Councilmember Elliott Payne (Ward 1) proposed diverting $3 million from human resources into non-police safety ambassadors in seven cultural corridors.
On Thursday members of the Minneapolis City Council discussed and approved the use of millions of dollars to support public safety initiatives in 2024 that will rely on unarmed civilians in busy corridors of the city.
The $15.3 million initiative would give $15,000 a piece to new Minneapolis officers over three years to entice recruits and $18,000 to existing officers over two and a half years to retain them.
Although Minneapolis is a mostly DFL town, city politics in recent years have been divided between liberal Democrats and a more progressive alliance of Democrats and democratic socialists.