Welcome to the regular meeting of the public health and safety committee for November 12th, 2025.

I am Jason Chavez, the chair of this committee.

Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all member 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 the 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 President Payne.

Present.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Present.

Paul Masano.

Vice Chair Wansley is absent.

Church of the present.

We have five presents.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

I'll remind my colleagues we'll be using speaker management today, so please make sure you're signed up if you wish to speak on any item.

Item number one is approving a legislative directive requesting information related to opioid overdose and opioid antagonists specifically considering a citywide requirement for certain businesses and institutions to possess opioid antagenists.

Item number two is approving a federal grant related towards related to the towards zero death traffic initiative and authorizing a contract with the city of Crystal.

Item number three is referring to staff an ordinance related to the police department public data reporting.

Item number four is setting a public hearing to December 3rd to consider an ordinance related to the lead paint.

Adam number five is setting a public hearing to December for December 3rd to consider an ordinance related to off-duty use of city resource reporting.

Item number six is setting a public hearing for December 3rd to consider an ordinance related to small business and underutilized business enterprise program.

No.

All right, I'll put myself on cue and just talk about item number one, which is the opioid overdose and possession of the lockstone legislative directive.

We're just hoping to work closely with staff on the possibility of adopting an ordinance that would require uh the possession of Narcan at certain institutions in the city of Minneapolis as a way to help reduce overdose deaths and tackle the opioid epidemic.

This would be a legislative directive that we hope to get back so we can take action at council next year.

And if there is no questions, I'll move all these items for approval and I'll first call on Councilmember Rainbow.

Thank you.

Would this include the cost, Mr.

Chair?

Uh this would go towards staff.

Uh the staff staff would bring back a report on this.

If you're requesting that, I guess I could follow up with staff to see if that would be included.

And if not, not opposed to adding that at full council next week.

Thank you.

So I guess that's follow-up for me to figure out if this legislative directive would talk about costs, but I agree with you.

I think it is important, and I guess the ask to the administration would be that that is included in this directive.

If not, we can codify that at full council next week.

anybody else?

All right.

I'll move approval of these items and see no further discussion on the motion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions, and those items carry.

Our next item is a presentation related to public restrooms.

This is in response to a staff direction this past June.

I'll now invite Ashley with the legislative research and oversight policy and research division to get us started.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Chavez and members of the committee.

My name is Ashley Jook.

I'm from the policy and research team, and I'm here today to present on standalone public restrooms.

As a quick reminder, the committee asked for an overview of the current public restroom situation in Minneapolis, a landscape review of municipal standalone restroom programs, and a review of applicable regulatory and zoning constraints and opportunities for standalone public restrooms in Minneapolis.

A quick introduction to restrooms, uh public restrooms.

A UK company in 2021 estimated there were eight public restrooms per 100,000 people in the US.

As you can see, Minneapolis was estimated to be at 18 per 100,000 people, and Madison, Wisconsin at 35, which is the highest city in the country.

A little history on public restrooms.

By the 1970s, there were more than 50,000 coin-operated pay toilets in America's urban centers.

The rise of the automobile and decline of downtown led to the closure of many of these restrooms, and this, along with costly upkeep, led to the removal of many public restrooms in the subsequent decades as they fell victim to vandalism and neglect.

Now, private businesses often fill the gap as a de facto public restroom.

This lack of public restrooms can negatively impact public health, especially during health outbreaks such as COVID-19 and other communicable diseases, such as hepatitis A.

Additionally, some people see the lack of public restrooms as a social justice issue, as all groups of people do not have equitable access to private restrooms.

A 2021 Bloomberg article succinctly stated that who gets access to the bathroom really could be summarized as who should have access to public space and public discourse.

Moving on to some key highlights from the report.

The first highlight is public restroom strategy.

Many of the cities reviewed completed a pilot program prior to installing more permanent restroom options.

Some pilot programs were completed after the creation of a public restroom strategy, and some coexisted as the strategy was developed.

Longer-range public restroom strategies can make it easier to incorporate future restrooms into larger infrastructure project planning.

Second, restroom model selection.

As several cities emphasized, addressing public restroom needs is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Increasing public restrooms will likely require a combination of models and programs to address the need.

This may include standalone public restrooms, incentivizing access to private business restrooms, portable restroom trailers, or even multi-stall brick and mortar restrooms.

And various model choices can be used at different stages of a restroom strategy.

Third, determining restroom locations.

Choosing the physical location will be impacted by multiple factors.

Numerous cities stress the need for the location to be near heavy foot traffic and be highly visible.

This helps people locate the restroom easily and decreases the chance of negative behaviors by increasing monitoring from the general public.

Cities often cite restrooms in parks, even within downtown areas, and some have locations in the public right-of-way, primarily sidewalks and/or parking lanes.

Location is also impacted by utility connection needs and the footprint size of the model.

A fourth highlight is monitoring and attendant options.

Numerous cities stressed they feel the success of their restrooms has been contingent upon the presence of attendance, or at least multiple daily monitoring and cleaning times.

Even within the same city, the level of need for each restroom can vary.

Some may benefit greatly from increased monitoring and cleaning, while others may require fewer resources depending on usage, location, hours of operation.

A fifth highlight is the costs.

There are many prefabricated standalone public restroom options.

Costs vary between and within models, depending on a variety of things, including renting versus owning the model, level of service, number of stalls, additional amenities, winterization needs, and other factors.

Installation costs also vary depending on where the restroom is located and whether the restroom is connected to utilities.

And ongoing operational costs again vary depending on the level service provided, attendance, monitoring, connection to utilities.

And finally, community engagement.

Almost all the cities I spoke with discussed the importance of community engagement with residents and businesses, and also from a wide range of city department staff from the very beginning of the project.

Buy-in from all of these different stakeholders is really key.

Now, just a brief overview of Minneapolis public restrooms.

Although available data suggests that Minneapolis has more restrooms than the national average, like many places around the country, it is still lacking adequate public restroom facilities.

This map provides just a quick snapshot of restrooms available to the public along with public urination hotspots, according to the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District.

The blue restroom icons are available for the public to use during the respective business hours.

The yellow restroom icons are available 24-7, and the red pins are the public urination hotspots.

There is one green icon on the map, and that is the seasonal PV Plaza restroom trailer that I'm going to discuss next.

The PV Plaza seasonal standalone restroom trailer was built in 2019 for around $79,000 as part of a capital improvement project renovating the PB Plaza.

It is connected to electrical, water, and sewer through a small manhole installed in the sidewalk that goes down into the mechanical room of PV Plaza.

It is owned by the city but is operated and maintained by the downtown improvement district.

It is also staffed by DID's ambassador team, which perform routine checks on and cleaning of the restroom trailer several times a day during the season.

The trailer is in high demand and it is missed when it is closed for the season.

The Minneapolis Park Board has had varied experiences when it comes to porta potties and public restrooms throughout the Minneapolis park system.

Most park restrooms are clean, safe, and functional restrooms with few issues, but there are two notable exceptions.

At Biday Makasca, they have seen an increase in issues after changing from gendered restrooms with multiple open top and bottom stalls to the individual stall model, which essentially creates a small room.

The newer model is more difficult to monitor.

The portapodties at the Commons have also had frequent and severe issues of vandalism, including being set on fire.

There's now a kind of fence or cage around the restroom, and they are only open seasonally when park board staff are present.

Beyond the physical vandalism, the biggest issues have been prostitution, drug use, overdoses, people sleeping inside, those sorts of issues.

These have decreased with the addition of the cage, the attendance and additional park monitoring.

Before getting into the details on a few example cities, I want to cover some model restrooms discussed in the report.

The Portland Loo is a very common model used in cities around the country and used by numerous cities in the report.

It is permanent, connected to utilities, and uses design elements that follow crime prevention through environmental design standards to discourage illicit activity.

