Welcome to the regular meeting of the public health safety and equity committee for July 8th, 2026. I am Jason Chavez and I'm the chair of this committee. Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the role so we can verify a quorum for this meeting. >> Council member Payne, >> present. >> Winsley is absent. Rainville >> present. >> Be >> present. >> Whiting >> present. >> Vice Chair Stevenson is absent. And Chair Chavez >> present. >> That is five members present. >> Let the record reflect that we have a quorum. I'll remind my colleagues that today we're going to be using the tags here uh for speaker management. So, please use that if you want to get on Q to speak. Our agenda is in front of us and we will begin with our consent agenda. After the consent agenda, we will move to the public hearings. And if you would like to speak during the public hearing and have not signed up to speak, please see the clerks in the hall to register to speak. On our consent agenda, item number three sets a public hearing for July 22nd to consider the mayor's nomination of Dr. Reginald Freeman to the appointment of fire chief. Item four postpones consideration and next steps for the law enforcement concealment of identity ordinance until August 5th PHSSE meeting. And without objection, I'd like to move to approve item number five with the consent agenda as I have no questions on this item. Item number five is a gift acceptance from the University of Chicago for police inspector Molly Fischer to attend the University of Chicago Policing Leadership Academy. Any objections to that? Great colleagues, are there any discussion on these items or would anybody like to pull any item out? All right, with that I move to set the public hearing for number three and move the motions for number four and five for approval. Any discussion? Seeing no further discussion on the motion, all those in favor say I. I. Those oppose say nay. Any abstension. And those motions carry. Next, we'll take up our public hearings reflected in items number one. And then after that, item number two on the agenda. Anybody who signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify. If you have questions, please see our clerks at the registration table outside the hall. For everyone in attendance and especially those who may participate in our hearings or comment period, let me offer this notice. These hearings are being recorded and broadcast. Both the recording and the broadcast are classified as public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. By attending and participating in these proceedings, your image and any testimony or information that you provided will also be subject to disclosure under that law. That includes, but is not limited to, to your attendance, your name, and other personal details you provide, as well as any testimony or comments you provide, which includes any written submissions you make, which are included in the record of this meeting. On the first public hearing is to consider Mayor Fry's nomination of Kayla McCann to the appointed position of civil rights department director. to introduce this item. We have been joined by Mayor Fry, who is with us today, who I'll now invite to speak on behalf of his nomination. >> Thank you, Chair Chavez, members of the city council. I'm grateful uh to be here with you today, and I'm very proud to formally introduce Kayla McCann and Diara as my choice to continue leading the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department. For over 10 years, she's brought immense passion, some sharp expertise, and a strong commitment to civil rights work here in our city. Having served as the interim director, deputy director, and director of the complaint investigations division, and even as an investigator herself, she knows this department inside and out. She doesn't need time to get up to speed. She's already driving these results. And as a result, staff have been able to focus on the work and improve the lives of those who live, work in, and visit the city. Under her leadership and in line with our set settlement agreement, the department completed its portion of the historic 234 case OPCR backlog. I want to note the place that our civil rights department was previously in and the place that it is in now. Uh and the juxiposition is stark. Um the backlog was growing. We were not seeing uh the cases drawn down. Uh, and because of a combination of Kayla's great work as well as the work of former director Michelle Phillips, uh, and their whole teams, um, the backlog's gone. This was a real, uh, stain, uh, on the department and our ability to carry out the necessary reforms and culture shift. And to their great credit and the incredible, uh, staff in civil rights, the backlog is gone. Uh and and that's why our civil rights department is recognized for excellence. They investigate thoroughly and transparently and they protect residents. Uh under Miss McCannier's our our leadership, our labor uh standards enforcement division will remain a powerhouse for economic justice. True compliance means partnering with and educating our businesses. Aside from just penalizing them, it means working with them. This includes providing over 4,000 free technical support sessions to help local businesses thrive while doing right by their teams. Um, as far as protected classes go, Minneapolis continues to lead the country in progressive civil rights work and Miss McCann and De'Arra's hands-on leadership was instrumental in crafting our historic civil rights ordinance expansions. We are one of just a handful of cities nationwide to explicitly ban discrimination based on height and weight. We codified protections for housing status so housing and security isn't a barrier to opportunity. And we ban discrimination against justiceimpacted individuals to ensure real pathways to a second uh to a second chance. Throughout her time in leadership uh civil rights made important amendments to all of our civil rights ordinance. Uh in conclusion, um the nominee here uh has been willing to stay doing the work through historically tough times because of her passion for the work the department and for the city. I know that Kayla in this role and her incredible staff behind her will continue to robustly enforce civil rights protections for everyone in Minneapolis. In a time when we've witnessed uh civil rights setbacks, it is also important to have someone like Kayla at the helm in our city. So regardless of what is happening nationwide, we can do the work here in Minneapolis to show that we're a beacon and an example for others to follow. U so I am uh really excited about this nomination. There's simply no one better suited to elevate this critical work and see it through to full implementation. Uh, council members, thank you for your time. I ask for your affirmative uh, vote. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mayor Fry. Before we proceed to the public hearing, I'd like to recognize that we've been joined by Minority Leader Wansy. And without objection, uh, Minority Leader Wii, would you like your vote reflected in the consent agenda? >> Yes, I would. >> And I'm assuming those are in approval. >> Yep. Affirmative. and clerks, if you can note that, please. Uh, at this time, I'm going to proceed to open the public hearing for the appointment. The first person on this list, and I'm going to try to read it as eligible as I can, is I think the name says Bethany. Uh, if you're here, that would be number one. Bethany, number one. And I know that folks may be signing up for different testimonies [snorts] here today and they may be confusing the different public hearings that are happening, but Bethany Pidy number one. And if not, the next person would be Franklin and last name starts with an R number two. >> Thank you so much. Uh my name is Franklin Reed. Reed D. Thank you. Um, I appreciate this opportunity to speak in support of Kayla, uh, the director of the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights. Though I hail from Iowa, please don't hold that against me at all. But I've lived here much of my adult life. I attended law school here. I was married here. I raised three wonderful children in this city. Um, and I still reside in the city. Professionally, I served as the assistant uh city attorney for six years and I was the interim director of the civil rights department for a period of time beyond that. And I have I had the foresight during that time to elevate Kaylor to her first leadership position within the city. And with those years of public service and experience, I believe that I can state the following that uh the defining challenge facing government this point in history as a deficit public uh faith. To rebuild that trust, proven leaders are needed, who place the needs of others before themselves. Leaders who know the cultural landscape of the city. Leaders who are committed to solving problems in a transparent way. Leaders who will work with anyone to achieve the better goals and find a way forward. Kayla is that type of leader who will create stability and continuity on all these points as a director of the civil rights department and she will ever to excel. I thank you all. >> Thank you. I'd like to acknowledge that we've been joined by Vice Chair Stevenson. After this item, we'll talk about the votes on the other stuff. Next up, we have Viviana from W five. That's number three. One. Okay. Go ahead. Well, number one could go next. So, good afternoon, chair and council members. Uh, my name is Vivana Salazar. I'm from W 5. Um, I had the privilege of serving as chair and vice chair of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission, and I'm here today in strong support of Kayla McCannan Diara's confirmation as director of civil rights. Over the past years, I've had the opportunity to work closely with Kayla, and I've seen firsthand the kind of leader she is. She believes in partnerships. She listens and she understands that the strongest policies are built by bringing people together. Under her leadership, the commission, the department, the mayor and city council worked collaborative collaborately to advance important protections including justice impacted status, housing status, and height and weight. Kayla created a space for honest dialogue and meaningful collaboration. She respected the commission's role, welcomed our input, and worked with us to move policies forward that will make a lasting difference for Minneapolis residents. She also expanded our reach beyond Minneapolis by bringing the department into the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies. She ensured that I as chair of the commission was able to attend the annual conference where I saw how respected Minneapolis is among civil right agencies across the country. At a time when many cities were scaling back their civil rights work, Minneapolis stood out because of the strength, stability, and vision for this department. What I appreciate the most about Kayla is that she leads with integrity. She builds relationships and she empowers others and keeps the focus on serving our community. She understands that protecting civil rights requires both courage and collaboration. I'm proud to support her confirmation because I know she has the experience, the values, and the leadership the city needs. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bethany. Good afternoon. It's lovely to see you all. Love to see all these young students here. Um, my name is Bethany Lorraine Piety. I live in the Fwell neighborhood and I have served as an MPS educator on the north side for 15 years. Um, my first year as an NPS educator, I actually met you, Mr. Mayor, uh, over at Edison. So, nice to see you again. Um, I am queer. I'm also a widow. Um, I'm a mother to children with special needs. I'm a new homeowner on the north side through the Good Neighbor Next Door program. Um, I'm an advocate for my students above all anything else. And I'm an advocate for the families that I serve in NPS. And at this point in time, while I do not represent MPS, it is a part of who I am as my identity. So, um, in my service to the north side, I have witnessed countless acts of police brutality to our community and my students. My students reported an increase in anxiety and distrust towards our police and each other during Operation Metro Surge and they deserve to allow their nervous systems to heal so that they can return to the great work that they are doing. The presence of drones will simply serve to activate an already activated community. >> I don't mean to interrupt you, but there's that's the next topic. So, the drone conversation is a next public hearing. Well, >> this is about our director. So, if you can keep it to the topic of the director. >> No, I have nothing to say to the director, but if if you are here for the drone conversation and you want to speak to that, there are folks outside that you can sign up to testify. Uh, and that's I I kind of had a feeling that folks were there's two public hearings. This one's about the civil rights director appointment. The next one's about the drones. If you're here to testify on the drone situation, please sign up and testify and we'll we'll get a Q. Thank you for your time and I apologize for taking out your time. Thank you. >> Totally understand. >> All right. Michelle Phillips number four. >> Welcome. >> Thank you, Chair um Michelle Phillips. Thank you, council members, for giving me the opportunity to come and speak um in support of Cayla Manandera for the director of civil rights position. I want to speak a little bit about her leadership within the department. During a time of uncertainty and a lack of stability, Kayla stepped up. She has been a vital staple within that department for 10 years. She's grown up in that department from an investigator to the deputy director and now to the interim director. As a former director of civil rights, I was able to work with her. She taught me a lot. I sat down and I realized that she allowed me to lead the department for a time certain it was her department. She didn't know it. I helped her to realize that fact, bring her along as we stabilized our divisions. We worked with several of you council members as well as the mayor's office, the administration to let the civil rights department understand their full potential. Kayla led that charge. We made sure that we were out in community. We established some very strong civil rights protections with several of you as well as worked on our CCPO ordinance, stabilized that commission. She helped to make that happen. I stepped back and she led. She led with integrity, with transparency, and with courage in a situation where there was a lot of blowback for where we were, but she saw where the department in the city could go. I have nothing but the utmost respect for this young lady to continue to move this department forward, to continue to cultivate the young professionals that we have in that department, to grow them, to continue on with the succession plan to strengthen those protections. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, everybody. Is there anybody else that would like to address the committee? Going once. Going twice. Going three times. All right. Seeing no one else wish to speak, I will now clo. >> Okay. I will now close. We're good. Okay. I will now close this hearing and invite the nominee or Mayor Fry. Okay. Mayor Fry. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Very briefly, um, I just wanted to note how cool it is that former director Michelle Phillips came to this particular hearing. um uh both she and Kayla were obviously uh really important partners in transitioning this civil rights department and doing some effective work, but the fact that she flew across the country from Oakland uh to testify for two minutes on the dot I I just think is really amazing. And so thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the the brief comment. >> No worries. Welcome. Good afternoon everyone. Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson, committee members. Uh it's my pleasure um to be here and speak with you today. I want to start by thanking the mayor for the nomination and the confidence in me to continue um doing this work in the permanent director role. Um and then I also want to thank of course you all as members of the committee for uh considering that nomination today. It has been both a pleasure and an honor to have worked within the civil rights department for the last 10 years. Um, as has been mentioned, I've held a variety of different roles within the department. Um, both as an investigator, a division director, a deputy director, and then as the interim department director. And I've chosen to stay in this department to grow my career in this department. and I'm energized and inspired to take on this new opportunity because I believe so strongly in the work that the civil rights department does. It truly is impactful work um that really has impact on all the folks that live in, work in, and visit the city of Minneapolis. The impact of the civil rights department, I think, is both varied and vast. It includes a person receiving back wages who may have been making less than the city's minimum wage, a family with a section 8 housing choice voucher being able to access the housing of their choice, a monetary settlement for a victim of racial discrimination, a police officer receiving discipline when they engaged in inappropriate behavior, or small business owners getting access to work on city contracts. This work really importantly helps individual people. It makes them whole after their civil rights have been violated or ensures they have equitable access to opportunities. But it also has a much broader impact in creating a more just Minneapolis. Cases investigated in the civil rights department often bring about largecale change in practice and policy. They raise awareness and promote education around civil rights and what rights folks have in our city in a way that truly prevents civil rights violations from happening again in the future. I'm thrilled at the opportunity to continue to lead this department into that future and continue to provide tangible, impactful outcomes that make for a more just Minneapolis. I see the role of the civil rights department as bringing to life the protections that you all work so hard to put into ordinance and into law that we are able to enforce. Those laws are foundational and vital to being able to have civil rights protections, but they become that much more meaningful when we robustly enforce them. And that's a a responsibility that the department, I as the leader and our entire staff take incredibly seriously. As you all know, we have four different divisions within the civil rights department. And I do just want to note each of the the types of work that we do. We have our office of police conduct review, which investigates complaints of misconduct against Minneapolis police officers. And this is specifically complaints that are made by members of the public here in Minneapolis. We have our complaint investigations division, which enforces our civil rights ordinance and does all our anti-discrimination work, investigates discrimination allegations. We have our labor standards enforcement division which enforces all of our city level labor laws that are super important. And we have our contract compliance division that ensures equity in city contracting. Our collective vision which we drafted as a department is as the people's investigator we strive to eliminate civil rights violations in the city of Minneapolis by rooting ourselves in service, justice, and community and working to remove the systemic and institutional barriers that cause harm. And that's really what we do every day. I think it really accurately encompasses our our ultimate goal across all of our staff and all of our different divisions. My vision as the department leader, which I've shared with um all of you in various forms, is I want to ensure that our civil rights department is truly the civil rights agency of first [snorts] resort. We want to be the first folks that people think of when they feel like their civil rights have been infringed on or violated here in the city of Minneapolis. And we want them to come to us because of course they know that we're here and they feel