Minneapolis: The grand “unarmed” responder plan

By MN Crime Watch, August 9, 2021

City of Minneapolis “leaders” have a grand plan to replace the police with unarmed civilian responders.

The plan in part, spearheaded by Minneapolis council member Phillipe Cunningham (Ward 4, north Minneapolis) who chairs the Public Health & Safety Committee, has approved staff to design and develop recommendations for an “unarmed Traffic Safety Division” that would not be a part of the police department.

The plan was hatched just days after former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. Potter mistakenly pulled her firearm instead of her taser while she and her fellow officers were attempting to arrest Wright on a warrant discovered during the traffic stop, according to a police department statement following the shooting.

Cunningham envisions that unarmed traffic agents will conduct traffic enforcement activities thereby eliminating what he calls “racial disparities in traffic enforcement.”

However, it seems unarmed civilian responders are less than thrilled about conducting traffic enforcement activities in some parts of the city even with and armed police officer standing by.

Over this past weekend, on Saturday August 7, a portion of police dispatch audio was captured in which a 4th Precinct officer requested a Traffic Control agent to respond to a call he was on.

The dispatcher replied back, “[Traffic Control agents] are not responding to the north side at all due to all the shootings and gun violence.”

If you’ve been following Crime Watch for any length of time, you know we’ve posted about numerous police dispatches involving traffic related stops in which occupants are found to have felony warrants, firearms or drugs.

We’ve also posted about numerous police traffic stops where suspects have rammed squads or tried to run over police officers in an attempt to flee following a traffic stop.

In Chicago on Saturday night, one officer was killed and another was injured during a traffic stop of a vehicle when the occupants opened fire on the officers.

In 2014, Mendota Heights police officer Scott Patrick was shot and killed during a “routine traffic stop.”

Vision Zero, the city’s initiative to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries in Minneapolis, reported that fatal traffic crashes were up 30% in 2020 for the city of Minneapolis — more than any year since 2013. The report attributed the bulk of those fatal crashes to speed and reckless driving, presumably the target behaviors the new unarmed Traffic Safety agents would be tasked with targeting.

Vision Zero specifically noted in their report that 60% of fatal crashes in 2020 happened in the Northside of Minneapolis — the very area where current Traffic Control agents refuse to set foot, according to the audio we posted above.

Minneapolis police officers aren’t even allowed to pursue vehicles that are speeding and driving recklessly in any part of the city. How will Cunningham’s new Traffic Safety agents be allowed to address that dangerous activity?

If our current unarmed Traffic Control agents are unwilling to respond to certain parts of Minneapolis to conduct activities and provide service due to personal safety concerns— even with armed police present — how does the City Council and Phillipe Cunningham think Minneapolis will be served by their new vision of unarmed Traffic Safety agents?

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