Thrones are a newer option on the market and are portable and high tech.

A throne is a unique long-term rental model.

Cities contract with Throne Labs to completely manage and service the restrooms.

And on the bottom of the slide, both new and urban blue restrooms are companies out of Canada which offer numerous model options from portable trailers to permanent multi-stall facilities.

This is a table of models from example cities, which can also be found on 19 or page 19 of the report.

I'm not going to go over all the details, but as you can see, unit costs, installation costs, and ongoing costs all vary dramatically, even when you're looking at the same brand of restroom.

You can also see that in addition to the four brands discussed at the previous slide.

Cities have found other restroom options, including franchised automatic public restrooms in New York City, a permanent three-story shipping container facility in Winnipeg, and two underground restrooms from the 1920s in Vancouver.

There are 13 standalone public restroom example cities explored in the report, and I'm just going to go over some of them in the next few slides.

Edmonton is currently trying out two new restroom trailers, both of which have attendance as part of their attendant monitoring program and as part of their detailed public washroom strategy.

They are definitely an example worth reading more about.

Unique in the report, New York City Department of Transportation has a franchise agreement for street furniture, which includes restrooms, bus shelters, and newsstands, which currently includes seven automatic public toilets at no cost to the city.

In Ann Arbor, they have just extended their contract with Throne Labs for up to an additional five years after their year-long pilot with eight thrones proved so successful.

They really like the hands off aspect of the thrones.

And after looking for more permanent solutions, Philadelphia's Health and Human Services just opened their third Portland loo.

In addition to the cleaning rest, or sorry, addition to cleaning the restrooms, their public restroom specialists from the Substance Use Prevention and Harm Reduction Division are a visible presidents and presence in communities and work to engage individuals and connect them to critical resources like shelter, food, treatment, and clothing.

Winnipeg piloted three restroom locations before opening a permanent restroom facility made from repurposed shipping containers.

It's not only a restroom but also a resource center with peer support workers providing access to life-saving supplies such as naloxone, clean drug paraphernalia and safer sex supplies, and connecting people with community and agency resources for many different needs, including food, medical and housing resources.

Like many cities, Vancouver uses many different restroom models to address their needs, including those two underground restrooms built in the 1920s.

Montreal opened seven high-tech self-cleaning public toilets in 2018, but by June of this year, only one was fully operational.

And I have to give a shout out to Paris, which just replaced all 435 of their public toilets with more eco-friendly versions, where even general maintenance and resupplying is done by cargo bike to ensure non-polluting operations.

Though the report is focused on standalone restroom examples, I did come across a sampling of other cities that, in addition to increasing public restrooms, they have also tried to incentivize private businesses or organizations to open their restrooms to the public.

Richmond, which, like many boroughs in London, incentivize private businesses and organizations to open their restrooms to the public as part of London's community toilet scheme.

And Montreal's commercial development corporation, Montreal Saint-Sreville, tried an incentive program for a few years, but they had to end it due to funding availability.

Moving on to constraints and opportunities in Minneapolis.

The report, of course, goes through constraints and opportunities in more detail, but some overarching considerations include the location of restrooms, Minneapolis zoning code applicability, and operations and management.

Most cities reviewed for the report located restrooms and parks.

In Minneapolis' case, if this is considered, the city would, of course, need to work with the park board on any possibilities.

If restrooms were located in the public right of way sidewalks or parking lanes, it's important to understand that while the city manages the public right of way, the city does not technically own the public right of way land in fee title.

So the primary purpose of the public right of way is transportation and other possible uses for these spaces cannot obstruct the traveling public.

Regardless of location, the city's attorney's office said the city council would likely need to make specific findings indicating or explaining the council's rationale about how the restrooms will address public health and safety issues.

Minneapolis zoning code comes into play if restrooms would be located on public or private property.

However, the Minneapolis zoning code is largely silent about restrooms.

CPED staff said adding a permanent restroom to any city or privately owned property would likely fall under accessory uses and structures in general.

A key factor in that is whether an exterior restroom is an allowed accessory use for the property.

Allowed accessory use is generally associated with contributing to the use of the primary use of the property.

So historically, the city has not allowed permanent external restrooms except in parks, as they are considered a true accessory use of the park.

And finally, the location and type of each restroom would likely impact who would operate and manage each site.

Potential partners could include the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Property Services, Health Department, Downtown Improvement District, Public Works, you know, community planning and economic development, metro transit, or some combination of those partners.

Further conversations with any potential partners would be necessary to determine the best options for operation and management of any new public restrooms.

Additional considerations include that all prefabricated structures, like most of the restroom models discussed in the report, fall under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Labor and Industry.

In addition, any restrooms would need to meet the legal requirements for health and sanitation safety and ADA requirements.

And of course, in Minnesota, there are serious considerations for winterization needs to ensure that the restrooms are functional year-round, including insulation and reliable heat.

Some models may be more suitable for colder climates than others, and this exact determination would need to be further explored.

Also, a reminder that if attendance or cleaning staff are determined to be necessary at some locations, there could be an opportunity for them to be an additional resource for unhoused populations, like they are in Philadelphia, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.

Lastly, whether in conjunction with the pilot program or without one, a long-term restroom strategy may be helpful to better integrate public restrooms into larger infrastructure project planning in the future.

As far as the possibility of incentivizing private businesses or organizations to open their restrooms to the public, the city could connect with the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District and other potential partners to further explore this option.

Appropriate city departments should also be involved, including community planning and economic development.

A final note that any type of a cash incentive program created that would have a limit on the total number of awarded organizations would need to go through the appropriate city RFP and procurement processes.

Thank you for your uh your time.

Um, that concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions about the presentation or the report.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

I'll look at the queue to see if any of my colleagues have any questions.

I'll first pass it to Councilmember Pomasano.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Is this presentation now on Limbs?

I don't see it there, and it's usually helpful to see it ahead of time.

It should be on limbs.

I'm apologize.

I might have to refer to ask the clerk.

It should be on limbs.

I can double check if there was uh some issue.

Was it not attached?

I didn't see it this morning.

It might be on there by now.

Um, I find this to be an interesting topic, and I know it's a need in our city.

Um, but I also struggle with where something like this lands on our list of city priorities.

Um I like what you said about longer range public restroom strategies, making it easier to incorporate future restrooms and like infrastructure planning and that.

Um, I also appreciated the example of PV Plaza as part of a longer term look at our needs, right?

How it's fairly unique, right?

The it had to be built specially just for that particular situation.

It happened when there was a much bigger overhaul being done, and it's staffed by DID ambassadors.

Um, I guess I'd call that a semi-permanent right type of facility, but it because it's removed May, you know, it's only May through October.

Um I think it's important to know that that hasn't been replicated anywhere else in our city.

And I'm curious if public works indicated if they're aware of any other locations that would offer this similar kind of access to public utilities.

I didn't specifically ask if there's an exact same similar PV plaza is really unique because they already had the mechanical room for the fountains, so they just had to connect into that.

Um but of course there are utilities running throughout the downtown areas, so how complicated it is to hook into those is really dependent on the location.

Um your report notes that the winterization of these standalone units is important and it's kind of a complicating factor, but per your map of the US, it does exist in other winter cities.

Do you know how that's accomplished?

So the models that are like complete rooms or the trailers, either permanent or uh trailer mobile trailers, um, those all seem to be really well.

I mean, full insulation heat source, those don't seem to have an issue.

I spoke to numerous cities in Canada.

Um the Portland Lou, which I think is the most common example in the states.

I did speak to both Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio, which have true winters but warmer than ours.

They both had had some issues with that model, and so that's where that further, I'm not an insulation and heating expert.

Um, so that might need to be explored a bit further if we wanted to go with that model because it does have, I know it comes with a winterization package.

