Todd Barnette started late last year as Minneapolis’ Community Safety Commissioner, following controversy with his predecessor. He now juggles the city’s public health and safety issues.
Barnette leads the city’s Office of Community Safety, which was created after voters approved a new government structure in November 2021. The office was formed following George Floyd’s murder in 2020 with the intention of connecting police work more with other city departments and community safety alternatives.
The office oversees Minneapolis police, the fire department, the city’s 911 dispatch center, and the city’s emergency management and neighborhood safety departments. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara reports to Barnette.
The office’s first commissioner, Cedric Alexander, served in the role for just over a year. He was criticized for not implementing changes fast enough, and was also reprimanded by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for violating the city’s social media policy after he sent several defensive Tweets. Alexander retired last September. Frey announced Barnette as his nominee for commissioner, and the City Council approved the choice in October.
Barnette previously worked as a Hennepin County judge for 17 years, and served as chief judge before stepping into his current role.
Barnette’s day-to-day as commissioner consists of meetings with the five departments he oversees. He also meets with Frey weekly, and other city leaders.
Sahan Journal met with Barnette to discuss his first months in office and his goals for the year. Barnette says he’s focusing on the new South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, which will include the new location of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct. Another of his priorities is bolstering staffing in the police department and among police alternatives, like the Behavioral Crisis Response Team, which has mental health professionals instead of police respond to crisis calls.
Minneapolis currently has the funding to staff 731 officers. As of late January, the department had 563 sworn officers.
Barnette pointed to how his work is guided by the Minneapolis Safe and Thriving Community Report, which was released last year as a plan to expand public safety beyond policing. He also addressed Camp Nenookaasi, a homeless encampment made up of mostly Native people. The camp was evicted three times between January 4 and February 1.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
For people who might not be familiar, what is the Office of Community Safety?
If you look at the Minneapolis Safe and Thriving Community reports, I think you can see where the city… the residents are saying, “Look, when it comes to community safety, police can’t just be in this silo. Crime prevention can’t be in this silo. We have to find a coordinated way to address community safety.”
This office is to really break down these barriers, so that our response to — and I’m going to call it a situation, because it doesn’t have to be a 911 call, although a lot will originate from there — but just so that citizens, if you saw someone with a mental health crisis, to know that if you call 911, our response will either be the BCR [Behavioral Crisis Response], the behavioral response crisis folks, or it will be the police, depending on the nature, that we respond appropriately, and every response is not a law enforcement interaction, doesn’t need a law enforcement interaction.
I think a lot of that is trying to coordinate that and trying to do it in a way in which our response, you don’t see any social disparities, that everyone has the same access, the same opportunity, when you look at community safety, and knowing that community safety can look different in different parts of the city. But if there is a mental health crisis, or if there is a response for someone needing police or fire, that no matter where you are, you’re getting that same type of service.
How’s it been going so far?
I think it’s been going extremely well, because prior to being confirmed and starting the job, the mayor and I had conversations about what I thought I needed, you know? I needed discretion to do the things that I thought were important. I needed discretion to be able to talk to other departments outside of my five, and for them not to feel intimidated. I’m not trying to run the health department, I just need information, I need to know, “Is there a way for us to work better right?” You know what I’m saying?
The best example I can tell you is that I was at one of the [homeless] encampments and I was talking to them, and they said, “We need trash bags and a dumpster.” Not my five departments, right? I’m like, “Guess I better stop at Target. I can get trash bags. I don’t know about a dumpster.”
So I’m calling [City Operations Officer] Margaret [Anderson Kelliher]. And I’m going, “Hey, I just got a request for trash bags and a dumpster.” And she says, “Oh, okay, here’s who you call, and I’m going to have to find you a dumpster.”
But being able to have that type of working relationship, I think is important to trying to get things done.
Are there any specific goals that you have or initiatives that you’re working on that you really hope to focus on this year?
I think the biggest one is our South Minneapolis Community Safety Center. But I would say bringing it back a little bit, would be that not only do we think of the five departments, but also thinking about the Minneapolis Safe and Thriving Communities Report being that roadmap.
And part of that… is this ecosystem of community service, right? So you have preventive, responsive, and restorative. And so taking that basic model, and saying, “Okay, what can we do as we move forward with that community safety center?”
So we started in October, November. We got a design implementation team together, with my five departments and then on the other side of public service, a lot of those departments came together.
So taking that group, and saying, “Okay, I want you guys to really look at ourselves, Minneapolis Community Safety Center, and be responsible for that design implementation, taking into account what you see in the safe and thriving community report.” They met as a larger group.