like they can access services. But we also want them to come to us because they believe that they will be treated with dignity and respect throughout the the investigative process and that we're highly professional, objective, and really produce those impactful outcomes. I'm really proud of the work that we've done in civil rights up to this point to already make this vision a reality. Over the past two years, we enga engaged in a significant department restructure, staffed up and retained highly talented staff, maintaining a department that is largely fully staffed for the first time in recent memory. We've improved case timelines, cleared investigative backlogs, increased community engagement, and worked with you all to strengthen each of the ordinances we enforce within the civil rights department. And we have engaged in continuous improvement of all of our processes and procedures across the department. In this new term, I will continue to prioritize ensuring that we are the premier civil rights agency doing enforcement work in Minneapolis, providing accessible, efficient, and effective services to any members of the public. I will take on the significant challenge of navigating the changing civil rights landscape and charting a sustainable and effective course through uncertainty, continuing to ensure that Minneapolis is a leader in providing robust civil rights protections and enforcement. I will continue to to foster an environment of continuous improvement, ensuring effective implementation of recent amendments to our civil rights enforced ordinances, as well as continued progress towards compliance with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights settlement agreement. I feel really confident that we can accomplish these things because of the incredible leadership team and staff in civil rights and especially leadership team both past and present. Um, and the folks that work in civil rights, our leadership and our staff are highly effective at doing their jobs, and getting to work alongside them every day really makes it a joy to come in to work. They are missiondriven, passionate, and committed to this work. I believe in democratic and participatory leadership. I lead by asking for input, collaborating, and seeking shared decisions. leadership and staff in civil rights are incredible thought partners and their ideas and perspectives are absolutely foundational to the department's success. I do and will into the future consistently prioritize staff support, engagement, and engagement as the department's leader. Civil rights work is hard work. Uh it's especially hard when we see such drastic and troubling shifts in civil rights protections and enforcement throughout the country alongside the Minneapolis specific challenges that we've faced over the last year. I am committed to ensuring staff feel supported, valued, and respected, and have the resources they need to do this work sustainably. I'm incredibly grateful for their trust in me as a leader and thank them for their commitment uh their continued commitment to enforcing the civil rights of everyone in Minneapolis. I'm really proud of the work that we're accomplishing in civil rights. I thank you all on city council, the mayor, the city operations officer, and other city leadership for your partnership in this work. and I remain incredibly hopeful about what we can continue to do in the future. So, thank you very much to this committee for uh your consideration today and I'm happy to stand for any questions you might have. >> Uh thank you, Director Kayla McCannendara. I am excited to support your appointment and proud of the work you've done to lead the civil rights department and excited to see you in this new and permanent role. Not necessarily new, but new in terms of being a permanent role for you, I hope. And I think the work that I think of the work that my office, minority leader Wanzi, uh did together with you, your department, your credible city staff to expand um the protected classes here in the city of Minneapolis, which was something that took a lot of work and it was collaborative. And I think about the approach that we did in that work and the approach you have done with your own department, the passion you bring to uh give a voice to the civil rights commission and to those uh that work with you. So just wanted to say thank you for your service and very proud to support your appointment and I'll move this for approval if I can get a second. >> Second >> and colleagues, we are using Oh, okay. I didn't look so >> okay. Council member of Utah, >> I don't let these get by without talking. No, thank you, director. I I too support your reappoint and we actually had a wonderful meeting um to just catch up. I I I really appreciate the passion that you bring to this job and I would say more than anything, your passion to educate. some of the most complicated things I've had to work out with your department behind the scenes. You know, there's been this public talk about the things around protected class and but you do a lot of things behind the scenes that people don't know about that support our businesses that support people's everyday lives here in Minneapolis and I appreciate the passion that you bring to that. And um the the biggest thing is I would be remissed if I didn't say the miracle you all pulled off in getting through those cases. I I just really never thought that was going to happen because year after year after year we were told, you know, it's happening but it's not happening, right? And so like the work that you all did collaboratively to get through those cases and to give me as an elected official the freedom to say to constituents who were watching that um so closely that it's done. It's we have zero case. There is no backlog. I really never thought there was going to be a day when I got to say there was no backlog because there were just years of um us being at a standstill with those cases. [clears throat] So, thank you so much. That that really showed me how committed you are and how committed your team is to making sure that the city of Minneapolis is transparent and that the city of Minneapolis is uh providing a service to residents that they really want. So, thank you so much for that. I'm forever grateful to you. uh former director Phillips and the entire team for doing that work. I know it was a heavy load, but it got done and I'm proud of what you all did, your entire team to make sure that that was done. Um I have a few questions. Um and I think we may have talked about some of this before, but just wanted to know like what do you see as your biggest accomplishment so far in this role? >> Yeah, so it's hard to narrow it down. Chair Chavez, Council Member Vita, thank you for the question. It's hard to narrow it down to one. Um I think that the maybe two things that I would say is one building the incredible team that we have. Um the staffing up of the department and staffing up with really talented, highly qualified um folks has really been the foundation of how we've been able to move this work forward, how we've been able to accomplish um so much, especially in that investigative space and moving all of those cases forward. Um, but also the the staff that we've brought in really have developed uh really impressive and meaningful bonds across their own relationships and across our different divisions. And that really is um kind of the glue that I see as what allows the department to move forward in a sustainable way, doing really challenging work, but being able to continue to do it effectively, efficiently, and sustainably. Um, and then the other piece, and this has already been mentioned um, by Chair Chavez, but I am really proud of the expanded protected classes, um, and the amendments to the civil rights ordinance. I think it's so meaningful that at a time that we're seeing really shaky ground for a lot of civil rights protections across the country that Minneapolis was committed to moving forward with expanding those protections with being creative, innovative, responsive to community and really making true changes in ordinance and then in practice and enforcement in the work that we do um to really move the needle in a positive way, which is really contrary to what we were seeing um in other places around in the country. So, that's the other piece that I would say I'm most proud of. >> Thank you for that. And what initiatives or projects are you most excited about advancing if you're confirmed? >> Yeah, absolutely. Chair Chavez, Council Member Vita, thank you again for the question. Um, one thing I'm most excited about right now is exploring what it means to be a civil rights agency in this kind of new landscape. How can we really be a standout leader and an example of what it is to continue to robustly enforce civil rights protections despite everything that is happening around us? Um, I've spent a lot of time talking with my staff and and we're kind of in the infancy of some of these thoughts, but what does it look like to expand our reach beyond civil rights into more of a human rights space, right? and what sort of relationships can we build across the country um with other municipalities that have a very similar set of values, a very similar set of priorities around civil rights enforcement work um and how we can work together to to again continue to innovate, lead, move the needle in a positive direction. >> Thank you. And my last question is what's been the biggest challenge in this role? >> Yeah. Uh Chair Chavez, Council Member Vita, another good question. Thank you. Um the biggest challenge probably um for me in my tenure in civil rights has been some of the instability of the department. Um but I'm really grateful for how stable the department is now. Um I'm very grateful to um our previous director uh Michelle Phillips and her partnership in moving the department into just a really stable and sustainable place. One, making it a place that people really want to work. um and two making it a place where we can enjoy each other and also do extremely effective professional work. We can do those two things at the same time. Um and so that that was a challenge but one that I feel like has largely been overcome um and something that I'm really appreciative and grateful for. >> Thank you, director. >> Council member Rainbow. >> Thank you, Chair. I too will be supporting you and I I want to thank you most of all for the the backlog issue that that was really really important. So thank you for that. I had a chance to talk with you and I'm so impressed with your energy and we had a long talk about your vision for the future. So I I thank you for that and I agree with you 100%. And last I I have to tell you how impressed I was that past director uh Phillips came to speak on your behalf. Your words were very well taken. So thank you for your support of our our new director. Council member Whiting. >> Thank you, Chair Chavez. Uh, and thank you, Director, and soon to be, and I assume, uh, permanent director, uh, for for our civil rights department. Just wanted to to take a few notes and a few few seconds to to to give you your flowers here. I think like the true mark, uh, of leadership is shown by the people you surround yourself with. Uh, and and as we see here, you know, I think we've seen across this city. Um but the civil rights department itself I think shows an example uh of what dedication and expertise looks like um in a department. Um and right I know we have many here that are sitting here but what a lot won't see on this broadcast and in these chambers right there's 20 more outside of this chamber. When I was walking out there I was like this is this is a full a packed a packed room for for your support here. And so uh want to thank you for that. And I'm like I'll share a quick story. Uh my first foray into into the city of Minneapolis. I'm not sure if you remember, but uh you interviewed me uh as a as a commissioner on the CI Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. And that was my first kind of interaction to the city. And what I remember from that was was a not only a positive um demeanor and individual, but somebody that deeply um cares about the city of Minneapolis uh and respects what this work is and the service to this community. And so I have full faith uh in your leadership um over the next hopefully continuous 10 more years in this role. uh and thank you for for what you have done specifically as we've talked about to to the backlog uh within OPCR uh and then more I think pointedly uh with the the turnover um and vacant positions that have been uh uh I think permeated throughout [snorts] uh the civil rights department and I think that is something that many won't see uh is that version of stability uh here in our office. So, thank you and I'm very, very excited to support your uh nomination, >> Council President Payne. >> Thank you, Chair Chavez. I'm very excited to support you in this role. Um, and you've just been such a great partner in so much just transformational work over the years. And I just want to just make sure to also acknowledge just the fact that this is such generational work. So, it feels only fitting that the previous director came to speak on your behalf because we've all been in the trenches together and we know that the work has like we've been able to accomplish things, but we know that the work is not done. And I'm it it just feels so good to know that we get to support you in having the sustained leadership that is required to be able to take some of these challenges on and I'm looking forward to that continued partnership. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Nobody else. All right. Thanks so much, director. On a motion to move this forward with approval. All those in favor say I. I. >> Those oppose say nay. >> Any abstensions? That item carries. Colleagues, we're going to go on to our next item. Before that, without objection. Claps. Yes. Without objection, uh, clerks, if you can please mark Vice Chair Stevenson as an I on the consent agenda that we voted on earlier today. Any objections? Great. Our next item is a public hearing regarding a contract with Sky Deal, Inc. for a drones as first responder pilot program. I will invite OCS chief of staff Andy Skugman to present about the pilot program before we open the public hearing. If you are here to testify, please sign up with the clerks. I think there are 39 people signed up. Uh, good afternoon, uh, Chair Chavez, uh, Vice Chair Stevenson, and members of the public health and safety and equity committee. For the record, my name is Andy Skugman. I'm the chief of staff for the Office of Community Safety here in the city of Minneapolis. Uh thank you for the opportunity uh to present today on a proposed drones as first responder pilot project. At its core, uh drones as first responders or DFR we believe is a fairly simple concept. When certain 911 calls are received, a drone can launch immediately, arrive ahead of first responders, and provide live video so 911 dispatchers, officers, firefighters, EMS personnel have a better understanding of what's happening before they arrive or if they should go at all. Today's hearing is about exploring whether using technology in this manner has a place in the city of Minneapolis, not deciding uh that it does. Over the past year or so, the Office of Community Safety and MPD have worked with uh multiple vendors. We've worked with city departments. We've reviewed calls for service data. We've evaluated available technology and studied how similar programs are operating in communities across the metro area, across the state, and across the country. I think it's important to thank council member Vita for bringing forward a legislative directive this spring that helped move this conversation forward and created the opportunity for today's public discussion. So, thank you. Uh public safety is changing rapidly and technology is becoming an increasingly important tool for helping cities respond more efficiently, more safely uh and with better information. Drones are not a replacement for police officers, for firefighters, for EMS personnel or other first responders. They're simply a tool that helps ensure the right resources are sent to the right call at the right time. In some cases, the information gathered, we believe, may confirm that an immediate police, fire, or EMS response is needed. In other situations, it may show that a different response is more appropriate, such as dispatching the behavioral crisis response team or another nonsworn resources. Add in some instances, the drone may determine that the situation has changed or been resolved before responders arrive, allowing those resources to remain available for other emergencies across the city. Minneapolis, like many cities across the country, continues to face staffing challenges. Uh if technology can help us improve efficiency, enhance safety, and provide better service to residents, we believe it's worth exploring. Lastly, I'll add that other departments in the city have told you uh and they did testifi did testify before this committee in the past that they too could use drones for a variety of regulatory functions. But today, we really do want to focus on how MPD would like to use the technology. So, with that, I'll turn things over to uh the deputy chief of patrol for Minneapolis Police, Tom Campbell. >> Welcome. And if we can make sure that we're moving the slides so the public can see what's happening, if you're on the topic. >> Uh, good afternoon, Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson, and council members. My name is Thomas Campbell, and I am the deputy chief of patrol and the special operations division. Uh, part of my duties is to oversee the MPD drone drone unit. Um, I brought with me the special operations division commander John Cisth and Sergeant Roger Mua, who runs the day-to-day uh, drone operations for the Minneapolis Police Department. Today, I also have assistant director of the emergency uh, communications center Leticia uh, Cardinas with me, who will be speaking later during this presentation. Uh, today uh, just like the last um, director of time we're here in May, I'm very excited to be giving you a presentation on the drones as first responder 75day nocost pilot project. The project has immediate benefits uh to Minneapolis 911, police and uh and fire response. It's important to note MPD now MPD now uses drones um since 2022. We currently have 12 pilots with their part 107 licenses which allow them to fly drones in the city. Um our current fleet to date we have 12 exterior drones and we have 17 interior drones that we use. uh since the fall of 2022 till today. Uh these numbers are a little higher um from when this was when this was created. But um today we have 640 total missions and that would include uh patrol responses already and uh some responses under the special operations division. Um and currently we do fly our drones from squad trunks um or from the from the drone command vehicle if it is um asked to come out to a scene. What is uh drones as first responder? Uh DFR for short. It's the proactive use of drones to immediately respond uh to a 911 call for service that comes into dispatch. Upon arrival, that live video is streamed uh back to dispatch to where the pilots uh will be seated. It'll provide that real-time situation awareness to that drone pilot. Um that in turn, the first responders will be able to see in real time. Um, I'll say the pilot first responder will be able to see in real time what is happening on scene. They can relay that information to um officers that are dispatched out there um to give them a more informed response or the possibility of clearing that call um later on without even having a police uh squad response to a scene. The proposed DFR pilot project is stated. Um it's a free 75day trial period conducted in the fourth precinct in the fourth precinct alone. Uh that is driven by by data. Um I'll be showing that to you here in a few minutes. Um this is a proposed partnership with SkyO. Skyo is the largest drone manufacturer in the United States today. Um they currently work with five agencies in Minnesota. St. Paul, Duth, Rochester, Minnetonka, and Brooklyn Park. Um it's also important to note that they work with 236 other agencies nationwide. Um and uh 24 of them are part