Minneapolis provides update on Community Safety Asset and Gap Analysis report

The Office of Community Safety Director of Design and Implementation Amanda Harrington previewed the Asset and Gap analysis report for Minneapolis on Friday morning.

The analysis will show if a city is a leader in some key response areas. It’s part of a follow-up to the 2023 Minneapolis Safe and Thriving Communities Report, which was made to create a long-term vision and recommendation for community safety outside of policing.

That report showed recommendations where the city could improve, such as advancing community safety goals. It also showed strengths, which included the use of 311 and the Behavioral Crisis Response initiative.

The report looks at the differing types of calls for service over a 3-year period before providing an action plan of recommendations for the city.

The findings of the report showed a strong foundation for improving community safety, such as emergency calls being diverted to expanded response options, work beginning on new recommendations for the juvenile diversion referral process, as well as expanding metrics about the ethics of the city’s safety contracts.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Harrington said. “We have to write and amend existing policies, implement a response stat, and explore issues that were of interest that are new to us.”

Harrington acknowledged the city still has work to do to reach its goals but said their main takeaway from the report was they were not starting with no structure but rather building on top of what is already working.

“I think the biggest takeaway is we are not starting from scratch,” Harrington said. “We have some things that are working really well, and that gives us a strong foundation to build on, and now we have even more recommendations and help from a reputable institution like NYU to move some of these activities forward.”

Harrington said implementation of the reports has already begun and will continue to take place over the next few years.

A recording of the report discussion can be found in the video player above.

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