It can be extra insulation, heating in the bowl, heating in the like heaters in the area, but because of their safety features, it has that open, not completely open, but sort of sort of open top and bottom, which cities spoke very highly of for a safety feature, but in our very cold climate, that is a different concern than a lot of the cities who have enacted it.

Yeah, it seems like from your report that the lowest hanging fruit would be to incentivize private businesses to allow public restroom access.

I say that after having just been at a meeting with one of the managers of an uptown establishment that used to have public restrooms and has closed them because of absolute problems and you know, people demolishing the inside of there.

Um, I've got to ask on page 11 of your report, you reference aggressively unclean.

And I'm curious what that means, if you mean like people are making them dirty on purpose or that, yes, I would say making them dirty on purpose, people um suffering with various mental health issues or um under you know substance use increases those incidents from what I spoke, you know, too, but then grassively uncleas is is not from standard usage.

Um DID in your report you say DID reported that there wasn't much interest in this back in 2019.

Has there been any more recent exploration of this idea and the kind of feedback that we've gotten?

And I'm also curious if you've been in touch with the library, the downtown library from my own naive user perspective is perhaps one of the most used public restrooms downtown, um, and they have quite their fair share of problems in it.

Um I'm not sure.

I I did ask DID if they had any like ongoing intentions of trying to incentivize and they were unsure of what exactly incentives might make the various businesses and organizations open up.

So I think that would need to be a larger discussion with those businesses, organizations, DID, and again other potential partners.

Um, I didn't speak to specifically the library individuals, so I I suspect that the parkboard experiences, um, though talking about the range of how some of their locations are really great and easy to maintain, and the two that I specifically spoke about suffers from a much higher need, that most public restrooms in our city, like cities, every city I spoke to fall somewhere within that range.

So I would assume the library would be similar.

In that range, but I I don't know where exactly on what end.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I I do I did want to note that in the well, one thanks for the presentation.

I did want to highlight a component of the report that said that the Minneapolis Downtown Council 2035 plan calls for a 20% more public restrooms by 2026.

So that was a key component.

So I did at least one up like that for Council Member Ponsano that uh the downtown council has called for more public restrooms in their 2035 uh plan.

I think this is one of the conversations I hear for residents of like how do you bring more people back to downtown and part of that is creating an accessible downtown that brings people to our um downtown core, which makes makes means part of it is like accessibility that you know that you can use a restroom when you're down here, and I think when Council President Payne, Councilmember Chowdering, Council Mr.

Cashman all went to Washington DC, we saw some of these public restroom facilities.

They were safe, they were clean, and it felt good to know that if we needed to use the restroom at any moment, there was an accessible safe and uh location for us to be able to go to, which led to us working with city staff and asking them that we would like to see a legislative directive on this, and then they were like, how about we actually we're interested in this?

How about we incorporate policy and research, which then you all got looped in, and now we're in this position where I feel like uh one, it's a good report seeing how other cities have done this, and also ways to make sure that when we do this, that we're doing it in the best way possible.

So I just want to thank you for this presentation.

Um we'll be following up separately as folks that authored the legislative the policy and research component of this about what specifically we mean by changing possible zoning codes.

I think that is something I want to dig deeper into.

I know that New York City had its own uh long-term strategy plans that the city council helped shovel through an ordinance.

That's something that we would like to see as well.

But ultimately creating an environment where it is more accessible for folks to use it.

When I talk to folks in Ward 9 in south in South Minneapolis, this is an issue that many people uh communicate with my office about saying we need more public available restrooms in our corridors because what we see is folks just uh doing public urination and other issues in people's backyards, and the solution to that is then providing a place where people can actually use the restroom uh that is safe, secure, and healthy.

So I at least wanted to point out that and thank you all for the months of work that went into this report that gives us a lot to consider as we head into budget and next year as well.

Thank you.

Uh next person, Councilmember Chowdry.

Thank you so much, Chair Chavez, and thank you for the presentation.

I I certainly do think that this is something that the city of Minneapolis should continue to work on and progress on.

I think we are in a path as a city, just like other cities where we're in tough times, but we're staying on the cutting edge, and a lot of what the cutting edge is in local government is continuing to make sure that we have a welcoming public realm that allows for more people to enjoy our public spaces and our commercial corridors and their neighborhoods, and that's also what attracts people to the city of Minneapolis, not only our downtown, which we're trying to do a number of things, whether it's social districts or um commercial office building to housing conversion and touting that we have more residents in downtown than some major suburban cities.

And I think restrooms 100% go go together with that, not only for our downtown, but other key parts of our city.

Um, I mean, even in uh the meet Minneapolis guide for our skyways, they give tips to Skyway users to say free restrooms are rare, so plan ahead.

And I don't think that creates a welcoming visit or a day for newcomers to downtown or people who are of different ages and abilities, or even like a parent of kids that need to just quick find a restroom to go to.

And I think public restrooms is a part of us growing our city to be more multi-generational, more welcoming for families, and then also a better place for our seniors to age with dignity and also feel connected to the community.

And then when you're a council member and you have issues in your ward about people using the bathroom, you hear about it.

And that was my experience coming into uh the 12th ward over by the 46 in Hiawatha station.

Um there are no public restrooms over there, largely because uh local businesses need to put uh like a code um for kind of the antisocial behavior that was happening, and then we just ended up with like a human waste issue, and my office actually worked with 311 to create a 311 incident code for people to report that, and it's frustrating to have to share that that's the option for people like please report so there's data on this, because they're like we shouldn't have to call 311 and then someone come and clean, and that shouldn't be the system that we're in.

And I had to work really really hard with Metro Transit for two years to get them to work with our office and our neighbors to even get port-a potties in that area because they were worried about the destruction of those porta-potties, and port-a-parties are not as resilient to wear and tear as a lot of these public restrooms that were shared here, and they were really apprehensive.

I think they were at a point where there was no porta-potty vendor that would even sell to them, and that's something I know the city of Minneapolis has experienced eventually.

Um the safety issues and livability issues reached ahead, and there were two porta-potties installed by that light rail station, and the situation has changed dramatically, right?

It's a lot cleaner, it's a lot livable, it's a major transit hub.

It's oftentimes the place where people get off if they're coming from um the airport to our city and then going to grab another bus.

Sometimes it just goes straight downtown, but it's oftentimes like the first place a person gets an image of the city of Minneapolis.

The model that I'm particularly interested in, and I think this is what we saw in Washington DC, is the throne labs model.

Um I feel like the cost is interesting and it's a rental, and so if the city of Minneapolis was interested in just trying something out, that could be a way for us to try something out, and then for winterization, I appreciate the fact that like it's been in places where there are real winters and that it runs on solar, and one tactic that was shared here in the report is um if there isn't enough solar power to heat uh heat the bathrooms, they just moved the restrooms closer to the downtown core where there was an ability to plug them in, and I think that mobility is also really key and really flexible, and then the other part that I thought was really interesting, and I'd love to just kind of hear from you too about what um what cities have been thinking in terms of making sure that restrooms not only stay clean but are um safe from vandalism and continue to be welcome spaces, is that they have this access card system where they hand out access cards at the city hall, and they aren't taking anyone's ID or information, but like they can track if there was vandalism before use or after, and they can remotely just revoke access, and I think that's us using technology to create a welcoming city, and I think it addresses some of the worries that we had with porta-potties being vandalized.

If there's someone that does that, it can just be access can just be cut off.

So, a follow-up question is what are what are ways in which cities have kind of thought about making sure that restrooms stayed safe, clean.

Um we also know that there's sometimes we don't have any safe use spaces really in Minneapolis that are publicly like available.

Um so people could also use in in those more private spaces, and so it would love to hear kind of how cities have been thinking about that aspect.

Yeah, thank you.