of the major city chiefs association. Uh the purpose of the DFR pilot project again we're trying to collect data to see if um if the drones as first responder can help reduce response time to calls for service. uh could we have cleared certain low-level um calls for service without even having to dispatch a squad car out there? Um we also want to talk to officers, survey officers, see if they feel that this increases their um overall safety, their awareness on what um what calls they are going on and what maybe lies ahead before they arrive. And obviously we want to talk to the uh the community and see if this if they feel like this also increased uh their safety as well. Um lastly, we want to see if this could improve the effectiveness and efficiency of other city services, that being fire, uh EMS at during this trial period, but later on, as chief of staff Skooman had noted, um some something along the line of regulatory services if they could find benefits in this. Again, the trial location is at the fourth precinct. We're hoping to launch from the uh fire station 14 off of Lowry Avenue. Um the plan initially will be to have two drone stations on top of station 14. Um we sent our 2025 uh calls for service for the fourth precinct uh to Skyio um through their IT um IT department. They went through our priority zero and one calls. Priority zero and one calls are are uh our highest priority calls that the city has. Um they were able to show that MPD got 33,42 calls for service in the priority zero and one categories. Of those calls, they they put it through their their analytical system. However, they do it. They they found that just having two drone docks on station 14 uh could have responded to 4,643 of those priority 0 and1 calls under 120 seconds. So 91 caller would have a drone over top in under uh roughly 2 minutes. Um pretty impressive and that would cover you know se you know 17% of all calls for service in that priority zero and one uh category. incidents, you know, prior to zero in one incidents. These are just it's just a snapshot of a few of them, but persons with a weapons calls, medical fire, uh accidents, autotheft in progress, burglaries, robberies, sounds of shots fired. It could be uh to shot spotter calls, foot foot and vehicle chases, shootings, stabbings, suspicious persons, or even missing persons. looking at the drones that um we hope to use out there. This is the Scio 10 drone. Um this is their uh their flagship drone that they use in all their DFR programs. Uh this is rated for inclement weather, which is great. Here from Minnesota rain and snow, they'll fly. They have approximately uh 45 minute minutes of flight time. Le we've learned, you know, from St. Paul Minnetonka that that flight time is actually drastically uh reduced into maybe 25 minutes. Um but these will be equipped with a parachute. So, if something was to happen while it's flying for some reason, let's say a um a paragan falcon comes down and hits the drone, um it has the ability to to auto launch a parachute and it'll safely come to the ground. All the drones will have police markings on them. They'll have red and blue lights and they'll have redundancy in their uh connectivity, so operates on Wi-Fi and cellular. So, the um possibility of us losing connection is next to zero. Uh, next I'll have the uh, assistant director of MECC come up real quick. >> Welcome. >> Hi, I'm assistant director Leticia Cardinas of Minneapolis 911. We are um, approving MECC to have the drone stations inside of our location. Currently, what we have set up is two flight stations that are located inside of dispatch. This is going to allow MPD to work along with us as this pilot program is um launched so that they can speak directly with the dispatchers that we currently have inside of MECC. Uh we we've created two different call signs. This is our way to track how MECC and MPD can know when the drone has been dispatched out to a call. our process. What we're planning on is that um MPD is going to self assign to any type of call that they think the drone can assist with in the area that they do the pilot location. Um at that time that drone will go out, check out the scene, decide if you know they would be able to clear it or uh code for it or determine if an officer would have needed to be out there or not and then add remarks to the call. That call is still going to go back into our pending for a dispatcher to put the police officer out to the location. They may be going out there simultaneously. The goal in that is to try to figure out is the response out to the location faster with the drone and able to be cleared than it would be to have an actual officer go out. It also is going to assist us with not utilizing an officer when they're not needed out on the scene for a 911 call. So, the plan right now is to have two personnel from MPD um rotated out weekly or bi-weekly. They're going to be working Tuesday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. They won't have any uh weekends or holidays unless it's deemed necessary by MPD leadership. The reasoning for that is it gives more uh communication and able to work with Skyo who is going to have some people on site as we work through the pilot to see what's working, what's not working, if there's any issues with the technology piece of it. It also is going to allow for um command staff for ourselves inside of MECC to be on site during the times this pilot is actually occurring to make sure that it it it remains functioning. And um in addition to that, we also are ensuring that there's not as much overtime or uh additional staffing needed to take care of this pilot project. That way it's covered by just a basic um 9 to5iver or 8 to four personnel for the time being. I'm going to kick it back over to Commander Deputy Chief. >> Thank you. >> You need this piece and I gave you my >> Okay. Um I can talk to either one. Um our data collection uh very important piece of this um actually it's the driving force behind this. We want to look at dispatch times, the times it takes uh from that 911 call coming in and how quickly we can launch a drone to a scene. How long it takes from that dispatch time to the arrival time on scene as well. We're going to make sure we track all that and code for time. could we have code for a scene with a drone um prior to a squad arriving? So, we're going to keep track of the ability to say, "Yeah, we can code for these uh these scenes." The clear time, the total time from dispatch to the incident closure. So, part of this is going to be, you know, a comparison between the drone response times and traditional officer response time. Regardless of the the priority call 0 or one, we are going to send a drone and we will be sending a physical officer to the scene. The drone may have to leave after entering in some remarks. Um but we're not going to eliminate the squad car from going to that scene. Um during this trial period, after every um after every flight, we are going to be doing an MPD reporting. Uh we're going to look at um uh putting all this into our into our system our tracking system and to see how the performance um is on each deployment. Privacy, data and compliance safeguards. Um I understand this is a huge thing, right? Privacy, I get it. It's very very important to all of us. Operations conducted only as authorized by state law. Um that's the only way we're going to be flying these things. uh the camera when it's when a drone is launched, that camera remains pointed at the horizon the entire time until arrival um at the 911 call scene. Uh the camera then will be actively controlled by the uh the remote pilot once they're on scene um at the incident. All flights are recorded and uploaded to evidence.com. As soon as that drone lands on its dock, it starts immediately downloading on evidence.com. It's much like our body cams. When we get to a a Wi-Fi signal, our body cams do the same thing. So, the drones will be mirroring that. Um, non-evidentiary flights are automatically deleted with within 7 days. We do have the ability to uh shrink that time period. Um, Minnotonka does 3 days. Um, so that's up for um for conversation. Whatever whatever we want to do, we can we can shrink that. But the seven days is it is mandated by state law that you have to uh delete. Uh flights with evidentiary value are retained according to Minnesota evidence retention uh requirements. However, uh through conversations with our city attorney's office, Alifa, which is the independent monitoring team um with the MDHR settlement agreement, uh we will be keeping all evidentiary video indefinitely. regulatory oversight, lots of oversight, a lot of governance on this, which is super important. Um, the FAA, we're we are bound by the FAA on how high we can fly, where we can fly. Um, our state statute is another thing that obviously controls uh when we can fly. Um, and then our department policy. So, three levels of governance here and oversight. State statute 62619 um regulates when we're authorized to use the drones. Um it mandates yearly reporting to the BCA for every flight. They have to be recorded and um sent to the BCA at the end of the year. It rem maintains I'm sorry it mandates retention laws which I stated before how long we have to retain information and videos. Uh it prohibits drones from you being utilized for random surveillance. Prohibits drones from having facial recognition. It's it's important to note that the X10 doesn't even have the technology or even the ability to have any type of that software or equipment put on it. Uh and it pro and also the state statute prohibits drones from being equipped with any kind of weapon system. Our MPD policy mirrors state law. Um, also that we've included in our policy that quarterly reports um, not just a year like the BCA, but um, the chief of police will be getting a quarterly report on any and all UAV usage in the MPD. Um, under the subdivision 1, seven, and 8, if a drone pilot wants to fly outside of those subdivisions, they have to call the special operations division commander and seek approval and explain why they want to um fly a drone outside of the the three sub subdivisions here. Um, and if it if that uh if the commander is not available, then a deputy chief or hire has to approve those flights. Um, a real cool thing that I I I I like to look at on other departments, they have a public facing transparency dashboard, which we will be have we will have here. It'll be active if we're allowed to have the pilot project. Um, this is this tracks all flight data and the reasons for the flight and the community can go on the city talk website where it will be live and they could say, you know, if they're out one night and they see a drone fly over the top and it has red and blue lights on it and they say, "Hey, I want to know where that where that drone is headed, what it's going on, within 24 hours, they can go into the public facing dashboard and look up that information." Uh, community engagement, uh, big piece for our drone unit. there are they're always fulfilling requests to go out and show schools or um you name it. Some people in the community want want to come out and have these demos done. So, we've got we do the precinct open houses as well. Uh community MSTA, they go out for demos on that. Um the peace inter internship academy got a a pretty cool demo. Um Skyo themselves, the company has a has a program called Skyo for all provided free by the company. So if we if they have a request, they'll they'll come out with their trucks um all their drones and they'll inform and educate the community um on how to fly what you know um u how the drones work, how they fly, and they'll allow the community to fly them as well. Um lastly, my hope is if we do get um a DFR program up and running that we get a dedicated drone web page on the city website that has full engagement with the community. Um, outside agency DFR successes. I I think this is a really important piece. Um, St. Paul PD has been flying drones since 2023. Uh, they just started their own DFR program in May on May 30th. Uh, they have three docks, one in each one of their districts. Uh, they've flown over 585 missions to date. They've arrived on scene on 585 of those missions in under 90 seconds. They've helped locate 45 people, contribute to 46 arrests, and uh the commander over there, yesterday I spoke to him, he said they they have zero complaints since their program began in 2023 of their drone usage. Minnotonka, uh this was the first 6 months of their program, over 400 flights, 65% of their drone was the first on scene on 911 calls. Um they showed that 20% of their calls were able to be cancelled. uh a patrol response could be cancelled. And they surveyed their um their officers and they said that 90% of the time they believe that the drone gave them uh good information prior to them arriving on scene. San Francisco a lot of the same uh issues that we have here with autotheft um some of the crime patterns but San Francisco showed that in 2024 when they started their drone program it had a drop of their crime overall crime by 30%. The reduction in autotheft in 2026 went down 44%. They had 500 um more than 500 arrests um related to their drone program and they recovered um or I'm sorry they had 166 stolen vehicle arrests associated with it. Redmond, Oregon um incredible numbers here, but in 2025 they had a minute 33 average response time with their drones to 911 calls. And 80% of those calls uh the drone is the first on scene. They noted uh overtime hours saved, 113 hours of overtime saved in 2025 and then $60,000 cost savings from clearing calls with the drone and not sending a police uh in a squad car. Um just a quick cost analysis. Uh we looked at the current pilot project. If if we were to pay Skyo for this for a full year uh for the two drone docks is approximately $150,000 per year. Um just I know some of you were were wondering about that on the last uh legislative directive. Um we mentioned this but not only not only police but fire had mentioned that they see a huge benefit in the incidents that fire could respond to these um the drones could respond. Um and a great example would be central and Lowry Avenue had a building fire. Um, they were able to use one of the drones to go up and see where the water was shooting out of the uh, I don't know, the ladder fire hose, lack of a better term, but they were able to redirect where the fire was, where they couldn't see from the ground. Uh, but they said they could use in hazmat recons where we don't have to send our people into these hazmat areas. You could send a drone in to get an aerial look. Um, water rescues, rope, rope rescues, you know, miniha falls. Sometimes there's things down there where we could send a drone to get a bird's eye view eye view on things. the next steps if approved um I have a if approved today but we know this goes to full counsel um you know July 16th we if if it's if it's approved we could be flying by July 20th that's the earliest um we could do it um and obviously we want to set after the 75day uh trial period we want to present again to to this committee here on the results from the 75day trial um as As I stated before too, um I know it's easy to have opinions on things, but I I really want to invite everybody here to come down to MECC and see how everything works, how this program works, talk to the pilots, talk to dispatch, and see how efficient this can really be. Ask questions and be engaged. Um so with that, I'd like to say thank you for your time and open up for a few questions if you have any. >> I think we'll we'll do is open it for the public hearing and then after that, we can open up for questions. Okay. All right, colleagues. Well, thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> As I said earlier, there are at least 39 people here to testify. So, I'm just going to ask the public to please keep it to your two minutes and don't go over. Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult for us to finish the rest of the agenda, which we still have a few other items left. I will ask everyone uh to please keep it respectful. I will now open this public hearing. the first person to speak on this item and I'm gonna name your number if I don't say your name correctly and also um just a lot of cursive writing here. So, number one, Deshawn McDonald. >> Okay, thank you. Number two, Dan. Is it Almonds? Number two. >> Okay. Some in overflow room. So, I'm going to say the names out loud for in numbers. That way, if you're in the overflow room, you can start walking over here. Number two will be Dan. Number three will be S. Heler. Number four will be Elizabeth Openenheimimer. Number five will be Gabe Heler. Number two, welcome. Or yeah, number [snorts] three. >> The person who had spot number one left, so he gave me his spot. I was originally in person number 21. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Meredith Abby and I'm the director of Women Against Military Madness and I've been a resident of Minneapolis for 30 years. Wham has been organizing against drones both domestically and internationally since 2012. We see them as weapons of war and mass surveillance and do not want them to be used to control or kill people either at home or abroad. Drone attacks that cause thousands of fatalities across the globe and are a leading cause of civilian casualties in war. For example, in Sudan, over 80% of civilian deaths are caused by drones. Wham activists have led protests here in the Twin Cities, have traveled to Camp Ripley, have traveled to Boeing's corporate offices in Chicago, all to protest against drones. We do not support a contract with Skyo because they profit from the use of drones as weapons of war in Palestine. In fact, the only reason why Skyo is a large enough is a large company and can afford to entice Minneapolis with a 75day free trial is because they've made bank from killing Palestinians. Any contract with Skyo would be using taxpayer dollars to support a country that not only sells its drones to aparttheid Israel, but would be funding their R&D to make more drones and therefore more weapons. The people of Minneapolis do not want Skyo's blood on their hands and passage of this proposal would be completely in contradiction to the 2024 city council resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza and supporting an end to taxpayer dollars contributing on Israel's attacks. We also do not support the use of Skyo for drones as first responders program. Supporter note, our city is known throughout the world for the murder of George Floyd. Since his murder in 2020, the city of Minneapolis, including the mayor's office, has done virtually nothing to reign in killer cops. We cannot give this police department access to drones. Without community control of the police, we have no reason to believe that they wouldn't use them to police black and brown communities. It would be completely irresponsible for the Minneapolis City Council to give this police department any technology that could be used to surveil Minneapolis residents. >> Thank you. Next up, we have [applause] number two, Dan. Number three, S. Heler. Number four, Elizabeth. Number five, Gabe. Hello. Uh, I'm Dan Edmonds, uh, a member of North Minneapolis in Ward 4. I'm here to speak in opposition of the trial of the SkyO drones. Uh, it is with great frustration and disappointed that I am required to be here today to speak out against this. I would assume that given what has happened in the city during our occupation when we were terrorized, kidnapped, and gunned down in the streets by the federal government that the use of drones as first responders would not be the best path forward. It is not lost on me that many of the council members who support this initiative were also those who were wholly absent during the occupation and subsequent resistance to ICE. and that many of the members who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their neighbors during that harrowing time do not support this partnership. It is also not lost on me that many of the council members who supported the so-called COP city initiative are also in support of using AI drones to provide somehow adequate care to their neighbors. The same drones, mind you, that the Israeli Defense Forces use to locate, target, and kill innocent innocent Palestinians. >> [snorts] >> These