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Crime, Law and Justice
Jon Collins

Minneapolis council moves away from co-locating 1st and 3rd police precincts downtown

Exterior view of the 3rd precinct
An exterior view of the 3rd Precinct destroyed by fire in Minneapolis.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News

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The Minneapolis City Council on Tuesday decided to abandon a proposal to house 3rd Precinct officers in a building downtown for the next decade. 

The officers have been working out of temporary spaces since the 3rd Precinct building in south Minneapolis was abandoned in 2020 following unrest after George Floyd’s murder by a then-Minneapolis police officer. 

The proposal before the council’s Committee of the Whole would have co-located the 3rd Precinct with 1st Precinct officers in a building downtown. In a presentation at the previous full council meeting, interim City Operations Office Heather Johnston told the council members that the space in the Century Plaza building would serve as the precinct for about ten years. 

Council Members said the price of about $30 million didn’t make sense for a temporary solution for the 3rd Precinct but approved the purchase agreement for the 1st Precinct location downtown.  

Council Vice President Linea Palmisano said the council needs to consider the immediate needs of the precinct’s officers and community. 

“We have serious issues to consider in deciding how we address the short-term and the long-term needs of the 3rd police precinct, and we will address them,” Palmisano said. “But I do not believe we should rush them today in order to meet an arbitrary timeline.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sent a note to council members on Monday, telling them that “time is of the essence” and that they need to make a decision.

“There is no perfect solution that will satisfy everyone,” Frey said. “As elected officials, we are tasked with making good public policy decisions for the future of our city. That means making decisions that are often difficult. And as we all know, that’s the job.”  

Frey asked the council to either take action or give him the power to make a decision. 

The council committee voted to move forward with the proposal to locate the 1st Precinct in the Century Plaza building downtown without the 3rd Precinct. Council President Andrea Jenkins, who spearheaded the co-location proposal, abstained from the vote, which passed 11-0.  

Council Member Andrew Johnson said the council can make progress on a permanent solution in the coming months.  

“I do not support $30 million, ten years, zero community engagement by the way around this, and it’s supposed to be a temporary solution,” said Johnson, who represents part of the area served by the precinct. “What we need is officers back in the 3rd Precinct, we need to identify sites there.”

Many residents surveyed by Minneapolis earlier this year were dissatisfied with the limited choices offered by the city for a new precinct location.

The city had proposed a $12 million renovation of the old precinct building, which was damaged during unrest following George Floyd’s killing, or a new building that could cost up to $26 million a few blocks away.