Um so as you noted, the throne labs do have the access card and/or you can use like an app or a uh you can scan as well at there, but again, for people who don't have smartphones, then those cards are handed out not just in city hall, but a variety of different locations, as well as they just have their like everyday city employees who are out and about police officers, um, public works people when they're out on a project, just hand them out to people as well.

Um so that's pretty unique to Throne Labs.

Um, other sort of measures again.

Some cities, um, like Edmonton has a full-blown attendant monitoring program.

It's not at all of their restrooms, it's at like I think it's up to like 18 of their like core heavy use restrooms.

Um, and that is during just opening hours, none of theirs are 24-7.

Other places have routine monitoring, and by that I mean um, and now I can't remember which city it I think it was Philadelphia.

Yeah, that has specific the specific restroom attendance that they're not attendants, they're not at the same location all day, but they rotate between the three Portland Lews and clean and help um provide resources to people like where information about where they can go for various resources if they are struggling with different issues.

Um, and then um pretty much all I'm not gonna quite say all because I don't have all the details memorized, but most of them have a timer as well on the restroom, so like you go in there and you get like 10 minutes before the door automatically unlocks.

Some places are 15.

I mean, sure you can select the time frame that you want, but that just discourages and makes it much harder to barricade yourself in if you can't re-lock yourself, like relock the door without exiting and then going back in.

Um, and then the location is really key to the point where it being really visible.

Um, there's been a number of cities that are like, oh, we were really worried this was gonna be an issue.

We don't have attendance, we don't have like daily monitoring, um, or or maybe they just have like unlocking and locking at night.

And but they said the community is so happy with them being there that it really self-polices themselves, like everyone from visitors downtown to commuters to bikers, walkers, unhoused population, everyone truly is respectful of the space because they're so appreciative of having it, and that was after that same location experienced really high negative experiences with um port-potties, and so which definitely in my opinion feel less dignified than some of these options here.

Um, and so I'm not saying that that's gonna happen here, but just experiences do vary, and um, sometimes the only way you know is to do it.

Thank you.

And kind of following up on a little bit more the throne labs model, they they have like a 24-7 remote monitoring, and then they have like um someone nearby come in staff and clean it.

How would that how would that work for our city if that was a model we pursued?

Would they just need to hire for this area specifically, or is there a nearby area?

Do you know how that's been set up in the past?

So I didn't speak to Throne Labs themselves, as I didn't speak to any of the model actual companies, but um Ann Arbor and Michigan, they're the ones who was really happy.

They just completed a one-year pilot and just extended um up to five years with the same model.

And so they said that they have like one throne employee that is permanently located and are in Ann Arbor.

They're the only people they connect with, and then Throne, they presumed, their understanding at least, was that Throne either hires people directly or gets other, like hires a cleaning manager company to do that.

The 24-7 monitoring isn't that someone's like sitting there staring at, but they have like 21 different sensors.

So if they're out of water, if toilet paper is low, if someone's been in there too long, like they get input on all of that, and then they address it appropriately.

Um, and Arbor said that really that's why they love the model is that it requires zero day-to-day staff time.

How many thrones did Ann Arbor have?

Eight, I believe.

Okay.

That's great.

I think the last thing I'll just close on and just note for my colleagues and the public for Ann Arbor, their pilot year.

They had 80 over nearly 83,000 total uses.

And then with a 4.4 out of five overall cleanliness rating.

That's pretty good.

I would say that's really, really good.

So I think it's worth looking at further.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I also like to welcome Councilmember Cashman to the committee.

All right.

Well, thanks so much for the presentation.

It's been really helpful, and how for us to look into as we head into budget and uh work that is coming ahead of us.

So thanks so much for being here, Ashley.

Wonderful, thank you.

And seeing no further discussion, I'll ask the clerk to receive and file that report.

Our next item is a presentation related to a police department case clearance rates.

This is in response to a legislative directive this past December.

I'll now invite Deputy Chief Emily Olson to get us started.

Welcome.

Council Chair Chavez, President Payne, Council members, thank you for having me.

I'm gonna talk about the clearance rates at the investigative division, and this is for the year 2024.

So just as a reminder, I was asked about specific cases.

This won't be all of the cases that come into the investigative bureau.

I couldn't possibly talk about every single case, but this was the list that I was given, and so we'll talk about each of these cases.

So to start some of the investigative triage that we do, we the some of the factors that go into assigning a case or not assigning a case would be the severity of the crime, its solvability rate, number of cases versus the number of staff that day or that week.

The in custody cases that come in will determine how many cases are assigned that week, and then the cooperation of the victim.

The amount of evidence that we have in each case determines if that case can be assigned.

There are four status codes that we use.

Open active, that doesn't necessarily mean the case is assigned.

Sometimes it's assigned and sometimes it isn't.

But a case is active and open, even when it is assigned, inactive, cleared, and case-reviewed with no follow-up.

So the clearance rate calculations, if a case is cleared, it is cleared by complaint, arrest, declined, or cleared exceptionally.

When the cases fall into those categories, it is then summed, then divided against the total number of the same case type, and that's how we come up with the clearance rate.

We are more stringent in MPD than other cities and departments.

We use an active more frequently than other departments.

So if we arrest somebody for their warrant in a case, say a robbery, but they we do not prove that case and do a complaint for warrant against that or complaint for robbery against that person, we do not clear that by arrest.

The exceptionally is some of the things that you can put under exceptionally are death of an offender in custody in another jurisdiction, declined, or the victim refused to cooperate.

We don't like to use this one because it is more difficult to reopen the case to say that a victim didn't cooperate.

So just to clarify on some of the categories that we did do.

So robbery does include carjacking, it is a subset of robbery.

The weapon law violations, it includes prohibited persons, which would be a felon in possession, illegal use possession of a firearm, which would be a permit to carry violation, and also discharge of a firearm.

Under the homicide, it was requested that we do justifiable homicides and negligent homicides, but I did not include those.

There's a very low number, and they have to be cleared in order for them to be justified or negligent, because we have to identify them and they have to give that reason for us to determine that it's justified or negligent.

So these are the violent crime investigative division categories that were requested aggravated assault, homicide, robbery, and weapons.

And as you can see, it's case review, no follow-up, cleared and active and opened, and then the total number of cases that came through.

And then I wrote it down with property crimes at the top, and then the two special crimes that were requested, which is rape and domestic assault at the bottom, and then the four property crimes that were requested, which is burglary, destruction of property, larceny, and auto theft.

I did want to take a pause on this one because I do recognize that the property crimes clearance rate is very low.

I just want to point out that the total number of property crimes, and this does not envelop all property crimes, is 28,106 cases, and I have a total of 11 property crimes investigators.

Some of the reasons why these cases are particularly difficult to solve is a lot of them happen overnight.

So an auto theft will, you'll park your car, you go inside, you have dinner, you go to bed, you wake up in the morning and your vehicle is gone.

There are no witnesses, there's no evidence, there's no video, it just there's no DNA.

It's just a very, very difficult case to solve.

So for staffing, um, in 2024, I had 36 investigators, uh, five sworn, one civilian in homicide.

There are 14 sworn investigators and two civilian robbery.

I had four sworn and two civilian in the gun investigations unit.

There are seven sworn investigators.

In the United States Attorney's Office, we have two sworn investigators, and then in special crimes, which is crimes against children, uh, three sworn investigators, one civilian, domestic, four sworn investigators, one civilian, juvenile, six sworn investigators, two civilians, juvenile, I want to juvenile missing children.

I'm sorry, I have one investigator.

Um the licensing, so it's a little bit deceiving because it's financial crimes.

There's five sworn investigators and two civilians, but underneath licensing is financial crimes, narcotics, auto theft prevention, animal crimes, and then they also have a part-time job, which is the behavioral threat analysis team, and that would be threats against a public figure, uh, against a temple, mosque, or church, anyone who's experienced a mental health crisis that threatens someone, that's all included in there.

