Minneapolis committee reviews progress on community safety ecosystem, pilots and centers

The Public Health and Safety Committee on March 5 received a quarterly update on the city’s community safety ecosystem, including progress implementing recommendations from the Safe and Thriving Communities report and an NYU assets-and-gaps analysis.

"We are working to develop, support, and sustain an innovative, collaborative, and evolving safety ecosystem that ensures equitable equitable outcomes for all Minneapolis communities," Amanda Harrington, director of community safety design and implementation in the Office of Community Safety, told the committee.

The update covered completed tasks, staffing and governance changes, utilization data from the Lake Street Community Safety Center, and the design and pilot timelines for several programs meant to move non-emergency responses away from armed police officers.

Why it matters: The report outlines how Minneapolis plans to expand nonpolice responses to livability, mental-health and traffic incidents and to create new community safety centers. Several pilots described in the presentation could change which city offices respond to nonviolent calls, affect how 911 triages crisis responses and guide future budget and contracting decisions.

Key takeaways

- Implementation status: Harrington said 43 tasks from the Safe and Thriving Communities report and the NYU asset-and-gaps analysis are marked completed as of Feb. 28, with 12 completed since the committee’s last quarterly update in November. She said four tasks were finished before she joined the city and six in her first four months on the job.

- Governance and staffing: The city has formed a steering committee to oversee implementation and align the Office of Community Safety (OCS), the Office of Public Service and the City Attorney’s Office. Harrington said the deputy director position for OCS — intended to bridge cross-department work and settlement-agreement implementation — has been posted.

- Lake Street Community Safety Center: Harrington reported rising but variable usage of the Lake Street site since it opened: 22 visits in November, 32 in December, 46 in January and 29 in February. Uses reported included bathroom and phone access, requests for referrals and for other city services; the center also hosts meetings and partner outreach. Harrington said staff have placed Naloxone (Narcan) on a public shelf at the center and that non-emergency police-report intake at the center is expected after an IT solution is implemented, "in about a month." She said a memorandum of understanding with Metro Transit is under legal review and that LEAD partners continue to visit though they currently lack case managers to accept new clients.

- Community Safety Ambassadors pilot: Bethlehem Holliwork, program manager with Performance Management and Innovation, said two ambassador teams will patrol East Lake Street and Franklin Avenue cultural districts. The contract for that vendor was approved by the City Council on Feb. 27 and is in negotiations, Holliwork said; the city plans to include performance metrics in the contract and to run a public-facing dashboard. Holliwork said ambassadors will prioritize daytime hours to support youth commuting to and from school and that the city aims to have ambassadors in place by spring 2025. "These ambassadors play a crucial role in fostering trust between residents and local authorities, addressing common livability issues, and enhancing the overall sense of safety," Holliwork said.

- Embedded social worker pilot: The city plans to place one social worker inside the Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center (MECC) five days a week from 12 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to triage and provide real-time consultation on 911 crisis calls; Harrington said data indicate many calls the social worker could support occur between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. A joint powers agreement between Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis was approved by the City Council on Feb. 13 and is scheduled for the Hennepin County Board on March 11. Hiring, HIPAA-compliant data systems and training are next steps; staff projected the embedded social worker could begin responding in August 2025.

- Traffic control response pilot: The pilot would dispatch civilian traffic-control agents instead of police to many non-injury collisions. Presentation materials and staff briefings estimated that dispatching four to six traffic control agents in Precincts 3 and 4 from about 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. could support roughly a 65% case response rate in those precincts. Staff said the pilot would use Department of Justice funding and remains in design refinement.

- Juvenile deflection pilot: Staff described a pilot to connect youth who come into contact with police but lack a chargeable offense to upstream services (restorative circles, mentorship, mental-health supports). Harrington and PMI staff said the city is still scoping the pilot and seeking funding; they noted existing county and city diversion programs but identified a gap for youth who do not meet diversion eligibility.

Funding and external applications

Harrington and PMI staff said funding strategies include federal grants and existing city earmarks. The city applied to the 2025 Bloomberg Mayors Challenge for additional funding and plans to leverage DOJ dollars for the traffic-control pilot. Committee members noted a 2023 council appropriation of about $3 million for related pilots and earlier Metro Youth Diversion contracts totaling around $500,000 mentioned during the discussion.

Questions and oversight

Committee members and staff discussed timelines and capacity. Council President Payne asked how a posted OCS deputy director would connect cross-department efforts; Harrington said the position should provide that crossover. Several members pressed staff on timelines for the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center (Harrington said she expects it in 2026 but could not supply a month) and on the embedded social worker’s shift hours; staff said the schedule balances peak call times and overlap with leadership for training and coordination.

Votes at a glance

- Consent agenda (Items 1–3): Motion to approve items 1–3 carried unanimously. Item 1 authorized acceptance of additional funds from the Minnesota Department of Health for a commercial tobacco prevention grant; Item 2 authorized a revenue contract with the University of Minnesota for bomb-detection services at Huntington Bank Stadium; Item 3 set a March 19 public hearing on an ordinance relating to temporary assignments for the Community Commission and Police Oversight (CCPO) review panel.

- Receive and file report: Chair Jason Chavez directed the clerk to receive and file the community safety ecosystem report; no objections were raised.

What’s next

Staff said they will continue contracting negotiations for the ambassadors, finalize IT work to take non-emergency police reports at the Lake Street center, complete hires for the embedded social-worker contract manager and dispatch positions, refine pilot designs and gather data to inform any scale-up decisions. The city said it will post a public dashboard for some pilot metrics.

The committee did not adopt new ordinances or change existing law during the meeting; it received staff updates and directed the clerk to file the report.