Minneapolis City Council — Transcript
Monday, July 13, 2026
Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding Grants Program
Alternative Response Pilot Programs: Non-Injury Traffic Collisions and Juvenile Deflection
Votes (1)
Approval of Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding Grants Program for Evaluation of Problem Nature Codes
Dissent: None
Moved by Vice Chair Schaefer [00:31:54] · Seconded by Unknown [00:32:00]
The Office of Community Safety (OCS) and Performance Management and Innovation (PMI) presented on the Byrne grant, outlining its focus on diverting 911 calls to civilian responses. Director Will Christensen detailed the non-injury traffic collision response and juvenile deflection pilots. The discussion addressed a two-year delay in grant implementation, attributed to initial DOJ scope rejection, city staffing changes, and complex administrative processes. Council Member Warsame requested a follow-up memo on the usage of a previous $500,000 appropriation. Kira Haspark, Director of PMI, provided further context on the challenges of an earmark grant and ongoing DOJ requirements. The budget breakdown was clarified: approximately $900,000 for traffic collision response, $500,000 for juvenile deflection, $128,000 for a project coordinator, and $1,000,000 for research and data analysis by NYU and CUNY. Implementation timelines were discussed, with an emphasis on internal readiness for hiring, vehicle procurement, and training for the 12-month pilot.
Notable Quotes (5)
This effort really focuses on diverting appropriate 911 calls away from traditional police response to civilian responses, improving service quality, response times, and reducing officer workload.
We've spent 4 and a half years doing a lot of work to champion um non-armed safety services and programs. And I think often times when we're hearing um discourse and discussion and media reports about Minneapolis experiencing some of the lowest levels of violence that it has ever had, um often times the face of that is MPD. And that cannot be further from the truth. It's actually uh been supplemented with so many robust non-armed or non-MPD safety services...
Um the initial earmark was given to um the office of performance and innovation in 2023. Uh since then, there've been several staffing and leadership changes um within the city. Um when the new Department Performance and Management and Innovation was created, um they had to receive approval to move forward submitting pilots in this research.
This started as an earmark grant for those who are new to the council. So Senator Klobuchar's office was able to secure this for us. And then what happens is you go through the process of applying for the grant after you're awarded the money. Which is different than you know how the normal grant process works. So that is why yes, two years later we are still trying to get things like just the other you know month found out we needed to now maybe go through an IRB because now the DOJ thinks that maybe we have to do that because we'll be collecting data right from juveniles...
out of the 2.5 million total allocation, uh the breakdown among the projects is approximately 900,000 for the traffic collision response. Um almost 500,000 for the juvenile deflection uh pilot program. Uh the project coordinator at 128,000. Um and then NYU in the City University of New York um together approximately 1 million for their research um and data analysis support.
Ordinances & Resolutions (5)
Federal funding program for evaluating problem nature codes and supporting alternative responses.
Analysis that identified 911 call types suitable for diversion to civilian response.
Agreements with academic partners (University of New York, NYU Policing Project) for research and data analysis.
Council appropriation in 2025 for supporting initiatives related to the gaps and analysis report.
Institutional Review Board requirements, potentially needed by DOJ for data collection with juveniles.