In 2024, we had 378 of those.

Um, sex crimes.

There's five sworn investigators and three civilians, predatory offender registration is two sworn investigators, two civilians, one in human trafficking, five sworn investigators in traffic, and one in arson.

So to break down a little bit, um, in VCID has a median of 237 cases in their queue per week for a total of 36 investigators.

SCID has a median of 620 cases in their queue per week for a total of 44 investigators.

So that's for VCID, that's six cases per investigator per week.

For SCID, that's 14 cases per investigator per week.

Um traffic, which isn't included in my clearance rates, but they had uh see an average of 216 cases in their queue per week for five investigators to take action on 43 traffic cases per investigator per week, and then this is property crimes with my in love and investigators.

Those are actually out in the precincts and fall under patrol.

I did pull my 2019 um staffing, and in 2019, I had 66 investigators in VCID, 74 in SCID.

I also had additional units.

I should go back.

The additional units that I had in VCID was safe streets, the violent crime apprehension team.

I had a weapons unit and a violent crime investigation team, which would also be known as the shoot team, the non-fatal shoot team.

The only difference in the special crimes is we had a juvenile outreach and diversion unit, and we had the police athletic league.

And then I had 21 property crimes investigators.

So the total in 2019 was 161, and the total now is 90.

It's a 43% difference.

So some of the external barriers that we see when we're trying to solve a case is technology technological issues.

Oftentimes video that we try to get, and it's we live in a CSI society.

People want evidence.

And video is very difficult.

Sometimes it's not facing in the right direction, sometimes it's not working, sometimes it's really grainy.

And sometimes we actually get the video, but even if you have a really good picture of a suspect and you don't know who they are, it's still really hard to identify that person.

Cell phone data.

Sometimes cell phone data is difficult to get, and when we do get it, it doesn't help.

Sometimes people don't have actual cell phone carriers.

They're called dummy phones, and we can't get the data that we need to prove the case.

Lack of cooperation, fear of retaliation.

People are scared.

Weather, it's Minnesota.

Rain is an absolute scene killer, as is snow.

Understandable trauma.

When someone is the victim of a violent crime and the gun is pointed at them, and you ask them the description of a suspect, they will tell you that the gun was black.

The gun was silver.

The gun had a round barrel on it.

They oftentimes they can't tell you the suspect's description, and rightfully so.

Human error.

Sometimes we want to charge and we don't get the charges that we want.

Suspects are constantly adjusting their tactics, and we are a step behind.

Technology isn't our strong suit in the police department, and we are always behind the times.

Internal barriers, staffing issues.

As you can see, we have a real staffing issue.

I'm not placing it as the cause, but we are drowning in cases, including the lack of a violent criminal apprehension unit.

It has been a very, very difficult time because we have to find our suspects and we have to arrest them and take them into custody, and it takes a lot of time to find them.

So we are pausing the investigation to find the suspect instead of moving on to the next case.

Retention versus hiring.

So the new cops that come on, it's wonderful, and I'm glad to see it, and I love it, but they're not experienced, and they don't fill my need in investigations.

I need to retain the officers for that experience.

Um misinformation from public officials to the public.

So when public officials say things about the MPD and make um judgments early on in investigations and say that we aren't doing something because of that we are racist or that we're homophobic, it hurts our relationship with the community, and I know better than anyone in investigations.

We have to have the community.

And our trust with the community is really important.

So it hurts us and it hurts community.

Um our inability to use critical technological assistance.

We are the only police department in the state that can't use facial recognition, and nationwide, most departments who banned facial recognition have overturned that decision because it's so helpful with human trafficking.

Our RMS system is antiquated and it's not robust and it's difficult to use.

And for the community when they self-report when they do online reports, they are very vague, and we almost almost immediately close them.

So it is it isn't user-friendly and it's not helpful for them.

And we on our end are trying to fix that to make it better for and easier for someone to report their a crime and make it more robust and give us better information so that we can move on in the uh investigation.

So some of the solutions, support from all public officials for the police department, uh funding for technology that assists with investigative needs.

Um, there's a peregrine program that I would love to have from my investigators, but it is expensive.

It's hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And I know that right now it's a difficult ask, but it would be really, really helpful for them.

Uh prioritize police staffing, have that robust records management system built for law enforcement needs, and a real-time crime center.

Um, right now I have uh intelligence center that works during the day.

I don't have nighttime.

We don't have a staffing for it.

And best practice through police departments are having a 24-7 real-time crime center fully staffed, typically by civilians, and they watch cameras, they look at Intel, they look at social media, and when they get that information right away, it helps the investigation to start earlier, and that helps to shorten an investigation, and it makes it so that we can move on to the next investigation.

So those would be my asks for improving our clearance rates.

Thanks so much for the presentation.

I did have a question.

You made a comment about misinformation from public officials and something about racism and homophobia.

Can you please give us examples?

And can you dive deeper into that?

It's very interesting.

I guess if you've read the settlement agreement and federal consent decree that talks a lot about racism within the police department.

Yes, and I would lean on the fact that um our chief is committed to the set the settlement agreement and the consent decree that we are not legally obligated to do, but he wants to make those reforms and changes, and I own that.

I own that our department has made mistakes.

Well, you are allowed.

You are by executive order from the mayor, you are supposed to follow the decision.

Oh, absolutely.

And he's committed to that, and and we are committed to that.

I I guess the example I would give is the New Deland shooting.

So it was a mass shooting, it involved the LGBTQ plus community, and several public officials made public comments both on social media and to the news agencies, as well as investigators got pretty vile voicemails saying that they weren't investigating the case because of who the victims were, and that just wasn't true.

And then they did make arrests and they were charged and convicted, and no one came out and said, you know what, I'm I apologize, that wasn't true.

You were working the case really hard, sacrificing time with your family and working through the night and weeks and weeks and weeks.

It did take time.

Cases take time, but no one ever cleared that up or said, Hey, thank you for doing that, but that message is out there and damaged our relationship with the LGBTQ plus community.

That's the message I'm talking about.

Alright, and do we know which public officials said that?

I do.

Oh, would you have names?

I do.

What do you mind sharing the name, please?

I would prefer not to.

I don't want to put people on blast.

I know we're making serious accusations.

So I would like to know who we're talking about, especially when it comes to our relationship with the LGBTQ plus community that I'm proud to be a part of.

If we're talking about misinformation from public officials that talks about racism, which we know is in the police department per our federal consent decree that we just lost because of the Trump administration, and our MDHR settlement agreement that has clearly talked about decades-long information about uh policing in our city that has disproportionately impacted black and native people.

So I guess I guess you don't have an answer for that, but I guess I'll do a follow-up if the police department can clarify which public officials have given misinformation when it comes to LGBTQ and racism when it comes to these cases.

Because I think that is a bold statement to make up in this dais, and it is important for you to clarify who you're talking about specifically, unless you have an answer.

I I don't I don't want to, and I'm not specifically talking about the city council.

I am talking about representatives throughout the state.

I'm talking about people saying things, making rash judgments and about investigations, why we don't take cases, why cases aren't solved.

For sure.

I guess I would say that when it comes to the investigations of Mariah Samuels, Alison Lucer, many other cases that have impacted our communities in a horrific way.

When we have to take calls from our constituents talking about, we feel like this investigation is not being taken seriously.

We feel that folks from the Native community from our black constituents are disproportionately impacted from crime and also disproportionately impacted when it comes to uh cases being solved and addressed.

We have the responsibility as public officials to address these issues and bring those issues to the police department.

And if we read the Star Tribune articles, we have seen multiple failings when it came to Alison Lucia's case, a native woman.

We have seen multiple failings when it came to Mariah Samuels' case.

