and reviewed the idea, and the composition.

Generally, I see five problems:

1.  Manpower-wise, you'd probably have to double the number of folks that you have presently as police, to make this effectively work.  Tax revenue-wise....it will take an incredibly large group, and cost value.....to put this into action.

2.  If I were a violence 'interrupter'....brought to a scene and the guy is drugged-up to the max....the odds are that this will get violent in a matter of minutes, and I'm not armed or trained to the degree required....so I expect the violence 'interrupter' crowd to meet a violent situation in ten-percent of cases.

3.  If you took the Floyd-case....who would have been called?  Well....the standard police in this new era because this was all about a stupid counterfeit $20 that Floyd didn't want to discuss.  

4.  Man-hours on each event?  Where the cops might figure 90 minutes for a messed-up situation....under this situation, you might be talking about three to four hours.  

Hostile drugged-up husband?  Wife calls 9-1-1.  Mental health guy responds, and meets up with a very violent husband.  This will be a very case to spiral out of control quickly.

5.  Finally, where is the authority figure?  Normally, authority rests with the police.  If some 'violence interrupter' guy shows up and flashes a badge.....you will ask the guy....are you the police?  He'll say no, and you will disrespect the guy by walking away.  That will be standard public attitude.

I see this referendum passing, and in a matter of two years....the cost of public safety in Minneapolis will soar to double what the cost is today.  I'll also predict that a quarter of the residents will view the change in a negative way.....plan an exodus from the city, and the experiment will be deemed a failure after four years.  The failure will mostly revolve more violent acts than before and the cost factor being too much for residents to handle.  

So to a final note, which I found odd....the change that is proposed....has a little sentence in it....which says that the police that would exist after the transformation....would be more or less run/managed by the city council themselves...NOT the police chief.  

You would hire someone who would just 'pretend' to be the chief, but in reality...some city council member could walk into the central control room....via a situation and just demand that officers 'stand-down'.....there would be no standard way of handling a mess....you'd just invent a new management view each day and leave people guessing how the chips may fall.

In some ways....it's a bit amusing and looks like a transformation into Mogadishu....one clan family over another, just depending the day of the week.