Minneapolis City Council plans to defund, dismantle the city’s police force

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council on Sunday announced that they intend to defund and dismantle the city’s police department following the police killing of George Floyd.

Council President Lisa Bender told CNN that with the nine votes the city council members would have a veto-proof majority of the council’s 13 members.

Pressed for details on what the dismantling might look like, Bender told CNN that police funding would be shifted to other needs, and the city council would discuss how to replace the current police department.

“The idea of having no police department is certainly not in the short term,” Bender said.

The nine council members made the announcement at a community rally in Minneapolis.

Calls by some to defund or abolish police departments have grown in the wake of Floyd’s death and nationwide protests against police brutality — not just in Minneapolis, but around the country.

Members of the Minneapolis City Council previously said they would take steps to dismantle the police department, including Bender, who tweeted this past week, “Yes. We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety.”

Jeremiah Ellison, city councilman for Ward 5, tweeted a similar message recently, writing, “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together. We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.”

News of the announcement was first reported by The Appeal.