Office of Community Safety delivers quarterly update; Emergency Management outlines responses to recent mass shootings and MPD reports crime declines

The Office of Community Safety and department leaders presented the committee's quarterly update on Oct. 1, covering organizational hires, the Lake Street Safety Center, emergency-management responses to recent mass shootings, MPD staffing and overtime, and next steps for ongoing reform projects.

Todd Barnett, Commissioner of Community Safety, opened the update by summarizing OCS responsibilities and organizational changes. Barnett noted three key hires for the quarter (a Director of Design and Implementation, a Director of Communications, and a chief of staff) and said OCS will continue to work with NYU's policing project on reform recommendations.

Will Christiansen, Director of Design and Implementation, said the Safe and Thriving Communities effort has completed 22 actions this year and will prioritize recommendations for 2026 using a data-driven approach. Christina Dowling reported on the Lake Street Safety Center, which opened Nov. 4 (year not specified in slides), has hosted 419 visitors, and in May 2025 added a service for filing nonemergency police reports (seven people used that service). Dowling said center hours shifted to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays after utilization analysis showed most visits occur between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Bethlehem Yahalawork from Performance Management and Innovation said city staff traveled to Charlotte to study a civilian crash-investigator model and will use those lessons in a traffic-control-response pilot. The city's social-worker-in-911 pilot completed training and took its first call in late September; MECC will assume operational leadership while PMI continues continuous-improvement support.

Deputy Chief John Kingsbury presented Minneapolis Police Department metrics, saying violent crime and property crime trended down year over year and listing department priorities: improving priority-1 response times (median times peaked in 2024 and have been improving), ongoing recruitment, and training. Kingsbury reported that MPD currently has 54 community service officers (CSOs) and had recent academy graduations and new recruit classes.

Kingsbury also summarized overtime drivers and oversight: MPD's overtime increased as staffing fell post-2020 and as training days increased in 2025; overtime is distributed first within affected shifts and precincts, then citywide if positions remain unfilled, and supervisors are responsible for balancing schedules. Department policy restricts work hours and mandates rest periods; MPD said quarterly audits and a new payroll system and early-intervention system will improve oversight. A finance director reported year-to-date critical-staffing overtime (CSOT) through August at roughly $11.3 million; the contract that supports parts of that overtime is scheduled to expire in December and was discussed as part of implementation planning.

Rachel Sayer, Director of Emergency Management, reported that the office activated the Emergency Operations Center on Oct. 27 in response to the mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation and activated a second EOC in September after two mass shootings on Lake Street. Sayer said staff worked with city, county and state partners and community organizations to run two neighborhood assistance centers that together served more than 400 people over six days, providing mental-health services, victim-reimbursement assistance and referrals.

Sayer said recovery remains the longest part of these responses and that the city is coordinating ongoing mental-health and victim-support services. She said planned exercises and community-engagement activities were delayed because staff were engaged in the emergency responses.

At the meeting's end, Chair Jason Chavez moved to continue the remainder of the OCS quarterly update to the committee's next convening on Oct. 15; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.