St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter expected to announce major new crime prevention initiative

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS obtained a St. Paul City Council resolution which is expected to be released to the public sometime Thursday morning. The resolution outlines City Council support for a new public safety initiative to be launched next week by St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter.

The resolution said, in part, “The St. Paul City Council, in partnership with Mayor Melvin Carter, calls for the creation of a community-first public safety commission that will center community voices…setting a vision for public safety moving forward.”

The draft also said the commission should “consider the creation of an Office of Crime Prevention and/or Office of Community-First Public Safety to support community-first public safety…and consider an alternate approach to our 911 dispatching. At a minimum, explore if any of those calls for service can be more appropriately handled outside of traditional law enforcement.”

The resolution added information about the St. Paul Police Department and stated “Our St. Paul Police Department continues to build and maintain relationships across our community through partnerships, mentoring programs, and youth engagement and through policy reform including revision of the Department’s use-of-force and K9 Unit policies.

St. Paul Mayor, Melvin Carter, told KSTP through a spokesperson, more details on the Community-First Public Safety Commission will be released next week.

You can read the full resolution here.