Minneapolis voters reject bid to replace police with public safety department

Measure would have installed public safety department focused on a comprehensive public health approach'

Voters in Minneapolis have rejected the idea of replacing their police department with a new department of public safety, more than a year after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer launched a national movement to defund or abolish police.

Floyd's murder in the summer of 2020 sparked outrage and international protests on police brutality and racial injustice. In Minneapolis and elsewhere, calls for major changes to law enforcement, including defunding police departments, soon followed.