Following their first unsuccessful attempt earlier this year, a couple police accountability advocacy groups relaunched another effort to establish civilian control of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) via a citizen petition to get a question on municipal ballot in 2025.Dozens of people gathered in front of the charred remains of the Minneapolis Police’s old Third Precinct building on Thursday as two groups – Minneapolis for Community Control of the Police (M4CCP) and Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) – held a rally and march to launch a second effort to amend the city charter and establish the Civilian Police Accountability Commission. The commission would be an elected body of 13 civilians that would have the power to discipline and discharge any MPD employee – including the chief – investigate incidents and decide the department’s budget.The second attempt comes after the groups submitted a petition to the city clerk in May that featured more than 10,000 signatures, which was more than the required 8,943 signatures, or 5% of the total number of voters in Minneapolis in the previous election, needed to get an initiative on the 2024 ballot. The city clerk’s office rejected nearly 5,000 of the signatures and gave the groups 10 days to reach the threshold but they couldn’t get the remaining signatures in time.
“Personally, when I got the news, I was crushed as I felt years of organizing and hundreds of hours of work had been thrown away by bureaucratic technicalities,” said Jae Yates of both M4CCP and TCC4J. “But this feeling of defeat was immediately replaced by determination and resolve as I watched TCC4J members immediately mobilize to say ‘What’s next?’”Jon Martin, deputy director of the city’s elections and voter services, said in order for the initiative to get on the ballot, the groups must submit the signatures by May 1 of next year. The signature threshold will likely be higher this time around because it will be based on 5% of the number of ballots cast in Minneapolis in the 2024 election, and voter turnout is typically higher in presidential years.Once submitted, each signature is verified by staff in the city clerk’s office. “What that process is, is that they make sure each signature line is completely filled out, and then they verify that the address that the person wrote down on the signature line is the address that they’re currently registered at with the city of Minneapolis,” Martin said.
If the threshold is reached, then the petition is forwarded to the city attorney’s office to do a legal review of the question. The question is then sent to the Minneapolis City Council to draft ballot question language, he said.Dozens of people gathered in front of the charred remains of the Minneapolis Police’s old Third Precinct building on Thursday as two groups – Minneapolis for Community Control of the Police and Twin Cities Coalition for Justice – held a rally and march to launch a second effort to amend the city charter and establish the Civilian Police Accountability Commission. Credit: MinnPost photo by Mohamed Ibrahim
If successful, the measure would be the second question to make it onto the ballot seeking to remove sole authority over MPD from Mayor Jacob Frey since the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin in 2020. The first question, spearheaded by Yes4Minneapolis, would have replaced MPD with a Department of Public Safety and shifted authority over the department to the City Council. It failed in the 2021 municipal election, though about 43% voted in favor of it.A spokesman for Frey said in a statement that the mayor does not support the initiative, saying the commission would “dilute accountability by inserting 13 bosses in the chain of command for the police department.”“The proposal did not make sense in 2021 and still does not make sense today,” said the spokesman. “The mayor continues to support the build-out of the existing Community Commission on Police Oversight and the Chief’s development of a more accountable and transparent department through adherence to the settlement agreement, a new police contract, enhanced community engagement, and ongoing training initiatives.”
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