The Future of Public Safety
What happens when you fill a room with activists, researchers, a police chief and uniformed officers, and a few mayors? Magic.
A group convened last week to share, listen, and learn from one another at the Collaborative Solutions to Reduce Harm Leadership Breakfast, hosted by the Pohlad Family Foundation. We came together to elevate best practices as we co-design public safety optimal response models that work for everyone in our communities.
In June of 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd, the Pohlad Family Foundation made a $25M commitment to advance racial justice in the Twin Cities. That work includes a cohort of four cities: Brooklyn Center, Golden Valley, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, that are committed to transforming traditional approaches to public safety and confronting racial disparities. Active partnerships with the National League of Cities, Ubuntu Care Services, and Rainbow Research are helping the cities create meaningful and necessary change as they augment alternative emergency responses and build important relationships with Black and brown community members.
The assembled group heard from special guests including Lakeesha Eure, director of the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery in Newark, New Jersey. Eure spoke of her partnership with Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara (also in attendance), who came to Minnesota after 20 years with the Newark Police Department. “If I was meeting with the mayor, he was there, too. If he was behind the yellow tape at a crime scene, I was behind the tape.” Eure and O’Hara both underscored the importance of building trust and collaboration between the community and city leadership in order to create public safety equity. Founder and CEO of We Push for Peace, Trahern Pollard, agreed and stated, “I know Chief O’Hara is community minded. I know, because he called me during his first week on the job.”
Pilot projects that send trained community responders who are often BIPOC and/or female to non-emergency 911 calls have been very successful and will expand. Civic leaders including Brooklyn Center Mayor April Graves and Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher of Saint Paul spoke of their commitment to working with community residents who are most affected by public safety issues and ensuring their voices are at the table.
Susan Bass Roberts, Vice President and Executive Director says, “At the Pohlad Family Foundation, we believe that the best solutions to any given problem lie with the people closest to the issue. The Foundation is proud to fund this co-design work advancing equitable safety solutions and we look forward to a future where we can all thrive.”
While no magic wands were visible, attendees could feel there was something special in the air – namely a mutual respect and commitment to collaboration.