And the reason these issues get brought up is because it predates and it goes on with a consent decree that has happened with MDHR, a federal consent decree that we needed to do because we have uh bad practices in our police department that need to still be addressed.

And I guess I I'm asking these questions because I was very surprised to hear uh information about comments about elected officials talking about racism and homophobia, and I guess I want more clarification on that, but I'll move on because I hope we can get a follow-up from the chief or other folks about what those comments meant.

The other question I have for you is you talked about difficulty of charging.

I think that is a very important conversation that we need to have in this room.

Do you know what percentage of cases the Meapos Police Department sends for charging?

I would love to know how what percent of cases that you have get sent for charging.

I don't know what you're asking me.

Like all of our cases, how many of them we send for charging?

It would be it would be thousands and thousands of cases.

Do you have a specific percentage that you can provide the city council?

I think when I hear the difficulty with charging, that makes sense.

I want to how do we figure that out?

How do we make sure these cases are being charged?

But I also want to know what percentages of these cases actually get sent for charging.

So let's say of aggravated assault of the cases that were cleared.

59% were cleared by complaint, 25% were declined.

Um theft, 36% were cleared by complaint, 13% were declined.

Domestic assault, 41% were cleared by complaint, 56% were declined.

Rape, 29% were cleared by complaint, 32% were declined.

What happens with the rest?

Are they just not submitted for charges?

No, these are the ones that were cleared.

Okay.

What happens to cases not cleared?

Like do they not get sent for the case?

So those are in the other categories, the inactive and the open and the reviewed.

So the that's the percentage of the cleared cases.

Okay.

I guess I'll need to reach out for a meeting because it feels like there's a lot of cases that are not being submitted for charges or are inactive.

Yes, because we close our cases inactive rather than closing them exceptionally.

We want to be able to reopen those cases.

And when you reach a point in a case where there's just nowhere else to go, you do clear them inactive because you want to reopen them if you can later.

Okay.

I guess the last question I have is do you have an update on the five civilian investigators that the city council funded in the budget?

Well, we hired three.

And do you know what happened to the other two positions?

I don't.

I would like to get an answer on that because I'm hearing that there is issues with staffing here, and the city council funded five civilian investigators, you all only hired three.

What happened to the missing two?

If we're talking about investigations being a key issue in this what I call backlog, and what I'm calling a big concern to the community where clearance rates are not good at all, and there is two missing or two positions that have not been hired by the police department to do civilian investigations that could help us address a lot of the crimes.

I guess my question for the police department is why are you requesting the city council to reallocate those positions to something else instead of actually filling those positions that I think a lot of us on this diet would agree is a key concern to our constituents to address crime, safety, livability, and get victims of crimes justice.

Well, I was authorized to put three people in there, and I did.

So I will ask about the two other people.

Yeah, I guess I would hope that the chief or someone from the police department would answer why are those two civilian investigators not a priority to the police department and why they are being reallocated instead of actually hiring for two positions.

When I'm hearing this presentation, a big concern of it is staffing, civilian investigating or investigator staffing, and the police department did not prioritize the hiring of those two positions.

So it's very hard to hear this presentation with many concerns that we have for our community, and then two of these positions are not being hired.

It's do you see where I'm coming from?

It's very difficult to hear that when we have a big solution to that, which means can the police department hire those positions so we can address these concerns that we have that you are very clearly articulating, is a concern to our community.

That is a concern to our constituents when people are victims of crime.

I do I hear that, and I uh I feel your concern.

I I guess what I would say is that as my civilian investigators are really good people and and have been so valuable.

The one thing I will say is that there are certain things that civilian staff can't do.

So they can't write a warrant, they can't do PC, they can't present charges.

I don't let them do suspect interviews.

Um, I don't, they can't go out by themselves.

So they are support staff.

I still need sworn investigators to do that work.

So two more civilian investigators, I will get the answer, and I do see their importance.

I filled the positions I was given.

But the two more investigators is not gonna solve this issue for me.

I my investigators care deeply about these cases, and the suggestion that they don't, it just is false, and it and I hear it a lot that they don't care, and they do.

They care deeply, and so do my civilian investigators.

So if I can have two more people, that would be great.

Okay, and that's that's the point.

I think none of us are saying that the police department or the investigators are doing this work do not care.

I think what we're trying to articulate in the point of this legislative directive from Councilman McCashman was that we want to help solve this issue.

There's clearly indication that our folks in the city of St.

Paul are doing something that is working better than the city of Minneapolis.

Clearly, that's something that we should be learning from our counterparts across the river.

There is this directive that I voted for that was authored by my colleague.

The reason I supported it is because I wanted to find information about ways that we can support the police department in clearing these cases and making sure that victims of crime, particularly folks like Alison Lucher, uh get the justice that they deserve when they are impacted severely.

So bless you.

So the the directive, it wasn't meant to be some like weird conversation on data, it was meant to help us solve an issue, which is our clearance rates in the city of Minneapolis that is supposed to help our constituency.

So I guess, yes, there is other staff that is needed very loud and clear heard that is something that I don't think anybody up here would disagree with.

But we also, I would feel like I have to mention that two of those civilian investigators being hired would drastically help a lot of these issues.

It obviously wouldn't clear everything, but we have to be very clear that that would help address some of the concerns that our community members are feeling and seeing as they are victims of crimes.

So that is it for my questions.

I'll pass it to Council President Payne.

Thank you, Chair Traves.

I actually wanted to touch on the misinformation piece as well.

Uh I'll first state that I agree with you.

I think there is a lot of misinformation and policing, and I think that's what's made it such a challenging conversation to have.

And I think that the source of the misinformation is very and I'll distinct I'll distinguish misinformation and disinformation.

Um since I've been elected, uh, I've beared witness to a number of critical incidents.

The killing of Amir Locke, Tuckley Sunberg, the killing of Officer Mitchell, um, most recently the annunciation shooting, these have been like really hard things to really navigate as an elected person, let alone as a community.

And the really big takeaway from every single one of these incidents is the lack of clarity of information, especially in the immediate aftermath of these incidents.

And I think that the fog of these incidents does create the context for a lot of misinformation.

And there's always a lot of anger that happens and and pain that happens during these incidents.

And you were really helpful as I was trying to understand more about what happened with uh Juice Marshall, and you know, the and it and it was really sad because his friends and advocates came up to me at the press conference for enunciation to ask for help there.

And I don't think that that pain comes from a place of anger necessarily at MPD for not caring.

It comes from a place of losing on someone that they love.

And on the other side of this is there is a lot of misinformation that creeps into disinformation around what's happening in MPD.

Um in my time in office, I've never voted on a budget that cut the funding for the police department, but it remains this topic of conversation that somehow the police have been defunded.

The numbers only gone up ever since I've been elected.

Um Churchavis' point, City Council made a deliberative investment to add civilian investigators out of the exact issues that you're highlighting.

Um what I'm hearing at your level of the hierarchy of leadership is that you were authorized to hire three.

At our level of the hierarchy, we authorized five.

Uh so somewhere within the hierarchy of this institution, you were not even given the full tools that were um authorized to you to try to solve this problem.

There's a gap there that is getting filled with misinformation or even disinformation, and I don't necessarily want to put that judgment on it right now, but um, if we're gonna really bring justice to these families, and this is I mean, our emotions get a little high up here because we spend a lot of time talking to victims and their families.

And it is so painful to feel so helpless.

Even as the president of the city council.

I feel helpless when I'm talking to some of these victims and their families because they still have a loved one who's dead.

Right?

And I don't have a good answer for them.

And where we draw the line between triage and bias is not, there's not uh objective criteria for that, right?

When we're prioritizing cases and by necessity, we have to set some aside, whether that's because we just don't have enough evidence or we're further along in a case on another one.

From the outside, I I don't think people see that distinction and all they have is pain.

And so I think what we really need to do is bring more transparency to this process.

