May Unit Discussion: Public Safety Study
After the horrific murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, the LWVMpls Board of Directors agreed to add Policing in Our City to our programming plan for 2020-2021. While we do have a position on policing, it was clear that we needed to update it.
The program team developed Civic Buzz events and We the People programming addressing the role of the state, the federation (union/contracts), training, gender issues, co-response programs, the roles of the mayor and city council. It was recommended that we establish a study committee on the issue of Reimagining Public Safety with the intent of updating the League position on policing.
We have an exceptionally strong committee made up of new and long-standing members of the League who have spent hours and months sorting out and investigating the web of issues that are relevant to this topic. The members of the committee include: Susan Gray, Jennifer Wilson, Jane Lansing, Carolyn Trevis, Catherine Shreves, Ellen van Iwaarden, Mary Katherine Johnson, Ming-Yee Li, Pat Kovel-Jarboe, Polly Keppel, Susan Reinhart, and Pam Telleen.
The committee recommended a web format for the study. These web pages will be ready on May 17th and will be updated regularly. We will send out an email when the site is up.
In the meantime, we are presenting these questions with related links from the study for our unit discussions in early May. Because the subject matter is so complex, you are highly encouraged to attend one of these meetings which will have committee members moderating them. So, feel free to attend a unit meeting that works for you. You would be very welcome! See link below for times and dates of unit meetings.
In addition, there will be an all-member zoom meeting that the chairs of the committee will moderate at the end of May. The date is to be announced.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of this matter.
Dyan Venters and Anne McLaughlin
Program Co-Directors