Activists say police reform efforts in Brooklyn Center are stalling, after the City Council postponed voting on a community-led public safety commission.
After Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright in 2021, the City Council passed a resolution that same year that called for numerous reforms, including creating a commission made up of community members that would provide input on policing and violence prevention. The City Council discussed the commission at two meetings last month, and was scheduled to discuss it again at a council meeting Monday evening, but tabled a vote on whether to create the commission until later this month.
“It’s really disheartening that we are not seeing the change that we need after four years, and that we’re still talking about the same thing,” Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, said at Monday’s meeting.
Some City Council members who have opposed the Community Safety and Violence Prevention Commission said at Monday’s meeting that they will consider it if some changes are made. The council had previously discussed changing criteria for the commission’s members and redefining its responsibilities.
Brooklyn Center Mayor April Graves and Council Member Teneshia Kragness have said they support the commission. Council Members Dan Jerzak, Kris Lawrence-Anderson and Laurie Ann Moore previously said they did not support it, but said Monday they would consider it if some changes are made. Council members did not discuss Monday what those potential changes could specifically look like.
“Now is the time for us to take a lead, to take a leadership role and move the city forward, even when there are differences,” Kragness said during the meeting.
Jerzak said he thinks a consensus on the commission is close, and that it would be a “tragedy” not to find a compromise.
Dozens of community members packed the City Council chambers, and several urged the council to approve the commission.
The meeting came just a few days after the 4-year anniversary of Wright’s death. Potter shot and killed Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021. Wright tried to flee when officers attempted to arrest him due to an outstanding warrant.
Potter testified at her trial that she meant to use her Taser on Wright, but instead shot Wright in the chest with her gun. Potter was later convicted of manslaughter charges, and served 16 months in prison before being released in 2023.
Wright was killed while former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin was being tried for the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a case that sparked days of protests and demands for police reform.
The City Council passed the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Act in 2021. Dimock-Heisler, who had autism, was shot and killed at home in 2019 after Brooklyn Center police responded to a domestic disturbance call.
The act was heralded as a progressive reform at the time. It called for numerous reforms such as new use of force policies, changes to how police conduct traffic stops, and establishing the commission.
Activists say the city has made some changes, including a pilot program to respond to mental health calls, but some reforms have stalled. The council voted down a policy last year that would have prohibited officers from conducting traffic stops for minor violations. Wright was initially pulled over by Brooklyn Center police for an air freshener hanging in his rearview mirror and for an expired vehicle registration.
“It started falling apart as soon as it started,” Dimock-Heisler’s mother, Amity Dimock, said of the city’s police reform efforts. Dimock shared her thoughts with Sahan Journal in an interview before Monday’s meeting.
Dimock and Wright served on a committee that implemented the act named after their sons.
“We sat in spaces with the police that killed our sons,” Wright said in an interview prior to Monday’s meeting. “We sat in spaces with a city that has given us so much heartache, because we thought that they would be able to do the right thing.”
But Wright said she hasn’t seen enough progress yet.
Dimock, who attended Monday’s meeting via Zoom, told the council Monday that she wants them to find a way to move forward and create the commission.
“I’m a little disappointed that there’s not going to be a decision made; it just feels like stalling,” Dimock said. “But hoping that you all prove me wrong.”
Wright said the commission would provide a safe place for community members to report concerns, especially for residents who may not feel comfortable reporting issues directly to police.
The City Council delayed voting on the commission last year, and more conservative council members have since taken a majority hold on the council. The council discussed the commission at meetings on March 10 and 24.
At a council meeting last month, Brooklyn Center Mayor April Graves said the council would be voting against what most residents want if they refuse to approve the commission. Brooklyn Center is comprised of 66% people of color.
“I really think that we’re not representing the collective of our predominantly people of color community up here,” Graves said at last month’s meeting.
Jerzak said at a meeting last month that he didn’t support the commission because it would include several non-voting members, such as business owners in the city, who would not be required to live in Brooklyn Center.
Graves asked Jerzak if he would support the commission if they removed the non-voting members, but Jerak said he couldn’t see himself supporting the commission as it stood.
But on Monday, Jerzak said he misunderstood, and wants to approve the commission if the council can agree on its membership and duties.
“You absolutely have my commitment for my vote, and then we can move forward,” he said Monday.
Lori Bardal, a Brooklyn Center resident who works with the Daunte & Kobe No More Names Initiative, said she doubts the commission will pass when council members revisit it.
Bardal also served on the committee that implemented the Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Act, and said the reforms the city has instituted haven’t been as strong as what community members wanted.
“Everything that [the city] did ended up being a watered down version from our recommendations,” she said.
Wright said that if the council does not approve the commission, the organization she and Dimock founded — the Daunte & Kobe No More Names Initiative — will carry out the commission’s work itself.
“We’re trying to allow the city to do what they promised and do what’s right, but if they choose not to, then we’re not going to be a part of that,” she said in an interview with Sahan Journal after Monday’s meeting.
Alfreda Daniels Juasemai, a community organizer who lives in Brooklyn Center, said she’s not surprised that she and other activists haven’t seen the changes they called for.
“As a Black woman, this is something I’m used to,” she said in an interview prior to Monday’s meeting. “It happens; you work so hard on these campaigns just for them to go absolutely nowhere, or sometimes you win something and then you lose it.”
Daniels Juasemai said she feels like the city has been moving backwards since 2021. But she’ll continue to stand up for what she thinks is right.
“I still don’t think all hope is lost. The little light that I see is that I think the world is looking at us in Brooklyn Center,” she said.
The next Brooklyn Center City Council meeting is scheduled for April 28.