I think that's what this entire presentation is trying to achieve is how do we bring more transparency to this really hard challenge of policing, especially on the investigation side.

Because we can debate the degree to which police prevent crime, and that's a big political conversation.

But once the crime has happened, people are seeking justice.

And if we can't get good clearance rates, that is just that's a loss of justice for really impacted people.

So I really want to try to center this on accurate information, honest information, good problem solving, and ultimately justice for impacted people.

And so I just really wanted to kind of set that tone because I think that we're going into budget right now, and I I know there's a lot of appetite for stronger resources investigations.

I just met with the chief and I just asked, you know, what what can we do around domestic violence?

There's this really huge um need for protecting victims of domestic violence that shouldn't be murder investigations, right?

But they are turning into murder investigations because upstream things that we could have done differently, which probably doesn't fall within your division's purview, right?

And some of those upstream things just don't even fall within policing's purview.

Um and so we want to be able to our our job here is to make sure that we're you we're resourcing you uh correctly, right?

But what we're learning now is that we I think the five civilian investigators was insufficient, and I do believe that there was like a request or at least uh a roadmap for how we could activate 20 civilian investigators.

We got five.

And you know, we were called defund the police people for how we found money for the five civilian investigators, right?

So there's this there's this politics of it that I'm trying to break through so that we can actually bring justice to families, right?

And so like I just wanted to say I actually agree with you that we have a misinformation problem.

I'm coming at it maybe from a slightly different angle, but we we need to cut through that misinformation so that we can actually bring justice to these victims' families.

Next up, Councilmember Cashman.

All right, thank you, Chair Chavez.

Thank you, President Payne.

Um, for those comments too.

And is it Commander Olson or Deputy Chief?

Deputy Chief.

Deputy Chief, um, thank you so much for the presentation and for the information.

The first thing that I wanted to ask is when uh Chair Chavez was asking about the cases that are sent for charging, and you listed on different categories, which ones were uh declined.

Um that's not in this presentation.

I was wondering if you'd be able to send that information up by follow-up, because I think that's an interesting thread worth picking up again.

Okay, thanks.

I'll note that to Clerk Michael, if you could just send an email reminder on that piece.

Um, and then I was really interested in well as well in some of what you noted about what you had in 2019 that you don't have anymore.

Um, and I'm kind of wondering, you know, which of those pieces you really think need to be resourced and funded and put back into place for you to and your team to be successful.

So I heard um Safe Streets, violent crime prevention team, non-fatal shooting team, juvenile outreach and diversion unit, those existed in 2019.

Are there any of those uh units that you really want or have a plan to try to reactivate?

So I think the violent criminal apprehension team would probably be the first one that um I mean I would request it's not my it's the chief, the chief does all decisions, but I know that he um is always planning for what do we do next.

And I go home at night and think about, you know, what can I do different and where can I put my resources to make things better?

I could think as we all do when it comes to city, probably city operations for you and police operations for me.

Um, but the violent crime criminal apprehension team would probably be the first thing that I would ask to be reinstated if we have the staffing.

Sure.

Yeah, can you tell me a little bit more about what that would look like in terms of operation how much staffing it would require to be stood up, or if there's any estimate around the budget that would be needed and and what kind of staffing it would have?

So it typically or it used to be one sergeant and five officers, um, and they would be housed embedded in investigations, and what they would typically do is they would look for people who had PC pickups.

That's PC, it's a public cause, and we would put out a pickup uh for a felony-level crime, and it would be anything that's up in investigation, so it would be special crimes and it would be violent crimes, and they would go and locate and arrest the people for the PC pickups.

They would also help us with witnesses.

So I'm looking to talk to this person involved in this crime, and they would go and then they would just ask them because we're not going to detain a witness, but they would find them and say, hey, we're here with them, they're willing to talk to you.

Do you want to come out and talk to them?

And that was really helpful too when we were at a loss as to where a witness was.

So that part was really helpful too.

And then when did this get dismantled or when was that?

Do you know when that decision was made or why?

Well, it was when people were leaving.

Um I know it was after 2020, but I don't know which year it was that that was disbanded, um, and then how is that um different from the sort of intelligence center that you said is currently operating during the day, like in terms of function?

How would the intelligence center that you said is only operating during the day that is civilian operated?

Um, how would you like to see that expand and what would that look like?

So the intelligence unit falls under me as well.

Um, and I had the per privilege of working Intel as an officer, and then I was also a sergeant at the Intel Intelligence Unit.

What they would do in a real time, I actually have the proposal with me.

I mean, just in case you guys wanted to talk about the intelligence center, I may have brought the proposal.

Bring it with me that yeah, it's uh and I can absolutely send that to you if you wanted.

Um, but the the staffing is a little bit more you know labor-intensive because you'd want it to be 24-7, 365.

Um, you would do it like a four days on three days off.

It would probably I would want a civilian in charge of it, like a director, and then it would be primarily civilian staff.

I'm not saying sworn couldn't work there, but it wouldn't be necessary necessarily.

Um sworn staff, um, and they would watch cameras, they would be real time, so they would be listening to the radio, and if there's a robbery spree, they're the ones that get on and say, This is the car that we're looking for, this is the plate.

Um, these are the suspects that we saw, and we think that they're in this area, and then we can flood that area.

Um, and so that's what that real time is for.

So then when we get the case in investigations, a lot of that legwork has already been done.

Because some of the problems that we see in our cases is this happened in the last 24 hours, we're not absolutely positive when it happened, so my investigator has to sit down and watch 24 hours of video.

Gotcha.

So it would make it a lot more efficient afterwards.

So now we get the case, and we know that the crime happened at this time, you only have to watch 10 minutes of video before you talk to the suspect and submit the case.

I think it's helpful, and I'd love to see the proposal, especially because you know, we passed a police contract last year that did raise wages, and we're seeing um results of that with new recruits, lots of CSLs and cadets, but I think that recruitment's going as fast as it possibly could, and there's no way to speed up sworn police officers beyond what the chief's already been doing.

But what we can speed up is civilian positions, and that's something that can be hired faster, and so that intelligence center being civilian staffed, it could be like an investment that uh could be made and brought online, I think, faster.

So I'm interested in that.

Um, the other thing I wanted to ask you about was online reports and that reporting system, and I guess it makes sense if you need new technology, but is there also advice you'd like to share with those of us who help residents make online reports about how to best make reports that they'll be most useful to you so that they're not incomplete?

Like what would you like to say to residents who are filing reports to make sure that they do them the best that they can?

As much detail is humanly possible.

Um vague words don't help.

So a lot of times we'll get words like I was in a scuffle.

That I a scuffle doesn't help me at all.

I was punched twice in the face on the left side of my face, and we don't do that's a terrible example because we won't take an assault report online, but that's the kind of wording I'm talking about.

Like if I'm interviewing you and you say I was in a scuffle, I'm gonna stop you and say, Okay, I don't know what a scuffle means.

What do you mean by that?

So if you're reporting that your vehicle was broken into, which window was broken, what time did you last see it parked there on uh undamaged?

Which window is it?

Was it rolled up?

Do you have your keys?

Um as much detail as you can think to put in there, put in there.

No detail is too small.

It's not dumb to put a detail in there, it's okay.

No one's gonna read it and think, why'd you put that in there?

If we just, as strange as it sounds, we are probably the least judgmental people you'll ever meet.

There is nothing you're gonna tell us that we're gonna think is weird because we've seen it all.

So whatever you think you need to put in there, put in there.

That would be my advice.

I think that's helpful, and I think it's something that maybe you know, crime prevention specialists or other folks who do a lot of community engagement could be sharing more, and we could be sharing more with our residents of like best practices and tips for filing police reports.

Does that kind of best practices, or is there a document out there already?

There is, I believe.

Yeah, I think that might be there.