machines are tools of genocide, and Minneapolis must reject tools used to oppress and murder people and instead stand in solidarity with people with whom we share a similar struggle. We cannot provide more money to a company complicit in genocide. Additionally, why are the taxpaying citizens of this city meant to foot the bill of the Minneapolis Police Department yet again? A police department that while this city was occupied sat on its hands while racking up thousands of dollars in overtime that cannot be accounted for. A police department who still has not publicly apologized or taken accountability for the murder of George Floyd and its abandonment of the community in the months after. [snorts] A police department that cannot explain why it has gone $20 million over budget and then constantly asks for more. No more money to the police. No drones. We are all Palestine. Thank you. [applause] >> Next, if I can ask folks. It's going to be hard to hear people's names if we keep clapping. Uh, number three, S. Heler. Number four, E. Elizabeth O. Number five, Gabe H. Number six, Will. Number seven, Everett. I'm just naming it out loud because there's folks in the overflow room that need to be able to hear us. Welcome. >> Good afternoon. My name is Sarah Hiller. I have been a proud resident of Camden in Ward 4 for 16 years. Uh I have also uh been told that the reason that I should support this program by my council person is that it will do something about illegal dumping and chop shops in North. We have a serious problem with illegal dumping and chop shops in North Minneapolis. Let me tell you, I have been personally fined thousands of dollars for uh mostly house flippers and their subcontractors who dump their construction waste in my yard. A drone will do nothing to solve this problem. Nothing at all. That's a 311 call. I have been through this a lot of times. That's a 311 call, not a 911 call. So when I read that uh they they want to use this for emergency response and then I am told that I should turn out to support it because of regulatory issues, what I take away from that is that no one knows what this is what this is really for. Right? They want the drones first and they'll figure out what they're going to do with them later. And that concerns me deeply as someone who has uh lived in a a part of town that has suffered a lot of police abuse. Every interaction I have ever had with a member of the MPD in North Minneapolis has been one in which they degrade me as a person. The relationship between the police in Minnotonka or Rochester or Duth is very different than the relationship that we have in North with the police. Uh yeah, there's no excuse. I have more notes. Uh, but I know that we have a lot of people coming. So, thank you for listening. Please oppose this. [applause] >> There's a I I read names again, so if you don't hear me, let me know. But number four, Elizabeth. Number five, Gabe. Number six, Will. Number seven, I think EMTT or Everett. Welcome. My name is Elizabeth Oppenheimer. I live in Ward 4. Everyone with whom I've communicated directly about this proposal have reported that no one has asked if we wanted a drones program for first responders. No one I've interacted with ever even heard that this was being proposed until two weeks ago. I'm strongly against the concept of using drones as first responders, especially drones from a company that currently uses them for military operations. When will the militarization of our city's police draw down for good? I became interested in the right use of technology by the MPD when there was growing interest in using body cams. So, I went to a public hearing for my first time around 10 or 12 years ago of this very same committee. As that hearing got underway, I heard one officer say to another, "They're going to give us body cameras, and we will just break them." I have since read that MPD officers often sought ways to undermine technology or resist its implementation until they learned how they could expand its use and get away with it. Police officers and their supervisors have looked the other way or have made their process of investigating themselves completely opaque to the public. Also, the police themselves reported unease in MPD's own technology systems per a summary of the information collected from focus groups ahead of implementing the consent decree. And you should have packets with some of this information should have been brought to you. So why would g giving even more technology to police be a good idea? The work to implement the consent decree fully should be not leapedrogged over just because other cities are using drones. Other cities don't have the harmful history of police killings of black people that Minneapolis has. Say their names. Terren, Franklin, Jamar, Clark, George Floyd. We need respect for our individual and shared humanity. More relational work on the ground, not remote drones in the air. Next up, Gabe. Number five, six, Will, seven, EMTT or Everett. >> Hello. Uh, my name is Gabe Heler. I live in Weber Camden in Ward 4. Um, so [clears throat] I've lived in North for nearly 20 years and I've had people dump things on my property, even cars. But the solution is not drones. It's for the police to get off their douffs and do their jobs. Last time someone dumped a car in my yard, I called the police. They shone a spotlight in my eyes and yelled, "This better be stolen or else it's your responsibility." Those are not the words of a policeman with the patience to stake out an illegal chop shop or serial dumper to catch them in the act. That man would not use a drone to catch people illegally dumping stuff in my yard. That man would use a drone to catch me not mowing my lawn during no mo and get me cited for it. That is a man who solves problems by killing the messenger. The problem is not that the police don't have drones. The problem is they don't trust Minneapolis residents. They don't trust me, so I don't trust them. And sure, the consent decree is supposed to solve that, but it hasn't yet. And until it has, I don't want the police to have access to drones. And if boots on the ground is just impractical and surveillance is the only solution, I want that surveillance placed in the hands of the community so we can decide what problems are serious enough that sharing information with the police is warranted. Number six, Will. Seven, not sure. Number eight, Heather. Number nine, Caitlyn. Number 10, Bob. >> Hello, my name is Will Reley. I've been a resident of Minneapolis Ward 4 Precinct 5 Weber Cabinet Neighborhood for about five years now. Um in the last few weeks I've helped my neighbors and friends organize uh grassroots petitions against this proposed DF DFR program. Those in over 500 signatures were emailed to the city council this morning. My community has been having resources pulled out from under it as long as I've lived there. We've lost grocery stores by all metrics. We're an urban food desert. We're rapidly losing funding for our schools, especially for the arts and humanities. Classes are being axed. Uh my neighbors, I have neighbors struggling to afford food and rent, and their kids are struggling in underresourced schools. So, when I hear that the city is potentially going to be spending big money on militaryra drone technology to the police in our neighborhoods, you'll hopefully understand that my first thought is, you can't be serious. We just spent months enduring a brutal winter of military equipped federal occupation and terrorization. And on the heels of that, you wish to provide uh militarygrade drone tech to the cops in our neighborhoods in our already over surveiled neighborhoods, purchased from a company that directly profits from warfare and imperialism. You can't be serious. And don't get me wrong, it wouldn't be okay even if these drones are bought from Teeu. It's just quite a red flag that you went straight for this particular provider. We need money for our schools, for housing, for grocery stores, not drones for police. Do not go forward with this program. We're not okay with any version of Big Brother. Thank you for your time. >> Number seven, Everett. Number eight, Heather. Number nine, Caitlyn. Number 10, Bob. >> Number eight. >> Number seven is Everett. That's next. Number seven, we can move on. If ever it comes back, let us know. Number eight, Heather, welcome. >> Thank you. My name is Heather Michaelelsson. I'm a resident of Ward 5. These drones are not safe. Two weeks ago in Brooklyn, New York, a Skyo drone crashed out of the sky. There's no explanation from the city or the company of why that happened or how. That's the second one in a year in New York City in Brooklyn City, sorry, that crashed for apparently no reason. And these drones are, as someone else mentioned, used by the IDF for in the sorry, in their genocide on Palestine. And not only that, but in October 2025, the Washington Post did a story that SkyO provides information to ICE. And Minnesota state law also um permits drone footage to be used by any government entity provided that they make a request in writing. That means anytime that there's a protest that drone that drones fly over, any government entity like DHS, ICE can ask for that footage. And that means any of us that attend will be put under a micros sorry a microscope by people like Steven Miller who wants to classify anyone who attends those protests as a domestic terrorist and put us in jail for exercising our first amendment rights. And most of us in this room, I think, would agree that what ICE did and what they're continuing to do um is wrong. And nobody wants to be sorry. And um we don't want to fund this program or any other program that gives money to a company with offices in Israel to help fund their genocide. Thank you. >> Number 10, Caitlyn 10, Bob. Number 11, Maddie. Number 12, Yan. Hi, my name is Caitlyn Medzel, and I'm a resident and a property owner in the Victory neighborhood of Ward 4. Frankly, I was disappointed to learn that my council member is the one at the helm of this proposal. This comes from the same council member who is virtually silent as our neighbors were being targeted, harassed, and snatched by ICE earlier this year at the peak of Operation Metro Surge. My main concern with this pilot program is what happens after the pilot. What will the true cost be to our community and our rights? How and where will any data collected about our city and its residents be stored? And for how long? Will it be encrypted? And most importantly, who will it be shared with? And how can we guarantee it won't quickly be handed over to invading parties? How can we guarantee it will not be used to observe, surveil, and target oppressed communities and constitutional observers within our city? Sure, this presentation provided a hazy outline of usage policies, but historically the Minneapolis Police Department have not had a great track record of following their own policies and procedures. Furthermore, we should not be sending our tax dollars to the Silicon Valley based entity who are aiding the Israeli Defense Forces in their genocide of Gaza. Over 21,000 Palestinian children have been murdered so far at the hands of the IDF and some of that blood is on Skyo's hands. The MPD already has some drones it can use in the most emergent situations. We should not be rewarding them with shiny new toys after they continue to rack up nebulous overtime, yet still fail to show up when called, and who cannot effectively answer why they so egregiously exceed their budget year after year. Say no to Skyio. Thank you for your time. [applause] >> Number 10, Bob. Number 11, Maddie. 12, Yan. 13, Brandy. 14 S. Martin. >> Hello, my name is Bob Gunnan. I'm a resident of North Minneapolis in Ward 4. I'm deeply disturbed that just months removed from met from Metro Surge when drone technology was used to surveil our immigrant community and the protests that followed that anyone would propose putting more drones in the sky over Minneapolis. I oppose contracting with surveillance drone manufacturer Skyideo, the same company that sells drones to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. I am Jewish. I oppose contracting with Skyo, the same company that sells drones to the Israeli military for use in its genocide in Gaza. Minneapolis should not be doing business with a company that profiters from genocide. I oppose the proposal to put surveillance drone technology in the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. The same police that the Department of Justice found had engaged in unlawful discrimination against black and Native American residents and in unconstitutional surveillance practices that infringed upon First Amendment freedoms. the same police that used drones to surveil the racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd. When I door knocked in my neighborhood with a petition opposing the Skyo proposal, several people upon hearing that [snorts] several people um upon hearing that it would mean drones in the skies above them asked, "Where do I sign?" One couple expressed their opposition, but declined to sign because of fear of how the data might be used. Drones will only worsen the fear of surveillance that many now share. The sounds of Metro Surge still echo. For those of you considering a yes vote, bear in mind that when your constituents find out that you voted for drones hovering over their neighborhood, you may be held accountable for that vote in the next election. Thank you. [applause] >> Next up, 11 Maddie. >> Good afternoon, chair. Uh, council members. Appreciate the opportunity. My name is Maddie and I live in W 7. I oppose the contract with SkyO and a drone surveillance program for MPD. When this was brought to council, city departments were quick to talk about the benefits, rescue, fire emergencies, and other logistical things, right? We need to be honest that these are still surveillance tools, and there are huge risks to resident privacy. And when you actually look at the 11 re reasons under state statute that law enforcement could use drones without a warrant, I see a lot of risks as well. to collect. Law enforcement may use a UAV to collect info from a public area if there is reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or over a public event where there is a heightened risk to the safety of participants or bystanders. This could 100% be used as a tool to expand state sanctioned violence, surveil protests and descent, surveil black and brown communities, and bring in huge amounts of visual data. I worry that this will be the next course of violence against our unhoused neighbors uh who as a city we've already decided uh don't deserve privacy, dignity, or any space to exist. I wonder how this could affect community rapid response systems as we rely on community members to respond to ICE. And I'd like to know how many of your immigrant constituents still living in fear would feel safer with this expanded surveillance uh through this third party specifically. And as we make these investments in law enforcement, it gets harder to trust that council cares about privacy rights and overpolicing of communities of color. And finally, the connection to genocide in Palestine, the concept of what the US does abroad uh comes home or the imperial boomerang, right? This is literally what that means when we choose to use companies like Skyo. We are choosing to use those same tactics and technologies in our own neighborhoods and pretty soon the testing ground becomes Minneapolis. So I'm I'm asking you not to move forward uh with a pilot or a contract with Skyo. Thank you. [applause] >> Number 12 Yan 13 Brandy 14 S Martin 15 Emily 16 Sana 17 Mary. >> Good afternoon council members. My name is Dr. Yan Chen, professor of German. I find it ironic that council would con celebrate civil rights and then immediately consider more mass surveillance systems. While other speakers today have already addressed how Skyo is being actively used to abet genocide in Palestine. And while as an activist with Mirak in my private time, I rally against supporting Skyo that has recently secured a half million dollar contract with ICE. I would also educate council on the broader picture from a critical security studies perspective. Security is an imagined construct. Jeff House mans a preeminent scholar in critical security studies describes security is a practice not of responding to enemy and fear but of creating them. It enacts our world as if it is a dangerous world, a world saturated by insecurities. It invests fear and emnity in relations between humans and polities rather than simply defending and protecting political units and people from enemies and fears. Translated for the lay person here, the deployment of autonomous surveillance drones rests on the presumption that the regular people unto themselves are existential threats. But if you accept and normalize that idea that every single person could be an existential threat, then you have already stripped your own residents of any inklink of humanity. That's what totalitarian systems do. And that's what befell Philando Castile, George Floyd, Amir Lock, Techless Sunberg, and too many others in Minneapolis. This is the paradox of security within a democratic society. You cannot simultaneously claim that our government, this body, is for the people and by the people while also deeming the people to be existential threats. The deadly uh Yeah. But that's exactly what securitizing does. And the more this presumption becomes normalized, the deadlier this presumption becomes. And the more this becomes the norm, the more we build a surveillance state that rivals the Stazzy, the secret German East German police. 