Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct future: Public debates new building

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Feelings ran excessive at a neighborhood assembly Thursday evening centered round the place the town of Minneapolis ought to rebuild its third police precinct.

The third Precinct facility was deserted and set on hearth following the Could 2020 homicide of George Floyd. Minneapolis officers need neighborhood members to decide on between two websites, the previous precinct facility at 3000 Minnehaha Avenue and a vacant Metropolis-owned lot at 2600 Minnehaha Avenue.

At a neighborhood dialog Thursday evening, a lot of the feedback made had been that the dialogue about rebuilding the power is far too untimely.

“Why are we having this dialog when, so far as crime goes or so far as police response occasions go, nothing has modified? It nonetheless is horrible, however it’s not modified, so it is not like we’re worse off with them not round,” mentioned Lydia Kauppi from the Longfellow neighborhood.

“Individuals are like, ‘let’s convey the dialog again, and let’s discuss it, certain,’ however you’ll be able to’t simply push a brand new constructing in there,” mentioned Aaron Stephenson additionally from the Longfellow neighborhood. “We have to have a means, means, means deeper dialogue in regards to the Minneapolis Police Division.”

Talking to a full room on the Midtown International Market, metropolis officers mentioned they checked out almost 30 websites to interchange the precinct constructing.

Barbara O’Brien, Minneapolis’ director of property companies, additionally defined the factors the positioning wanted to satisfy, together with that it was throughout the third precinct boundaries, it was giant sufficient, it had a number of factors of entry and exit, it was zoned appropriately and it was simply accessible. Town’s most popular standards included that it was centrally situated inside precinct boundaries, it had room to develop sooner or later, it was alongside public transit route, it had entry to fiber optics and it was owned by the town.

Residents mentioned they’re annoyed the town’s survey asking the neighborhood for enter in regards to the third precinct can’t be accomplished except they decide one of many metropolis’s two proposed areas. They really feel the tradition on the Minneapolis Police Division must be examined and adjusted earlier than they wish to discuss rebuilding.

“I feel what many individuals listed here are suggesting is that not solely is the method by which y’all try to ramrod this precinct into the neighborhood inadequate. You possibly can have began by truly asking what companies are wanted,” one resident mentioned.

“There was nothing, completely nothing to proof that MPD has modified its tradition and its methods. I refuse to have my tax {dollars} and different folks’s tax {dollars} who dwell within the third precinct to construct a gleaming new fortress for obnoxious officers and a police division that will kill one other George Floyd at the moment if they might get away with it,” mentioned one other resident.

The officers assigned to the third precinct have been figuring out of a facility downtown. When Heather Johnston, the interim metropolis operations officer, was requested why the realm wants a brand new constructing to start with, she mentioned officers have to be nearer to the neighborhood the place they’re being dispatched to allow them to reply to calls.

“The opposite piece is we wish the officers to have the ability to develop optimistic relationships, which I’ll acknowledge they haven’t up to now,” Johnston mentioned.