Minneapolis leaders stand by Office of Community Safety as debate to end it grows

Minneapolis leaders stand by Office of Community Safety as debate to end it grows Ben Henry KSTP Minneapolis leaders stand by Office of Community Safety as debate to end it grows Minneapolis city leaders are standing up for a department currently under consideration to be cut. The Office of Community Safety (OCS) oversees some of the most important services in Minneapolis — police, fire, 911, Emergency Management and Neighborhood Safety. RELATED: Mayor pushing back on calls to end controversial Minneapolis departmentThis week, there is a public hearing on whether to end the OCS — among other structural changes — following a proposal from the council president. But two of the directors within the OCS feel there’s too much at stake to remove it. “Our community deserves the best response that we can give them,” Joni Hodne, Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center (MECC) director, said. “We are working together as a leader in the industry, showing how this can be done through a community or a unified command to help serve the public in alternate responses and in other ways,” Hodne added. The City of Minneapolis shared that the OCS has helped cut the most serious 911 response times by two minutes within the last year — going from an average of 9.4 minutes to now 7.4 minutes. It has also increased the number of times workers from the Behavioral Crisis Response program have been deployed and led to more efficient handling of major emergencies and public safety incidents. “In my profession of emergency management career of doing large-scale disaster responses around the world, I can tell you what you need for successful responses is consistent structure, clear leadership, chain of command and coordination,” Rachel Sayre, director of the city’s Emergency Management department, said. Now, the city council wants to hear from the community — this Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., there is a public hearing on the proposed changes. Mayor Jacob Frey also opposes the OCS’s end, sharing the following statement:“The Office of Community Safety has effectively coordinated our public safety services, including crisis and emergency management, 911 operations, and mental health supports, since 2021. This model has since become nationally recognized with New York City most recently establishing their own office.“Instead of moving us forward, the very council members who once advocated to consolidate these programs under a single umbrella now seek to silo them again.“