13. Brandy. [applause] 14. I'm having a hard time reading, but I think it starts with the S and I don't know what comes after that. And I think the last name is Martin. That's 14. But first, Brandy 13. >> Okay. You You'll be next. >> Hold on one second, please. I'm pull my notes up. Hi. Uh, my name is Brandy Bennett. I've been a resident of Minneapolis for five years and uh, I live in South Minneapolis and we're uh, Stevenson's district. I am a privacy and data security uh, attorney. This is my practice area. We are guaranteed under the United States and Minnesota Constitutions a right of privacy from the government. Right? We have a fourth amendment and we have section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution. The statute that was proposed that we operate under here was passed in 2025. It is untested in the Minnesota courts and it is untested in the federal courts as to whether that statute is even remotely constitutional. The Minnesota Data Government Act or Data Practices Act, apologies, um is 30 years old. It has been amended multiple times, but it has not been amended substantively in the last decade, except with regard to ser um service data for military members. You have an outdated government practices statute that cannot regulate a technology that has emerged in the last 10 years. I can speak on the civil liberties issues here that everybody else has. We all lived through the occupation. I was in, you know, I'm in W 8, right? South Minneapolis, half mile from where Freddy was killed, half mile from where Good was killed. We watched ICE come in here with drones. We watched ICE come in here and violate our constitutional rights. Every technology given to state and federal law enforcement has been abused. Last week, we saw stories breaking of flock cameras and ALPRs in Florida being used by offduty cops who met women on movie sets and stalked them through the streets. This will be used the same way. The protocols that were put on place on that lovely presentation we had earlier are not sufficient from a privacy perspective. The government practices act also requires that we do privacy impact assessments for government activities. Where are those? I know at least one reporter who has foyed them who has not received them. I'd love to read them. I will volunteer my time for that. I'll just end with you guys. >> Thank you. >> I'm gonna end on Ben Franklin >> 14. [applause] Sarah Martin. >> I think if people could good afternoon my name is Sarah Martin and I am a member I live in the third ward and I call on you to reject any partnership with Skyo. It's a company which is making its riches off the genocide of Gaza. last week marked 1,000 days of the US funded Israeli genocide in Gaza. The official count or the known number of dead is 76,000 people, at least 28,000 of them children. By that count, it means that 76 Palestinians have been murdered every day. But that's no doubt a vast undercount. Reputable studies have calculated that anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 people have been killed and are buried under the rubble. Using those numbers, that means that 300 to 500 Palestinians are killed every day. And there's no question SkyO drones account for many of those deaths. You must decide to reject the contract with them and continue to do the right thing as you did when you passed one of the stronger, if not the strongest ceasefire resolution in the country in 2024, or when you voted no to Euzen City, another Israeli surveillance company. We don't want our tax dollars going to companies profiting from the genocide and at companies whose drones have been used to surveil protesters, including those opposing the vicious and evil genocide. Reject Skyo free Palestine. Thank you. >> Next up, we have Emily 15, Sana 16. I'll invite folks if you agree just maybe just um use your little It's kind of hard to hear up here. Thank you. Um 17 Mary 18 Jean Emily Horwath Ward 10 June 10th 2026 there was an incident a block from the Alex Freddy memorial a gun went off a woman and her daughter's life hung in the balance there were 15 police cars two sheriffs a sniper and two police drones over the course of hours there was not anyone who changed things more than conflict negotiator like the ubiquitous you don't want to do that scenes in movies there are as many conflict negotiators on the entire entire MPD as there were police cars that day. 15 mostly sworn officers and a mental health professional, said Sergeant Cory Schmidt to KSTP. The only thing a drone did was be shot down, causing confusion as a source misrepresented the drone in a way that could be mistaken for a human casualty. Dep Prioritizing conflict negotiators to focus on drones would muddy the water and make the most sensitive situations a higher risk. We already know what works. Schools, social workers, conflict negotiators, city sanitation crews. Since March 1st, 2025, at least 1,243 people have died in IE to drone strikes. These were curried out by government security forces like those who killed Alex Prey and Renee Good. When, not if, ICE returns in force to the Twin Cities, they may bring drones. If there are already drones in our skies, they will be harder to spot, easier to ignore. When they are reported, how long do they how long to authenticate whether they come from the MPD or ICE? How long would it be it that people are in danger when seconds count? The 2026 elections are coming up with the primaries just next month. Giving them the ability to scan our streets and watch our people is a dangerous thing. As Mary told reporter Muhammad Armos, "It is not death we fear. It is the terror that comes before it." The city of New York's Department of Investigation has reported that the NYPD's drone is first responder program broke the law by not disclosing the capabilities of and damage occurred by Skyo drones. Ael Bugoslavski for Israeli Defense states that Skideio enables unmanned missions to be executed day and night. Sergeant Jameson Harris for the US Army states that SkyO drones can deploy grenades. I propose another pilot program. The chance to compare ourselves to other cities. If we do not take the steel, nothing changes. If we take the steel and it works out, things are a little better. If we take this deal and we're wrong to a whole can of worms, >> we are going to have more success. We are the null hypothes. >> Thank you. 17 Mary 18 Jean 19 John 20 Greg. I think I appreciate you all for your patience. >> My name is Senate Wwaz. I am a worker in Minneapolis. I work at the Open Book Building in downtown Minneapolis. A lot of the speakers that came before me already touched on many of my points. I think right now this isn't about rhetoric. This is about human life. I want to show you this image. Excuse me. Shita this image. This is Muhammad Ibar a Palestinian from Gaza from the neighborhood in July 2024 after a sweep after hovering by quadcopter drones just like the Skyo drones proposed in Minneapolis. After the quadcopters had chosen their target, Muhammad's home was raided by the IDF, he was taken to a room and mowled to death by IDF attack dogs. Literally mangled to death. Minneapolis, when you choose to contract with Skyo, you are deciding to be complicit in Muhammad's death. You are deciding to be complicit in the genocide of Gaza. In your pursuit of stopping crime, you are committing an even greater crime and that is the genocide and complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. I ask you today, say no to the SkyO program for the following reasons. You are being complicit in the targeting and surveillance of Palestinian journalists. This is well documented. Reporters without borders have found that over 220 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza during the genocide. This is more than the amount killed in Vietnam and World War II put together. We have documented empirical examples of this happening because of drone surveillance. Anis Sharif and Sal Jafarawi are two examples of drones targeting Palestinian journalists simply for reporting on the scene and that leading to their death. If Minneapolis is so concerned with theft, they would stop the theft of the Palestinian people. >> Thank you. Number 17, Mary. 18, Jean. 19, John. 20, Greg. 21, Meredith. >> Good afternoon. My name is Mary Ford. Ward 12. I'm a member of the anti-war committee. What happens in Gaza doesn't stay in Gaza. Surveillance drones in Gaza quickly became weaponized drones. They dropped explosives and fired bullets. None of this is past tense. AI powered Skyo drones battle tested in Gaza have invaded our US cities. Hundreds and hundreds of law enforcement agencies now use Skyideo drones. The OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, qualifies this as a severe AI incident. Why? Because through drones, US domestic military surveillance has become normalized. Our civil liberties are being eroded. Our human rights are being violated non-stop in Minneapolis. We know that bad goes to worse at the drop of a hat. I remember in late May, early June uh of two 2020 during George Floyd, the Blackhawk helicopter swooping low and loud over my house, breaking tree branches and and scaring neighbors that had banded together. The Minnesota State Patrol also flew a cirrus spy plane over our city at that time. US Customs Border Patrol collected our data using a predator drone during George Floyd. To track and pursue targets, both ICE and CBP have purchased SkyO drones. This is not the company that Minneapolis wants to keep. We want to demilitarize police work, not militarize police work to further ridiculous levels. As a member of the anti-war committee, I ask you to vote no to the Sky Do contract. Please don't use Sky Dos against my neighbors. Thank you. >> Number 18, Jean. >> My name is Jean Burns. I live in Ward 4. So many people have spoken so powerfully about why not. I want my council I know my council person won't do this but I want you all to look critically at the presentation we were given. Um I didn't take notes but there was a lot of data missing about how much things cost. For instance um he said that it would cost 150,000 just 150,000 to have those two drones on patrolling word for just 150,000. How much will it cost for the whole city? How much will it cost once they analyze what it does? Will people like say, "Yeah, we want more of them." I want you all to look at that that presentation and consider all of the ways in which data was missing, all of the facts and how biased it was. And I stand here in opposition to this drone program. And um every single neighbor I helped collect the um over 300 signatures for the petition against this in our wards and not a single person I talked to in our wards or outside were supportive of this. Not a single one. >> Thank you. >> Number 19 John. 19 John. >> That's actually me now. Okay. >> John had to leave. So >> number 20 will be Greg. 21 Meredith 22 Heather. >> Well, my name is Bethany Lorraine Py. I live in the Fwell community and have served as an MPS educator on the north side for 15 years. I'm a que I'm queer. I'm a widow. I'm a mother. [clears throat] And I also am an advocate for my students and families. I serve on the north side. Please note, I'm here as a community member first and do not represent my school district or union with my words, but they are part of my identity. In my service to the north side, I have witnessed countless acts of police brutality. My community and students uh reported an increase of anxiety and distrust distrust towards each other and the police during Operation Metro Surge. My community deserves an opportunity to allow their nervous systems to heal so that they continue to do the good work that that is happening each day in our classrooms and our community spaces. The presence of drones will simply serve to activate an already activated community. Again, the presence of drones will only serve to activate an already traumatized community. The presence of drones will increase the harm perpetrated against North Side residents. Drones do not need to be a part of our history on the north side. The presence of these drones in our community, when I understand how they have been used historically, deeply concerns me as a historian, community member, and advocate. The presence of drones from the very same government contract that the federal government uses against Palestine is grotesque and sends a message that we support the genocides they are perpetrating. do not put Minneapolis's name on a yet another genocide perpetrator list. What would it look like to put people before profit in this case and move away from the potential for even more bloodshed on what we all know is stolen land? So, I love our north side community and it needs space to heal and rebuild that um trust amongst each other. We've had a complicated history on the north side and drones do not need to be a part of this history. >> Thank you. Number 20, Greg. >> Uh hello members of council. Um my name is Greg Lind. I live in Ward 8. I'm a data engineer by trade. I'm speaking against this SkyO pilot program. I want to focus on four aspects. Unclear trial goals, unproven mission effectiveness, mission creep, and regulatory inadequacy. Um unclear trial goals with no stopping criteria. There are no defined goals or success criteria for this trial. Metrics will be collected about response time and other factors. But is there any measurement outcome that would stop this program from going forward into a full contract? If not, then this is just an operations test and not actually any kind of experiment or trial. Ineffective admission. No peer review or independent study links drones to crime reduction in any jurisdiction in the United States. Drone companies cite operational metrics like response time because that's the only things they have. And since they use those as both their outcomes and their operations metrics, they can juice their own stats on this. When operational metrics are used as a proxy measure, they're no longer actually effective as operational metrics. Mission creep. Mission creep and mission blurring is built into this pilot program. It's if it's a emergency response program, then why are they badged in police livery? And if it's a policing program, then why is it being housed out of MFD uh property? And this is this is confusing. If you want to consider emergency management goals with drones, maybe that's been successful in other jurisdictions, but this is clearly a policing action and incomplete regulatory framework. As um pro, as the attorney cited previously under section 62619, warrant exceptions are far too wide for using this. It's easy to acquire this data and it's very vulnerable to abuse. I don't know anything about tests. I'm not an attorney, obviously. So, just uh do your own research on that. So, um maybe this is the right answer. Who knows? But this is not the right trial at the very least. So who knows? Thank you. >> 21 Meredith. 22 Heather 24 RODM 25 Laura 26 Grace. >> Um Meredith went first. So that was like the little remix we did. [laughter] So my name is Heather Hinkle. I'm a resident of W 5. And a lot of my neighbors have already said how I feel about this contract, right? This pilot program. I want to talk a little bit about Skyo as a company. They're a private company, so they do not have to disclose any of their financials to the public at all. This is not a very transparent kind of business model. So, we can't even say how much money they've made off of selling drones to countries like Israel. I think if transparency is important, it's important that the company that you want to consider partnering with is transparent and inherently a private organization like Skyo is not transparent. We can't find the information that that they produce internally to prove that they have an effective business model. And that is not an appropriate choice to make as a city, as a taxpayer. I don't want my taxes to go to companies that profit off of genocide. And I think a lot of my neighbors have already stated that. I also think that your constituents will remember your votes today. Um, and they will bring that information with them to the poll when you guys are up for reelection. So, I do want you guys to consider that as well and actually listen to what your constituents want without having already made up your minds for your vote on this contract. Thank you. >> Number 24, R. Herman, 25, Laura, 26, Grace 27, Allison. Hello, my name is Rotam Herman. I am a ward of uh excuse me, I'm a constituent of W 10. I'm an academic and an educator. Excuse me. I am also an Israeli American and as such am very deeply concerned about the Skyo proposal for several reasons. First, I have seen the normalization of such technology in Israel firsthand and how its use and abuse becomes expected, even deemed necessary in more and more situations than it was ostensibly planned to be used. I have seen how this normalization gradually deteriorates moral standards, legal protections, and the humanity of both the people using it and the people against whom it is used. Second, I believe that using the same surveillance technology here as is being used in a genocide against Palestinians could be reasonably understood as an endorsement of Israeli crimes and that we should avoid such an endorsement at all costs. Lastly, having seen how this technology is used in Israel and in other parts of the US, we should avoid opening the door to the same terror and abuses happening to Minneapolis residents. Rather than opening the door to this kind of surveillance, I believe we should instead refocus efforts to protect protesters, free speech, freedom of movement, and the human rights of all our citizens. Thank you. >> Number 25, Laura, 26, Grace, 27, Allison, 28, Mercedes. >> Hi. Um, my name is Laura. Um, I'm a resident of North Minneapolis in Ward 5. Um, residents in North already know what the problems are and allowing drones to surveil us surveil us is the wrong solution to the problems being cited. A neighbor of mine recently had illegal dumping occur on their lot. Um, like most illegal dumping, it occurred when no one was watching, so there was no 911 call. 311 had no interest in the video that they had of the dumping incident. And they were also told that now that they had this stuff on their property, they had to clean it up within a week or get a fine. Drones won't fix any of that. When a service is free, you are the product. So, we can just look at Flock to see how surveillance data is used freely by ICE and other law enforcement agencies to harass vulnerable communities. It's also well documented that surveillance data is poorly protected and often misused. You can look at law enforcement misuse of surveillance data and tools to stalk and harass intimate partners and exes as an easy example. Skyo, Ring, Flock, and other companies that offer surveillance bill themselves as security companies, but in reality, they're just data brokers selling the information obtained through their surveillance to the highest bidder. North Minneapolis is already overly surveiled. You can easily look at maps of existing license plate readers and flot cameras to see the concentration in North Minneapolis. If this surveillance was so amazing at solving and preventing crime, we would see its use in South and Southwest Minneapolis, too, but is conspicuously less evident there. Lastly, while the PL pilot for this program is free, its continue use is not, and I'm not so naive as to think this is a oneanddone situation. >> Please vote no. 26 Grace 27 Allison 28 Mercedes 29 Megan. >> Hello council. Uh my name is Grace Brunfeld. I've been a Minneapolis resident for 6 years. I live in M 10 currently in the uptown neighborhood. Um like many people that came today. I prepared a lovely well thoughtout speech for you all about the Minnesota statutes and the vagueness of them and the concerns about you know terrorist designations and where this data is going to be used in the federal government. But many people have raised those points thankfully. So, I get to use my time for something else. Council member Chavez, you rightfully asked us to show respect to the council when you uh introduced the public comments. Um, on the TV, when we're in the room, we actually can only see the speaker. And I just want to acknowledge that the respect needs to go both ways. In the 10 minutes I've been in this room, Council Member Vita has been on her phone for about 85% of that time. And I can't help but be frustrated even as a non-constituent of you like that so many ward four people came today took time off work took time to prepare well thoughtout statements and it feels like you're doing the active listening thing when you're in a meeting you don't want to be in where you're like looking up every 5 seconds. So I just want to make that known and ask for the mutual respect please to your constituents and just to continue this um advocating for the people and what they actually want. >> [snorts] >> If folks can please keep it to the topic at hand, which today is the drone conversation. Next up, 27 Allison, 28, Mercedes. >> Conversation, >> 29, Megan. 