And then… the first week of February, they broke down into smaller groups, looking at that report but also looking at, “How do we build out that south Minneapolis location?” And so that’s one huge thing that you know, and I reported to the Public Health and Safety Committee on this and that, our ideas to be able to open that building with community voices on what services should go in there by the first of 2025. And so that’s like the biggest project right now of trying to get that built out in meeting those demands.
Also, I would say that, you know, nationally, we know that first responders—police, 911 [dispatchers]—those numbers are just down, just like they are here. And just try to do as much as we can possible to bring in more applicants for law enforcement, more applicants for 911. Especially when it comes to fire, increase the numbers of women in fire. At the same time, neighborhood safety, building up their infrastructure right now, super important, so they can handle the current work.
You talked about hiring more police officers or hiring more people in law enforcement. Is that a priority for you? How does that fit into alternatives to police, like violence interrupters? And you talked about the behavioral crisis response. Where are your priorities there as far as staffing?
My answer is going to be both, right? And this is why: If you think of our five departments, and you really think of the neighborhood safety at the front of the road, so crime prevention… BCR [Behavioral Crisis Response], GVI [Group Violence Intervention], violence interrupters, all of that crime prevention, right? We need that.
I mean, that is so important and we need to support that work—make sure we have the structure in place for that work to last, because this work will prevent interaction down the road with law enforcement. We know that building this work up will help us, at the same time, we need to build up the police force.
I think we have officers in the police department that are doing extraordinary work right now. But we need to build up this structure, because right now, what they’re doing is not sustainable long term. We just don’t have the numbers to give our officers time to decompress, right? Because they’re just going from one emergency call to the next. And they’re not having that time to stand there and engage with the community members who want to know what’s going on, you know? They got another call to go to.
But at the same time, we’re doing this and building up this ecosystem. I think that both can happen simultaneously. I don’t think one is more important than the other.
So far this year, there’s the encampment that’s been evicted three times that houses mostly Native people in Minneapolis. And I know you said that you’re evicting them because of public health and safety issues. Can you talk a bit about why those encampments are a concern for you and how you want to support unhoused people in the city?
When it comes to homelessness, that’s such a complex and tough issue. When I say this, the [encampment] residents go, “Well, you closed us down.” That decision does not come lightly, because we know what that means. And we know that we are trying.
I said this at a news conference, we want to provide services, we want people to get the services they need. We know that folks will be more successful if we can connect them with services, right? We know that people are at various stages in their lives, where they’re more willing to accept services, and they’re not willing to accept services.
The last time we closed the encampment, the safety concerns were such that Chief O’Hara called me that night and said, “I have some serious concerns about the safety of not only the surrounding residents, but the residents inside of the encampment.” And was so concerned that we just had to close it. I mean, that’s not a decision that we want to take lightly.
I think you heard some stories probably on the news about the confrontation between the neighbors and those that are in the encampment. Before that one, there were other safety concerns, along with health concerns as well.
I got a question at the news conference, “Are we going to arrest people?” We can’t arrest our way out of it. We just can’t; we have to look at being innovative. We have to look at all ideas, all avenues to get people into service. I know that one of the things that has been talked about, and I think it’s important and I hope that it does occur, and that is that there’s a Native American healing center.
But the reality of the encampments are… you might see 25 or 50 people staying overnight, and that number swells to 100 or more during the day. You walk through there and, you know I’ve seen it as a judge, and you see people addicted to drugs and you see folks who need help—they do—and just trying to get them the help that they need is so important.
I think we just continue to offer services—offer, offer, offer. And I think we will continue to look at partnerships with our community organizations, partnerships with the county, with the state, to see what we can do to better provide for folks who want services. Let’s just try to make sure that where the city is responsible and can be helpful, we do it. And if we have to hand off to the county, that that’s an easy process… so that people aren’t falling through the cracks or giving up because the process is too hard for them.
I want to ask about community engagement and what that looks like for you. How are you engaging with residents where you’re able to hear their feedback or concerns?
It depends on what topic we’re talking about. What I’ve tried to do is go out and talk to some of our community organizations, some of the community groups. There are community members who have my phone number, my personal phone number, and they are not short of opinions, whether good or bad. These are people I’ve known for a very long time who are community leaders that, you know, listen to you.
When we look at the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, we’re trying to be really intentional and mindful that there’s been engagement that’s been done prior to me getting here. And so what can we learn from that? Are there voices that aren’t being heard? Or wasn’t heard? So can we get some feedback from them? Are there ways, multiple ways of getting feedback?
I’ve met with Council Member [Aurin] Chowdhury last week… and she was giving me some feedback from her ward on the Community Safety Center. And so it’s like, “Okay, how do we work together even with council members to get feedback?” I just think having all avenues are going to be important, and trying to make sure we’re not leaving people out of that conversation, and making sure at the same time, folks aren’t frustrated that they don’t want to participate because we’re asking them the same thing over and over again.
