Poll: Public Safety Amendment Has Benefit, But Most Don’t Want Police Cuts

With about six weeks to go to election day and early voting already underway, more Minneapolis voters say they support the creation of a new public safety department than oppose it, with a significant number voters still undecided. Even so, a majority of voters polled say that crime is on the rise and they do not want to reduce the size of the city’s police force.

And black voters are less likely to support the proposed public security department than white voters, and are more concerned that removing the police force will have a negative effect on public safety.

The MPR News / Star Tribune / KARE 11 / FRONTLINE Minnesota poll shows 49% are in favor of a new public safety service, which would also give city council more authority over public safety. Forty-one percent oppose it and 10 percent are undecided.

The issue is at the heart of a proposed charter amendment, the language of which has been the subject of ongoing legal challenges that were ultimately settled by the Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday.

Maria Lander Cabrera, who identifies as Latina, said she wanted to see more social workers and medical professionals deployed in emergencies, and supported the Yes 4 Minneapolis amendment because she wanted to see a real change in policing.

“They tried to reform the MPD, and it didn’t work,” Cabrera said. “It hasn’t changed anything and they haven’t changed.”

Stephanie Cholensky, who is white, said she was following the ups and downs as the proposed charter amendment faltered until the poll. She said she believed Mayor Jacob Frey had capitulated to the police union.

“The amount we are spending on the police is just absurd,” Cholensky said. “It’s not even fair to the police because they’re supposed to deal with issues like homelessness and drug addiction and things that really we have to fix with social programs rather than just treating everyone who has. problems like criminals. ”

Opponents of the measure said it would fund the Minneapolis Police Department, although supporters say it does not. Black voters were more likely to oppose the charter change than white voters.

Pamela Kinsey, who is black, said she wished the police had more compassion for the community, but didn’t think the city should get rid of the MPD, especially following a series of shootings where young people were killed.

“I’m really for the police department. We need them. We have criminals here who are really bad people,” Kinsey said. “We need the police department. There’s no ifs and buts about it.”

John J. Ursu, who is white and lives in southwest Minneapolis, said he thought the change in the public safety charter would be a “disaster.”

“Nobody knows what that means to begin with,” said Ursu. “I think Don Samuels and his wife and the people who challenged the understanding [the ballot question] it was true.

The poll finds that while the Public Safety Amendment has an advantage, most Minneapolis voters do not want to reduce the number of police officers.

The results show that 55% of voters do not support the reduction in the size of the police department, compared to 29% who do and 55% believe that a reduction in the size of the police force would have a negative effect on public safety. . Only 20 percent believe that reducing the size of the police force would have a positive effect.

Ea Porter, who is black and lives in north Minneapolis, said she believed part of the support for keeping officer levels high came from the crime people see in their neighborhoods.

“I think black voters are more likely to feel the effects of the lack of effective and inadequate policing,” she said. “Again, don’t experiment on us because we’re the ones who are going to be the hardest hit first.”

The results show that nearly three-quarters of those polled think crime has increased in the city in recent years, but only a third have a favorable opinion of the police department. Fifty-three percent say they have an unfavorable opinion of the police service.

Vamsi Grussing is originally from India and lives in the north of the city. Rather than improve, he believes Minneapolis police have worsened since the murder of George Floyd and could retaliate against the public for the protests by slowing response times.

“They pretty much decided not to do their job. And then why should we regard them as the benchmark authority for law and order? ” he said. “They make this case better and easier for us to settle.”

But when asked about Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, 55% have a favorable opinion against 22% with an unfavorable opinion.

The poll also contacted 500 black voters in Minneapolis to try to get a feel for how their views were followed with the overall sample.

In general, black voters were less likely to want a reduction in the size of the police force (75% of black voters said the city should not cut the police force compared to 51% of white voters), and more likely to think that downsizing would have a negative effect on public safety (68% of black voters thought it would have a negative effect compared to 52% of white voters).

Black voters were also more supportive of Chief Arradondo than white voters and less likely to support the public safety charter amendment. (42 percent of black voters expressed support for the goals of the amendment compared to 51 percent of white voters).

Mickey Moore, who identifies as black and white and is running for Minneapolis city council, was randomly selected for the investigation. He said he thinks people trust Arradondo because of his roots in the city, and they think the chief can improve the department because he personally faces racism. In 2007, Arradondo and a group of black police sued the department for discrimination and reached a $ 740,000 settlement with the city.

“Now we have a leader who is not just from our community, he is expressly committed to our community and understands the historic poor conditions under which our police service has operated,” said Moore. “He knows it because he has experienced it himself.

The poll of 800 registered voters in the city was conducted from September 9 to 13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The margin of error for the numbers of black voters is greater than that of the overall poll, plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Correction (September 18, 2021): An earlier version of a graphic with this story incorrectly reported black Minneapolis residents’ clear support for replacing the police department with a new Department of Public Safety. The graph has been updated.