30, it's hard to read, but I think the first name starts with a B. Am I good? Hello, council members. My name is Allison. I'm a W nine resident and I grew up in Southwest Minneapolis and graduated from Washurn High School. I'm also a member of Twin Cities Democratic Socialist of America. Um, I'm here to ask you to vote no on the SkyO drone proposal because it will actively endanger our community rather than protect us. And Minneapolis residents do not want to fund a company and technology that is complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine. We just heard the civil rights departments we just heard about the civil rights department's work. One pillar of which is ensuring equitable city contracting. How is contracting with the weapons manufacturer Skyio, who worked with Israel to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, equitable contracting? Have you forgotten that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has active warrants for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity? Have you forgotten that the UN has ruled Israel is committing a genocide? And Skyo happily profits from these crimes. Apartheid South Africa fell when governments and companies worldwide finally chose to boycott and divest from companies complicit in apartheid. That is the choice that you have before you today. And have you forgotten your police department's relationship with our community? You really think you can bring militarygrade drones into our city and promise us MPD won't abuse them when MPD has failed miserably to keep up with the consent decree and done nothing to gain our trust? We have already seen how surveillance technology is abused and used illegally by other police departments across the US. And you think MPD will do better than them? Minneapolis residents do not want our tax dollars to fund a company complicit in genocide and war crimes. We do not want that company using the same technology in our own city. So, please be on the right side of history. Protect your own residents and don't fund a genocidal company. Thank you. 28 Mercedes 29 Megan 30 B first name first letter in the name number 31 Natalie 32 C 33 Emily and sorry that I'm saying names really quickly it's just we have two other items today too want to make sure we don't lose quorum >> hi good afternoon my name is Mercedes Raymond Schneider I've been a resident here for six years I'm a massage therapist this past weekend my story reached over 700,000 views of my video went viral and I spoke out about what happened to me at Halo Healing Therapies here in Minneapolis and my concerns about the camera evidence handled by the first precinct Minneapolis Henipin County Henipin County data collections and responsible authority. This is not about me anymore. My question is who is watching the people who are supposed to be watching us? I believe Minneapolis should be asking hard questions before expanding surveillance. If these programs begin in North Minneapolis, a predominantly black community, we need to ask why. What protections exist against racial profiling and socioeconomic discrimination? Why should one community become the testing ground? Many cameras should many cameras already have the capability with software updates to support AI tools, facial recognition, movement tracking, and license plate recognition. Whether these features are you are used depends on public policy and the public deserves transparency before surveillance expands not after. The public deserves transparency before surveillance expands not after. Technology should protect freedom not quietly normalize constant monitoring. I don't need it. It's weird. Without strong oversight, powerful surveillance tools can be abused by bad actors, whether inside or outside the government. History teaches us that unchecked power will be misused. I am asking the city to choose transparency over secrecy over secrecy, accountability over silence, and the constitutional rights over unchecked surveillance. The public deserves answers, oversight, and the public deserves know ex to know exactly what kind of future we're build we're building here in Minneapolis. Say no to Skyo. >> Welcome. >> Good afternoon. I know you're bored. I know you're tired. I know you're sore. I'll try to keep it short for you. My name is Megan Peterson. I'm a resident in Ward 4. I first met you at the DFL. I have over 15 years experience with industrial internet of things and connectivity including surveillance and monitoring. In the briefing in May and restated today, you've been sold a bill of goods that promises utility for the greater good. The reality that we need to consider rarely matches the ideal that you're presented with. My concern as a homeowner and community member in Ward 4 is twofold. That it will be a violation of constitutional rights against warrantless surveillance. In Chai versus United States, the Supreme Court recently ruled that you have an expectation of privacy and even short-term surveillance of movement is a search subject to the Fourth Amendment. Secondly, I'm concerned about not just how this technology could be used, but how it could be abused. The CEO of SkyO has indicated in public comment that he has no intention of limiting the ability to arm these drones to use them to cause bodily harm. Once a city buys the equipment, trains the personnel, builds processes and procedures around it, there's enormous pressure to make the program permanent. As part of the pilot, if you decide to move forward against public opinion, then I would ask that you establish clear and explicit privacy and accountability guidelines and safeguards, including direct oversight and criteria for ending the program if they fail to meet established goals. I'm a resident of Ward 4 and I urge you to vote no on this DFR pilot program. Thank you. >> Number 30 B starts with the B 30 number 31 Natalie 32 cat 33 Emily 34 Reverend Lauren welcome. >> My name is Natalie. I'm going to call this what it is. This is technofascism. You all are completely comfortable selling our lives for blood money. You want to use Israel's weapons against a city already occupied by the Gestapo or ICE. They killed our neighbors execution style in the streets. We all saw it. Now you want to take this a step further and execute people with these drones. What will your excuse be when this happens? The AI didn't have enough training. Minneapolis will not be the testing ground for your militarization of the police. The police are already one of the biggest wastes of resources. You've got cops sitting and watching public beaches. Ice has been camped out at our public parks. We already can't leave the house without you flying, spying on us with flock. 15 community members, union workers, teachers were raided and ripped out of their homes by the feds who you are colluding with behind our backs. Now you want to ramp it up, step it further, and use drones to hunt people just trying to live. You know what really stops crime? Ensuring that people's basic needs are met. I spent America's 250th going out and feeding my homeless neighbors. I'm not part of an organization. I just give a No matter what people's circumstances are, we take care of each other. But Fry [snorts] and all of y'all want to round up and criminalize people who are being victims of a system that is meant to extract everything from you. We, the people here, are closer to the folks living in tents than we will ever be to these rich monsters bringing forth the techno athoritarian weapons. They would rather spend your tax dollars on drones for the police to play video games with living targets than support meeting real needs. You've done nothing to help the people. You've done everything to hide your complicity in the fascist regime regime and the people are better off without you. >> Number 30, I think it's actually Brian 32. C 33 Emily. >> Hi. Uh, my name is Cat and I'm been a resident of Minneapolis for not very long. I honestly was coming up here and planning to strike the tone that everyone understood the seriousness of what was going on. But I've watched the last several dozen people walk through here and had blank stairs from the committee at not every one of them, but a good portion of them. It's been very disheartening to see like we're talking about the futures of our families and the people we care about. But regardless, let me make it clear. Let me set aside the politics. This is like a breaking point for your constituents. I mean, there's a saying about bread and circuses, right? And right now the government is attempting to crack down on the internet which as we know is a big distraction for my generation and above. Um you know you're getting rid of the circus people are going to want to go outside and now they're going to have drones watching them whenever they want to step outside. Like this isn't going to last. And I think that a part of most I mean I think politicians have to know this because otherwise you wouldn't be making drones or like making contracts with drone companies to spy on us if you didn't understand that people were reaching a breaking point. So you can try to keep stopping it with security drones and all that or you can like do the right thing and stand by your constituents now and not sell them out to a literal genocidal state. Thank you. [applause] >> 33 Emily 34 Reverend Lauren 35 Avery 37 Bethany 38 Zack. >> I'm Reverend Lauren McGrael and I'm representing the Minnesota Christians for a free Palestine. Before I give our statement, I want to just say a few words about myself. I'm a recent um person who moved here in February from Maine. So, one cold place to another in the middle of the surge. And before that, I served my church in Palestine, living in occupied East Jerusalem, working with the YW.CA of Palestine. I went in and out of Gaza. Many of my friends are dead because of drones like this and our government working with Israel. So this is also very personal to me, not in the way that everyone else has expressed. But let me give you the statement from the organization that I joined as soon as I could. We, Minnesota Christians for a free Palestine are a community of Christians who are called to use our public voice and collective power to advocate for peace, challenge Christian Zionism, and resist all forms of empire. We do this by mobilizing against the use of our tax dollars to per to per perpetrate the genocide of the Palestinian people. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people by supporting the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions. We celebrate and support our mainline churches that are taking principal stands against companies that are profiting from the illegal settlements, ongoing violence, and genocide. We commend the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA, for its recent decision to divest. >> Thank you. Uh, number 35, Avery. 38, Zach 39, Arlene 40, Josiah. >> Welcome. >> Hi. Um, my name is Avery. Um, this is my first time going up and speaking to a council like this. Um, I like politics, but um, I haven't been very active myself. Um, I think that, you know, a lot of my colleagues here saying very similar things. because you've probably heard a lot of um uh arguments about why the drones are bad, but uh I want to speak to um kind of public position. Um I hate these things. I I think it looks so dumb like reading my speech from a phone, but uh I do have some important thoughts that I do want to get down. Um first I want to acknowledge politics are complicated. Um politics are this infinite juggle between uh meeting people's needs and juggling public opinion which are sometimes at odds with each other. What I don't understand is why we would implement the drone program under the guise of public safety. We the people don't trust the uh we don't trust the people or the system administering this. And I know a lot of you don't either. What I most don't understand is what problem we're trying to solve. People don't feel unsafe because there aren't enough drones in the air. Most people don't feel unsafe because of some perceived rise in violent crime amongst bad actors. Most people here are afraid of the police because of ICE and because of the very institutions that are sworn to protect people. From my perspective, this is a wasteful and unnecessary spending. We all know that when the government is given a certain kind of power that they will never relinquish that power. The less money that goes into civilian surveillance and drone money, the more money we have to feed our poor and support our social safety net systems. I understand your power is limited by many factors. some designed by the system and some because burning bridges with the people you work with every day, such as the Minneapolis Police Department, is unproductive for your goals and your position. Um, however, drone funding undermines the hard work that the city has been doing in order to rebuild public trust with the police and local federal agents. I urge the council not to pass this funding to make progress towards a security issue that does not exist. Thank you. >> Number 38, Zach. 39, Arlene. 40, Josiah. 41, Patrick. So that would be 38. Zach. Hello. My name is Lavish. I live in Ward 13. Grateful to speak to not Michael Rainville today. Um, do you guys remember Jamal Kashki, the American citizen and Saudi journalist that was chopped into pieces and put into a barrel of acid in the Saudi consulate in Turkey? That was in 2019. Do you guys remember the pagers that exploded in Lebanon, killing over 2,000 people and injuring over 3,000, 60% of which were children under the age of 12? Both of those, and I hope you guys did your research on this, and I'm not telling you this for the first time, were conducted by Unit 8200, Special Intelligence of the IDF. Skyo drones are also done and conducted by Special Intelligence Unit 8200 of the IDF. Scottio drones are a CIA backed development that have been surveilling and killing Palestinian people the entirety of the genocide. And who else know what what other countries that we may not know about because of these covert programs, right? You combine this with the massive increase of fly cameras in the empire's current surveillance state, and then we watch the imperial boomerang inevitably unfold as what we allow to be done to Palestinians is now going to be done to us. Because when you don't stand up against the empire, when it doesn't benefit you, for people that don't look like you, it turns on to us. And that's exactly what's happening. So, everyone sitting up here, except for Michael Rainville because he's getting MAGA donations, will be responsible for the surveillance and ensuing deaths of your citizens. Skyo is already in 800 cities. While data centers are destroying our earth, there's still a genocide here on Dakota land of indigenous and black people. And the fact that y'all are even considering this is mind-blowing. I know a couple of y'all care about Palestinians, Lebanese, Cubans, Venezuelans, Congalles, Sudanis, but most of y'all don't. But if you do care about your children, >> thank you. >> If you allow this to happen to Philistini babies, >> thank you. >> It will now happen to your children as well. >> If we can please keep the topic at hand, that would be really important. 33. I'm afraid I was skipped. >> 33. >> Are we already on? Sorry, never mind. >> Give me a second, >> Emily. >> Yeah, welcome. [clears throat] >> Oh, thank you so much for letting me jump in. >> What number was that? >> I'm 33. >> 33. The next person would be then 39 Arlene. >> Okay. Yep. Hello. Hi. I have lived in Minneapolis since 2007. I have been a homeowner here since 2016, so I do have some money invested into this place, and I truly do not want my real estate tax dollars going to a company that is part of a genocide. Um, this vote should have an incredibly obvious answer. I did hear someone talking earlier about the cost projections of these drones, and I even heard the words cost savings, but uh there are plenty of ways to save money. the Minneapolis police could just assault people less often. I have been in the limb system. I have looked up the amounts of the settlements, the payouts that people receive when they've sue the city, and it is an enormous amount of money. People used to think that body cams were going to help solve crime, but they seem to be turned off at very critical moments. Uh, the drones also would not help solve crime. Um, terrible ideas often have some kind of a front, a fake reason used to mask something else that is not being said out loud. I do not believe these drones would help the people of Minneapolis in any way, shape, or form. I'm sure someone has tried to tell you that they will. That is not true. Uh, Minneapolis does not need to turn into Big Brother from 1984. Thank you. Number 39, Arlene 40, Josiah 41, Patrick. Thank you all for your patience. Just ask please keep it respectful. >> All right. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. My name is Arlene Mat. I live in Ward 11 and I the comments have echoed what I feel the comments have really echoed. Um I retired early to dedicate my time to climate action. I want to see the city spend money on climate and other things that help people, not these false solutions. Uh, flying cameras aren't going to actually help anybody any more than AI is going to solve climate change. So, thank you. Next up 40 is Josiah 41, Patrick 42, Derek 43, A 44 which Hello chair and members of the committee. Thank you for holding this public hearing to give me an opportunity to speak. My name is Patrick McDougall, a resident of W 13. I'd like to outline a number of concerns. In addition to the Fourth Amendment and privacy concerns and human rights abuses perpet per perpetuated by Skyios's other customers my neighbors have shared today, I'd like to focus on a number of other concerns. [snorts] I'm worried about the noise that the neighbors nearby will have to endure. I encourage you all to look into the 1996 and 2007 Max settlements uh for airport noise. neighbors living uh within the airport having greater than 60 dB of noise. Uh the MAC had to pay out $126 million uh and $185 million in 1996. Uh drones are significantly louder than that. Uh they are 70 to 95 dB loud as far as I could tell. I'd like to also uh make a comment about aviation safety. Uh I myself am a student pilot uh who have has flown out of Crystal airport before. Uh Crystal Airport's um uh Minneapolis underlies Crystal Airport's class D airspace. Uh and also borders Robinsdale. Uh Robbinsdale has North Memorial Hospital which has met medevac helicopters that are landing and taking off from the top of the building. >> [snorts] >> Um, and I'd also like to point out that Crystal Airport has 41,000 landings and takeoffs uh at at Crystal and the planes are very low at that point when they're taking off and landing. Uh, and they could be conflicts with police drones operating in Minneapolis. Uh, finally, I'd like to uh call out that um as one of the other members who spoke uh talked about um the metrics in terms of how these things should be evaluated. Um, I'd like to encourage the the committee to look at the incrementality of this. So, if for example, police were going to respond anyway, I'd like to make sure that you're taking into account like what would have happened had these drones not been present. Thank you for your time. >> 42 Derek 43A 44, Rich 45, Julia. Thank you all. >> All right. So, uh, I'm Derek. I think other people have done a great job talking about the civil rights issues here. Um, I want to actually seriously question the actual utility of drones as a first responder. Uh, I think the MPD might be falling or the city rather might be falling for another uh just a kind of a slick sales pitch. U, so these things would have there there's no way for the operator to actually talk with anyone on site. Uh, that means these things are going to have pretty limited capability of like actually gathering information about what's happening. It's just a flying camera. Most domestic disturbances are going to take place indoors. I can't see these things being actually very useful for much beyond, you know, mission creep where they just become the thing that's like monitors protests beyond essentially becoming a mass surve surveillance tool. Uh I think the public is going to hate seeing these like faceless voiceless drones flying around observing them. Uh I think it's going to really undermine the you know remaining trust that people have in our police departments. Uh I was also pretty frightened to hear that our data would be kept safe by department policy. It was also department policy to use the maximum restraint technique that killed George Floyd. And so, forgive me if I don't quite trust department policy to keep me safe. Uh, department policy can also change. Yeah, they're not sharing data now, but in 10 years they might be. I don't really I this is something I really can't trust to not, you know, scale over time, to not grow over time. Uh I also want to say that uh uh mainly I really think this is going to end up with a lot more uh unnecessary arrests, a lot more unnecessary assaults on officers. I can't see this actually leading to more safety for anyone. I really can't see this. I think it's like every other big tech invention. It's not really going to benefit the public whole that all that much, but it's going to benefit the company that created it a whole lot. I think this is just going to make money for Skyo and not a whole lot else. Uh, in conclusion, this is going to be an expensive way to not increase public safety. Please don't give away my civil liberties because some like fancy tech guy from California came and gave a nice sales pitch. >> 43A. >> Uh, hello everyone. Uh, everyone else has made such good points. I'm really getting down the list here. But, uh, anyway, I wanted to bring up search and seizure laws. Uh, I don't know if you all are aware, but there's plain view doctrine. I really question what that means when you can have telephoto lenses and um like infrared cameras and heat cameras and such that fly over people's houses. Uh I also worry about them setting up things like what they would have at the state fair which essentially they just have drones in the air providing like 24/7 surveillance all the time. Um which I don't know if you've seen that at the state fair but look for it this year. Uh I would also uh you know we're again we're getting down there so stay with me. You know, I'm I'm mad that you guys have money for this when we don't have lifeguards. I mean, you like give us lifeguards, not this stuff. Also, uh also, um I've been trying to get a hold of data for uh god flock uh cameras for for months now, going on six months. It's court ordered that I should be able to get a hold of this. Uh my request was denied. It's uh now being appealed. Uh I appealed probably four months ago. I know that department is backed up, but um you know again again get one of these flock cameras as well. Also, you know, if you guys can't give me data for this, will you give me data for other things? And the answer is probably not. And then there's going to be another uh like court finding in a couple of months saying that, you know what, all this footage and all the findings from these drones are also public information. And you know what? Uh you guys are going to drag your heels on giving that information as well. So, uh, yeah, just, you know, get rid of the flock hammers. Do not accept this, uh, and release all the public publicly available information that should be publicly available from all existing ALPRs. I know you guys use other ones. I know that there's some off-rain ones. I imagine they're cheaper and they uh, make people less mad, but they need to go as well. Thank you. Number 44, Rich 45, Julia 46, Natalie 47, Asher, and last 48, Hassan. Mr. Chairman, members of the group, my name is Rich Newmeister. I'm one of the foremost folks on privacy and open government in the state. Been doing it for a half a century. And I know some of you, some of you have even referred folks for me to talk to on some of those on some of those issues. >> What I want to be able to talk is about five things. I think you need to do if you're going to go ahead with this study. I helped write the law in 2019. I'm familiar with all these dynamics. In the dashboard, you must make sure all information is available on the dashboard. The exception of the law, why it the case number, uh also other [clears throat] information to where and also put on top of the dashboard that people will be able to see where the drones go that they can do a data request because a lot of public information is public. more detailed of why the drone was used or whatever that brings accountability in. One build the system so that when one asks because under state law there is video available and is available to the public if it becomes an active criminal investigation. this. I get drone video all the time and this is where I've seen where police officers will go after people arrest that gives an eye for accountability and transparency. See, I haven't testified Minneapolis in years. I'm a St. Paul kid, so can't get used to this. Number three, and at the legislature a lot. You sit down. There's a fine line between patrolling and going out for first response in my studies of what other cities have done. So, you need to look at that when you come up with some plans for this study. You and the city of Minneapolis need to have some evaluative uh marks if you're going to do this 75day thing. And I would be willing to work with the chair or uh council Payne who I've worked with in the past to have some of those because as you know under city ordinance you can be more restrictive. And the real thing is that >> thank you Rich. >> You don't have an ongoing clause that it continues past 75 days. Stop and evaluate. >> Thank you Rich. >> Thank you very much for your time. >> And you can submit those to council comment if you want to work with the clerks. Next up, 45 Julia, 46, Natalie, 47, Asher, 48, Hassan. And if you wish to testify, you still can, but not required. And we also need to move on to other topics. >> Um, good afternoon, city council members and colleagues. My name is Julia Garbeck Miller, and I live in the Seward neighborhood, Ward 2. I have lived my entire life in South Minneapolis. I've went to school here and I'm proud to be from here and the safety I have felt in the in the city has not come from police ever nor will it come from this proposed AI drone implementation. Now when I say I have always felt safe here, I am not a person that the suspicious person's alert or protection from suspicious people applies to me. Um, as mentioned in this slideshow, I'm not a person that the drones will identify as a credible threat ever. So, this new drone implementation will only further invade immigrants and people of color um, and their personal privacy, not to mention that ICE is still very much present and active in our city and everywhere else. Skyo was not asked for ever. um definitely not by the undocumented immigrants currently in ICE death camps right now nor by any Minneapolis residents. I encourage for this program to not go through and to be shut down immediately. Thank you. >> 46 Natalie 47 Asher 48 Hassan. >> Hello. [clears throat] Thank you for having me. My name is Natalie. Um, I was born in Minnesota. I've lived in Minneapolis for the last seven years and I currently live in Ward 7. I like to think of myself as a normal resident of Minneapolis. When I care about something politically, I go out and I show my support. Um, whether that be at an event or a rally or a demonstration or a protest or whatever that might be. Earlier we mentioned the uses of drones without warrants which included areas that might be suspected of having criminal activity or events which might become unsafe. Both of which are very open-ended. This is a very obvious slippery slope into um cataloging and recording people possibly with facial recognition down the line which I'm opposed to. I believe um attending the demonstrations and protests uh is a necessary part of being in a democracy and making our voices heard. In our political climate, activists and protesters are being labeled as extremists. If I go to a protest for any reason, I don't want to be surveiled, cataloged, shared with government agencies and labeled as an agitator or an extremist or something even worse. So, please, I urge you all to vote against the SkyO deal and any sort of drone surveillance program for Minneapolis. The people of the city do not want it. I appreciate your time. >> 47 Asher 48 Hassan me speaking to uh all the people listening over here over here. Uh, we've heard a lot of people speak today about the drone company's connection to the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. I had heard one person speak about the Imperial Boomerang and the weapons used in Gaza coming back to be used in the US like the deadly exchange program and another speak about body cameras and its effects detailed in the book Cropaganda. I wish to make it clear to all that are present, the state is not classene neutral. The state is an organized committee of the ruling class and in a capitalist system the state is beholden to the interests of the capitalist class. This is a class war and every tool in our class enemy uh is a weapon to be used against us. Uh we must agitate, educate and organize. >> Number eight, Hassan. Uh, first, uh, my name is Harun, not Hassan. >> It may be somebody else. It says Hassan here. So, is there anybody else named Hassan? >> Well, there was a man that stepped out, actually. >> Okay. Did you sign up? If you don't haven't signed up after you testify, can you please just sign up? >> I have signed up. I believe it's me. 48. Yeah, that's me. It's uh >> H A S A N >> R U N. So you just if you can just sign up after. We have a 48 that we're missing for Hassan. >> I'm 48. >> Oh then I Okay. I think we'll just figure that out after. If you you could just sign up again. That'll be helpful for us. >> Thank you. >> Outside >> after you can speak. >> Oh yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. I wasn't prepared to speak today, but after hearing everyone speak about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, this gave me the courage to stand up and say something. The most horrifying thing I've seen in my life is an infant in Gaza dying in pain underneath rubble. And the corporation responsible for that is a corporation you all want to do business with. Is this how morally bankrupt we are as a country, as a people? It doesn't matter to see tens of thousands of children slaughtered and to to do business with them, to give them our money. Is this who we are? Are these the values that the city council represents? This state, this country? I remember growing up seeing the Iraq war. The same bodies lined around Baghdad, thinking, why has my country done this? But I was too young to understand. Now I'm a little older. I understand that it's capitalism. It's money. Nothing else. As long as someone makes money off of rebuilding, killing, and rebuilding again. and then killing. When will it end? When does the killing end? When do the lives of children matter more than money? And why don't they matter more than money to all of you? That's all I have to say. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to address the committee? And I'm going to ask three times going once, going twice, going three times. And council president, if you mind leaving after council member Vita returns, that would be helpful so we don't lose quorum. Um, I just with that, seeing no one else wishing to speak, I will now close the hearing. I just want to thank the public for coming to testify. Uh, we don't want to lose quorum in general, so that's why I we want to make sure that we can get through this item. folks can take a vote on this item and then we can proceed to the last three items that we have on the agenda. So with that, um I will now open the queue. Well, I will close the public hearing as I said earlier and I'll open up the queue to see if any committee members want to say any comments um ask questions. I'll first um pass it to council president since you will have to leave as soon as possible if that's okay with everybody. Just quick point and is there are are people hoping to take a vote before we take off or >> the goal here and I can explain the goal here. The goal is going to be moving it forward without recommendation and for the public to know what that means is it's a vote of no position. So the final vote will happen on Thursday where the full city council will be able to vote either in support or against of the contract. So today the goal will be moving it forward without a recommendation >> and um so that's the goal today. Yep. >> So the public the what that means is it's no position on the contract. The contract will then come to a final vote at full council. All 13 council members will be able to vote in favor of it or not. That's how committees work. A vote from a committee is not an official final action on a vote. That's just a recommendation that then goes to the city council to make a final decision. Okay. Council President Payne. >> Yeah. I just want Thank you, Chair Chavez. I just wanted to uh say I have to go to the board of estimate and taxation at 4:00. I had a number of questions about this uh many of them having to do with um policy 4226 on UAVs. I don't think I have the time to actually get into those questions. So, I'm just hoping that um commander that you could be available during the full council meeting when we take the final vote on this to actually be able to speak to some of those questions or connect with me before that. Council member Whiting >> and comfort we don't lose quum with four people. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Good. Cool. Thank you, Chair Chavez. Uh and thank you to to all I think 49 folks that that have come and uh spoke. Uh right, I'm writing down here, right? I think I have 37 individual um concerns uh for members of the community today about uh specific things related to uh the Scotty contract. And so uh I have a a a large list of questions and so for whoever it makes the most sense DC if that makes sense for you. Um happy to kind of walk through them. uh right outside of kind of my understandings about the program I think there are a lot of uh what we are hearing a lot of uh uh valid concerns about a program such as this uh I think the ones that I am hearing kind of as it just is writing them down uh the first I think level of this question is around surveillance uh and surveillance kind of capacities uh with this level of technology in these drones and so uh can you speak to uh right your understanding of what these drones are they going to be used for surveillance technology. Do they have the capacity to surveil? Um anything in relation to that would be helpful and any clarification? >> Sure. Uh through the chair to council member Whiting. Um let me just say I brought Sergeant Roger Moo up. He runs dayto-day operations to for our drone our current drone unit. So if there's any questions I might defer to him. >> Um but we we do not surveil with our drones. they are mission purpose. Um, if it's a an operation from like was mentioned earlier, the operation down on Nicollet if we're going to use drones um to make the scene or us to get more information on something that's going on or if it is, yeah, we are responding to an active 911 call. Um, but by no means are we using these for any type of surveillance. >> Perfect. Thank you. as it relates to u kind of the the the state statute specifically about the uses uh in which these drones can kind of be uh flown piloted. Uh the one that raises I think a larger question specifically for surveillance for me uh is the the portion in which it can be used for um uh kind of monitoring monitoring public events. Um if it fits within uh I'm going to use let me get the exact language here so I'm not speaking out of my mouth here. Um oh goodness give me one second here. See, the best part of committee is we don't have a time on how long we can speak and ask questions for. And so, >> you want me to recite like subdivision 3? It might be the one. >> If you're able to, that's helpful. >> A public event where there is a heightened risk to the safety of participants or bystanders. >> Yeah. And so, in those scenarios, I guess like what what if if if it is not surveilling, what is the the the the reason for like I guess the deployment of the the drone in that situation? >> Sure. Um, you know, it we could get intel from one of our intel units um here at the city or at the county um of a they might under you know uncover a known threat, somebody um who might be um you know there might be a threat for somebody placing a bomb or um a target, you know, targeting events for for whatever unknown purpose. We could um launch a drone to see if we could find that individual. If we if we know like a time and place uh of that individual, we could launch a drone to um try to counter that. Okay. And that right and that sounds like more specific a more specific scenario in which a drone would come up based on a call or suspicion of of something within other things. Right. I think that the language here and right the way I am reading is these are are seen as the floor of what we should do uh for for kind of regulatory framework around uh drone like right I just am having a hard time really connecting like what the usage for right and it sounds like in in your example right it it would be used as as trying to figure out if there was a bomb or something in the area rather than just general surveillance uh right and I think that the the statutory language is a little I think unclear on on what that actual usage uh could be. And so I think that's something that I would like to see if you know outside of a pilot program. Uh and this goes into to to more comments that I have about a regulatory frame. >> And maybe and maybe the sergeant has an example too. I don't know if you >> um for for that uh sub subdivision. >> Yes, council member. So for for an incident like that, uh more than likely we would be using utilizing the drones to basically conduct a threat assessment of the area. And that's just not, you know, by random um like we're just doing it because we have nothing else to do. It's because of a concern. >> And not only that, but [clears throat] I just also want to mention that these state statute rules and regulations are very vague. As you break it down into our department policy, we narrow it down even more. So for this incident here for subdivision number three, in order for me to even utilize a drone, I have to notify my chain of command. They have to approve it first. So we have our own approval process as well before I can even utilize a drone for something like this. >> Yeah. And and and right and I think, you know, looking at our policy and it it distills it down harder to kind of get the approval for, but I think that the reasons for the launch still stay the same. And I think that's where my I think hesitation lies of right if we are if if it has to be one of the 11 uh or I think like seven um uh reasons to launch the drone uh but then department policy MPD department policy is just on approval for right it's approval based on one of the 11 right and so I think that we have to have some regulatory framework that goes farther than the what the the state statute does here um and so that it's kind kind of, you know, I I will touch on surveillance later and I think, you know, also as it makes sense, I think having conversations before uh um Thursday would be helpful. Um and then and absolutely before any level of of a full contract would would move forward. Uh again, just I think maybe to clarify too just for for for public purposes, um can you talk a little bit right and I will try to explain uh where we are on a contracting uh kind of level right now, right? 75 days no cost contract with no obligation to move forward with a with a larger contract. Is that correct? >> That's accurate. >> Okay. Wonderful. Um other question here. I think you know heard a lot about um trust uh and mistrust and not having trust um in MPD and those that would deploy the drones. And I think those those are valid and fair concerns. Uh and I think right we shouldn't expect the community to trust uh MPD or those that use drones to to use them uh in a way that that is within bounds of this. I think that is our job is to create a regulatory framework um and controls and processes that alleviate any level of of of of unaccountability in this frame. Uh, can you kind of maybe talk to um if Scotty Scottio has in other jurisdictions gone farther than what kind of their state statutes do or is that I guess is Scottio open to I guess not even it would be our our more or less ability implementation of um but how would a regulatory framework given out through the city council or the city of Minneapolis um be used to kind of implement these drones? Would that get in the way uh of kind of this process or is this like the the state statute kind of see as like oh this is the golden standard of what uh the implementation of these kind of drones are and sorry that's a that's a not very clear question you I can >> yeah I think I [clears throat] can answer that council member so in regards to Skyo uh their frame framework is going to their framework is going to be dependent on what we set. >> So whatever standards we set, they have to abide by that. Obviously the rules and regulations between each state are going to be different. >> So we'll follow the guidelines from state statute in relation to our department policy as well as ro the rules within the FAA, but then we can narrow it down tighter depending on what everyone wants. >> Great. Yeah, you you you knew my question more than I did. So thank you. Yeah, I think that was my question like can can we confine what that is within SkyO kind of >> and we can. >> Okay, wonderful. Um, sorry, I got a few more questions for you. Uh, and then you know other I think as you all you all sat through and I appreciate you all sitting um and hearing uh the kind of testimony from from residents. Uh I think the other one on there is data management uh and data fidelity policies um outside of I know I think it was I think we see like seven days here. Is that like a Skyo policy? Is that a state policy? Um like does does any of our data go back to SkyO or is this completely housed uh internally in the city of Minneapolis and MPD? Like where where is that kind of data fidelity uh happening? >> Council member, we control all the data. Uh so what happens is a drone would launch they would record whatever data they have and the moment it lands in a dock the dock will everything would upload automatically through the dock system and it go straight into our uh basically data management system with Axon. So Skyo doesn't have any >> the chain of custody isn't broken because Skyo is just the provider of that >> okay >> equipment >> right and so there's so and like I think would also be helpful too because I haven't seen I'm assuming we are we will be signing a contract for a pilot version of this um if it's possible to send that over to us. I haven't seen the contract and and the terms um as they exist. If it's a if you're able to send that to us that would be really helpful. Um, so but it sounds like there are no data retention policies uh that Scattio governs from your perspective. >> No sir, within for that seven days it's mandated by state law. Okay. >> So we're just following that. Okay. >> But again, if you want to tighten it up just like how Minnetonka does, we can do it as well. >> Okay. Helpful. Um going down my list here. Um >> yeah, I guess that's a piece in there. uh question that came up as it relates to um evidentiary flights um that SC that we in department policy based and and state policy sounds like we won't collect um or or retain uh data if it's not for evidentiary flights. It has to be for evidentiary purposes to retain that data. How are we defining uh like what an evidentiary flight is because I haven't been able to see uh a definition on that. So, council member, with that term, it's going to be categorized depending on the pilot. Uh, and our benchmark, our standard is if there's any type of criminal liability or civil liability, we document it as evidence because we don't know what's going to happen 5 years from now. >> Okay? >> But anything else that doesn't capture anything, so let's just say >> uh we get dispatched to >> someone overdosing, right? We go to the incident. Uh we don't locate anyone. uh at that point there's nothing of evidentiary value. We've captured nothing. That evidence is categorized during a certain category and then it's automatically deleted and then we can't even control it. It's set by our department. >> Okay. Helpful. Uh more questions here >> and council waiting if you mind if you don't mind to we're going to be delaying the rest of the presentations. So I know staff is sticking here for it. We have to get out of here at 4:30. So, I just want to make sure that folks know that the three items that are presentations, I know staff is still here. >> We didn't expect a lot of folks to show up, so we weren't able to prepare the captioning. So, at least >> Yep. I can >> This will be the last item. >> I can I can pass to other council members. [clears throat] >> Perfect. >> Go ahead. Wonderful. So, do we have till 4:30? I'm I won't take I won't take all till till 4:30. Um other kind of kind of notes here, right? The one thing that I was I was looking at some of the data that that St. Paul uses and I saw a data point that said I think 11% of their flights um remove any officer, right? They go out and actually don't have to dispatch an officer any level of emergency uh kind of response to that. It sounds like I think from from DC from your presentation that if even if we are sending out a drone we will still have a emergency response. Um is that just within the pilot for kind of again fidelity reasons or is that something that would be baked into like a larger uh policy? And the reason I ask is I think that actually is the the largest benefit of a program like this is actually sending it out and understanding that hey we don't need an emergency response to come. So just curious of why that's not why that isn't happening in the pilot. >> Uh council member um yes we are still going to send a squad card to every call. It's we want to figure out, you know, the benefits of that of that drone flight, the the time it takes to get there with that drone, assess the situation. Um, but we still want to show that difference in time, right? That squad still has to go there. It's like, well, it's that the call then sat in pending for another 20 minutes. >> Okay. >> The squad still had to go, but we could prove that, well, we could have cleared that call, >> you know, off the uh, >> right? So, it's kind of like a metrics it sounds like, just basing it on a baseline. He's trying to prove its value. Right. >> Okay. Helpful helpful to know. Uh last kind of question here uh that I have is um right it sounds like that there are the other piece that I think is is quite valuable. There was a there was a resident there was a constituent that that noted uh like the the goals and metrics of this and I think that is an entirely valid point of of how are we going to measure the success of this pilot program, right? And so, uh, I haven't seen anything within the presentation that are saying like, hey, if it meets these things, great, good to go. If it does not meet these things, it it maybe we shouldn't be, uh, contracting with it. Like, how are you all, I guess, measuring that if there's something internal, um, can you kind of explain that to us? And if not, uh, I think it would be helpful to have something like that both for for our kind of, uh, information and then for for publics as well. >> Sure. Um, do you want to answer the >> Yeah. >> goals and metrics? >> Sure. So the metrics for this program is to basically compare the data from a drone's response and act actual officer response. The goal of this program is at the end of it we can come back up to council and say these are the metrics we utilized and we can compare the data from the drone to an actual officer response and say our drones [snorts] responded to these many calls. However, uh we may necessarily not even need an officer to respond and we can utilize those resources >> and basically move them over here where they are better utilized for the city. >> Okay. Yeah. >> That's that's ultimately like the biggest metric that we're going to be utilizing and that's one of our goals. >> Yeah. And I think it's right is is helpful for me. I think what what would would be helpful is a a tighter understanding of what those metrics are that we can see for success or failure of and and and having that version and right I don't think we need it now but we would need it to to fully evaluate a program uh expansion uh if this was to go forward in in a larger context. >> Yeah. And council member, I mean, I think it a another really big metrics on this and you've seen it in the presentation is that response time to those priority one calls, priority zero and one calls of getting to those under two minutes. If somebody's having their crisis of their life, um, at least we can get there. Yeah, it's a drone in the sky, but we can document a vehicle fleeing the area, somebody fleeing the area, somebody with a gun. We can identify people, um, suspects, victims, you name it, right? Um, right now our priority priority one call times, our median call time in the the north side is 7 minutes and 48 seconds. If we can get that down to 120 seconds or under, I think that metric speaks for itself, you know, aside from the the time it takes, you know, a squad to get there, you know. Um, I think that's huge. >> Perfect. That was my last question and and and just I think not. So, thank you. Thank you all. just kind of a where I am sitting in thinking about this too. I think there is there is a lot of of of valid concerns and hesitation about a a a a program as such and I think it is our job as both MPD and and the policy makers that do it to actively uh uh address those concerns build in build in the safeguards for this um if it is going to move forward. Uh with that I think there is a version of this in in in in my work in the reform world. I think the thing that I have seen the most is uh we have to both for for community safety and officer safety the the higher we can remove officers from in situations where where you know they have to make a split-second decision uh where they right you know I'm looking at kind of the incidents where a drone can respond right persons with weapons calls autotheft calls shooting stabbing suspicious persons right you all know that those are are situations where tensions are are are elevated and so if we can have a drone come in there uh lower the temperature, actually have that informed response before an officer gets there. I think that is invaluable. And so I think there are actually large uh portions of this that can be very very helpful um for our city, but there are a lot of concerns that I think we we we have to address. And so I I really appreciate uh you all uh doing that and doing the due diligence to do this and look forward to uh kind of working with you all to figure that out. >> Thank you. Um before we move on to the next topic without objections colleagues I'd like to uh move item number six seven and 8 for continuation to the next meeting on July 22nd. Is there any complaints? All right. That is is that good clerks? Okay. Good. Now we can continue. Council member Vita. >> Thank you Sher Chavez. Uh first I want to thank everyone for coming today to speak. I don't remember what the count of speakers was, but I certainly appreciate everyone sharing their perspective and they took time away from their families, from their work, from the communities to be here. And I I certainly appreciate that. And I also heard the concerns about privacy, surveillance, civil liberties, government accountability, and the ethical responsibilities the city um has when choosing its partners. Those are serious issues and they deserve to be a part of the discussion for sure. Uh, I also want to thank staff for working with me all of this time to put this presentation together. This is not something that um, you know, just popped up. This is something that has been going on um, since I was elected as a city council member back in 2022. Sharing um, my platform with folks, you get to hear back from them what they need and what they expect of a city council member. And so that is where this conversation began. And I uh I want everyone in Ward 4 and in Minneapolis to understand that I take my role as a city council member serious. I like being a city council member because I want to come up with solutions to help my neighbors. When someone reaches out to me and says I'm experiencing5 to $20,000 a month in illegal dumping, that's a serious issue to me. That's not something that I take lightly. That is something that um I'm working every day to try to make better because businesses in North Minneapolis are suffering from illegal dumping and so are neighbors and it's my job to make sure that I try to find solutions for that. you know, when people are upset because police officers can't get to these low priority calls because the number of officers is I mean, it's growing certainly and I appreciate all of the work that's going into recruitment, but we're not there and it's becoming embarrassing for me to keep using that as a reason why officers can't show up to calls is that we don't have enough officers. People get tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it. We have to be coming up with solutions as um uh I have to be coming up with solutions as a city council member for people. So, when I heard about an opportunity for a first responder drone to help with some of these low priority calls for things like stolen cars or um uh open air drug markets on Li and Pin Avenue that I've been dealing with for years and years and years that people Just this morning I woke up to a text message from someone saying uh should I call all the news channels, you the mayor and all your colleagues because We need help on Li and Logan. What are you doing about it? Like that doesn't feel good to me as a person. I want to help those people. So, I'm always going to be looking for ideas and ways to help. And that is exactly what this pilot is. This is not a long-term commitment. I've actually asked all of my colleagues and MPD not to talk about this as a long-term commitment because I think the pilot is what we need to know. We like I want to use this 75 days to see if there are solutions here. I'm not trying to commit to anything without knowing if it can help or not. What I'm asking for is a pilot to see if we can get the help and the resources that folks need in in North Minneapolis. And I will say, of course, I knew that there were going to be people who showed up that did not like this idea, and I welcome that. I'm not a person that needs to only talk to people who think like me. Did I know it was going to be a hard decision for me to be the council member to say, I'm gonna bring this before the council? Absolutely positively. And I'm willing to do that because when I took the oath of office, that commitment was to do whatever I could to make the lives of the residents that I serve better. And these are livability issues. These are safety issues. And I'm going to try with everything within my power to make it better for people. So, I appreciate everyone who came. I appreciate everyone who listened and I appreciate the folks who are listening with me and want to help. You know, we had a presentation a couple months ago and I think within 48 hours a older gentleman came up missing in my ward and folks were looking for him and the drone that we have now was deployed. And I'll let you two speak to this because you have a little bit more details, but we currently have drones that are being used now, but this program could have been a little bit different. So if one of you want to speaks to speak to the incident that we had um a couple days after the last presentation that'd be great. Go >> ahead. >> Yes. So regarding the incident that council member Vita was uh referencing it was regarding a missing person in North Minneapolis. And what had happened was this gentleman here had wandered had wandered away from home got lost and no one no one knew where he was. No one could find him. He had been missing for an extended period of time. And when we first got the call, one of my drone operators went out there, they flew a drone because we already have an established drone program. This DFR program is just it's just going to be an expansion of our current program right now if it comes to fruition. But a drone operator was able to go out there and he flew around the area where he was told that this male gentleman may have been. Uh within a short period of time, he actually located this gentleman uh by a creek. He was extremely vulnerable. He needed help. And without a doubt, if the drones didn't find this gentleman, I don't know if he'd be here today. So the drones were able to locate him in the creek bed, successfully located him, relay this information to boots on the ground, officers who are on the ground, uh in relation with fire personnel, and they were able to go rescue this gentleman from the creek bed. and ultimately saved his life. >> Thank you for that. And I just want to say, you know, I do love that, you know, we have something in place that was able to save this man's life, but I believe this pilot program would have approached that situation a little different. A 911 call would have came in. The drone could have been deployed to the area within a minute and a half because this is just a fourth precinct pilot and it can get any, to my understand, and I have had a demonstration. So to my understanding, it could be there within a minute and a half, which is different than an officer having to drive to the place in the fourth precinct, an officer available to drive to the place in the fourth precinct and then launching the drone from there. So I thank you um officer Mua for your work on that and saving that that man's life. I really do appreciate that. Um some of the other livability issues that have come up around this are environmental issues with um with we have a lot of frustration from folks [snorts] who are fixing cars and equipment on the streets in North Minneapolis and the storm water drains have oil in it and chemicals and things because people are doing things on the street. a regular complaint for me almost daily. Someone is calling in and frustrated uh with chemicals and oils in the storm drains because of mechanics on their block. Um excess traffic, noise, like all of these things that could be zero and one calls that [clears throat] officers respond to uh with the drone. So, those are the the things that we're really trying to see if this if this pilot could help with those things. I'm my my expectation in this is not to to change anything or to get rid of officers or to like um you know like stop us from responding in ways we do, but it really is to help provide a service that can probably enhance the way we interact with people and not make everything a police interaction. I don't believe everything has to be a police interaction. Some of these things can be done by the drone when we get there. We're not there yet. But some of these things don't have to be about a police coming and having an interaction with someone. And so my goal is to increase livability in the neighborhoods. Um and and to provide this service as as some as a tool that we could potentially use in the future, but more than anything figure out if we could use this uh service in the future. So I thank you all. I I know a lot of my colleagues still have a lot of questions and and concerns and so do uh residents of Minneapolis as you can see that people came and spoke not only from uh North Minneapolis but from all over the city. And just to reiterate, this is a free uh completely free program that is only going to be in the fourth precinct. This is not surveillance. This is a 911 dispatch drone call. um someone has to call in for the drone to be dispatched and the dashboard will be set up where people can track uh how the drone was being used and what for during this service. >> Councilor Stevenson, >> um I have a lot of questions and comments that go beyond the minute and a half we have before um we have to end. So uh please be available at uh full counsel for those questions. Um, I just want to explain my vote today to folks who are here just so because I'm not able to uh say what I need to say and ask the questions I need to ask. Um, I'm going to be voting to move this forward without recommendation of the full council. I do not support this at all. Um, I would like to be able to say more and ask more in the future, but um, we need to be able to deal with this finally uh, in the council meeting and not just I suspect if we voted, you know, the way that we really felt about this that would probably be 22, which means that it would go to the next uh, committee meeting, which is not good practice. So, we can deal with this finally by sending it forward and having the full council deal with it. Um, and with the remaining 30 seconds, I think I'll let you close. >> Cool. I'll be quick with my questions. Um, I want to know if, and this can be through memo, if the city has done any due diligence on Skyio's federal contracts and if Skyio currently sells drones or related services to ICE or any other DHS components. If there are any mechanisms in place to prevent them from using our data for ICE. I want to know if staff knows that in Chula Vista they spent over $1 million in legal fees fighting to withhold drone footage and if MPD is planning to do the same thing here. Um there was flight records released that at least 31 times it was used to surveil an ice out protest in downtown Los Angeles which saw thousands of peaceful protesters march against the Trump administration occupation of Minneapolis and if MPD will do the same thing here. I have a lot of questions. I'm just going to follow up over email about this. I wish I could ask the questions today, but um we'll have that discussion at full counsel. So, uh with that, colleagues on the motion to move this forward without recommendation. All those in favor say I. >> I. Those oppos say nay. Abstensions. All right. The final vote will happen at full council next week. Colleagues, with that, I believe we dispense with all of our items. And seeing no further business before us, I would declare this meeting adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.