There is a thing that we put out on it.

Okay, I think that would be another great thing for us to like keep top of mind as we're all trying to improve.

Um, and then the last thing I wanted to ask about was this like St.

Paul um comparison that, you know, we've seen the the headlines recently that they're doing a lot better on case clearance.

They have a very different scenario because I think they partner with the county in a very different way.

Um, but I'm curious your thoughts on what what they do uh that you think they do well that we might that we could look to from a investigation standpoint, or if you disagree with the that assessment.

I love my partners in St.

Paul.

If they're watching, I love my partners in St.

Paul.

Um they clear their cases differently than we do, they do not clear an active, um, they are liberal in their exceptionally cleared.

They do have a non-fatal shooting team, and I applaud them for that.

Um I did meet with the American Experiment, and they did suggest that we have a non-fatal shooting team, which we did have.

I, the chief collapsed the two teams because we had to.

We did not have another choice.

There was just I couldn't have a homicide and non fatal shooting team.

They couldn't, I couldn't support them anymore.

They I didn't have enough people, so they were combined.

I will absolutely I the chief is a huge proponent of having that non fatal shooting team.

The minute we can do it, we will.

Um, they suggested we have 33 people on our non-fatal shooting team when I met with them.

That's half of my entire staff.

I just don't have the people for it, but um what I will say is they have about the same number of staff that we do total 90.

No, I mean police officers.

Oh, okay.

Worn staff, they have the same amount that we do, and we their population is not the same as ours.

Their crime rate is not the same as ours.

So um they're they do a wonderful job.

It's just it's apples and oranges, and you it would be better to compare us to like a Kansas City, um, Denver.

Okay.

There are other cities that I would compare us to before I'd ever compare us to St.

Paul.

Yeah, what is it about Kansas City and Denver?

Is it the population?

Okay.

Well, that's helpful.

I I appreciate this opportunity to meet.

I actually, you know, it'd be great if we had more meetings, you know, that weren't on in public because I think that's part of where just confusion comes up.

But this is also like a government structure thing where we don't have a lot of opportunity to meet with expert staff like yourself just one-on-one and get questions asked about different cases and so on.

And so I appreciate that that you came here today to share like a broad view and the data so that we can help make decisions to resource you and to um improve in the years to come.

So thank you so much.

Council President Payne.

Uh thank you, Chair Chavez.

Uh Councilmember Cashman's questions just maybe wanted to revisit the misinformation theme and just maybe see if we can kind of fight back against some misinformation here.

So just to be clear, you didn't use your authority as the leader of our investigations unit to like dismantle these uh divisions that we don't have since in 2019.

We had the safe streets, the violent crime apprehension, the weapons unit, violent crimes investigation team.

It's not like you made a decision to dismantle those teams, right?

We just lost those staff.

Oh, yeah, that that happened before I was ever in role.

Right.

Oh, I don't even know when that happened.

They just don't exist anymore.

They just don't exist anymore.

And it's not because city council cut the funding for the department, it's not because whoever was in your role, you know, dismantled it.

It's just the people left, and that's just what happened, and that is the truth, and how people would like to talk about that.

I don't know, is that's when we start getting into disinformation and not just misinformation.

Yes, I know that is not what I was implying at all.

Right.

They just aren't there anymore.

So just not we just don't have the staff for it.

The staff just isn't there anymore.

Right.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Councilmember Church.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Thank you, Deputy Chief, for your presentation.

Um, I just had a couple of just follow-up questions, but uh quick piggyback off of what Councilmember Cashman brought up in terms of e-reports um and online reporting.

Uh I in talking to my residents, um, one, I feel like they're at a point where they're just like not a fan of like the online reports, and then they're like, I'd never hear back from anyone.

Um that's something that I hear a lot, and then they're like, I don't even think it's worth reporting.

And I'm like, it sets a fire in me where I'm like, you have to report, otherwise, the data's not there, and that's really really key.

Um I feel like the online reporting area is like a place where technology could help address uh address it, um, and encourage people to more aptly report.

What would you suggest in terms of community members getting responses to online reports and why aren't they getting responses currently?

So I would say that it um really became noticeable to us recently how terrible the online reporting was.

We didn't realize that it was so bad.

Um what I would tell community is if you're not getting a call to call.

So most of the time when we're getting online reports, they're so vague and there's such a shell of a report we're reviewing them and we're not following up.

And oftentimes it's a property crime.

There are very few crimes you can you can report online, and so they're typically property crimes.

And we'll be honest, those those don't belong to investigations but patrol.

Um, but that being said, it would my point of that is that it probably would go to the precinct.

So whatever precinct you're in, I would call them and say, hey, I reported an online report.

Can I talk to somebody?

And they'll give them two investigations?

And we can talk them through it, and we can, and there might be more information, and we can add it into the report, and it might give us something to go on.

So I would tell them to call and follow up.

Yeah, and I think that customer service aspect on the online reporting and just reporting in general needs a lot of improvement, especially if we're talking about community confidence.

I know we talked about the misinformation disinformation thing, but I think what's actually really hurting community cooperation is customer service.

There's been many times where I've talked to victims of crimes, and I'm their first in-person conversation or even email back.

And I think that that needs a lot of improvement.

And I've filed reports through the online reporting, and it's just like I'm like, we need to get a millennial Gen Z team to do a software update.

Yes.

So you can do more attachments, you can have more video.

Yep.

There was a case in my ward where there were, I think there was like 25 garage doors that were rammed through by the same car, and there were separate reports, and people weren't entirely reporting every single thing, and then people got organized and started sharing.

And that was helpful, but it like took a lot of community effort.

And like community, I would say also like in terms of neighborhood block captains and community organization, they're they're not as organized.

Um, and so kind of bringing that back using technology to improve that process would be really good, but also I think when you are a victim of a crime and you need to report whether it's a violent crime, whether it's a property crime, whether it's a vehicle theft, it feels like pretty dizzying, and then immediately like you're looking for that in-person touch, and I know that we're limited in personnel, but I think one thing technologically that could be helpful is even just like having some videos where someone is talking to you and walking you through the process of like this, like just like what you did where you were like, this is what you should include in your report.

This is an example of a good report, this is an example of like a report that's way too vague.

This can help us solve it better, or like if you're a victim of violent crime, like these are some next steps that we recommend that you ask, and like having even those a library of those types of resources, like on your phone when you go to like look at an online report, I think would be really really helpful.

Um, and that's just kind of something I was thinking about for as we were having this discussion because I've had to help people navigate reporting crimes many times over the last couple of years.

So I thought I'd give that suggestion.

And the last suggestion I'll also give too is in terms of building out capacity for solving crimes.

I think there's something to figuring out how do we revitalize neighborhood block captain programs and have it go beyond just setting up a national night out program, or when you have like an incident on your block, that's when um a sergeant or an officer or crime prevention specialist comes, like what are what are trainings and things that block captains can do year round to make their neighbor neighborhoods more resilient and better at working with the department and to also share information that they're witnessing that can help better clear these cases.

I feel like that's been missing for some time, and I think there's like a hunger to do it, and I think it might if there is that reoccurring engagement with community where block captains are actually given like a toolbox and like a role to give to their block, there would be less of like a what's the word, apathy and exhaustion to reporting.

Yeah, so giving you a lot of suggestions.

Uh uh, like Cashman notably put it out, like, would love to have the one-on-one conversation, but oftentimes not able to given the current government structure.

Um, I do have a couple questions specifically.

So when a case is cleared and it's declined, what does that mean specifically?

It's declined by the Hennepin County.

Henry County Attorney's Office has declined.

What's been what's that been like, especially for domestic violence and some of these violent level crimes?

You listed a certain percentage that were in that decline bucket.

Like, why why are we seeing that level of cases being declined?

I mean, it's an can be any number of reasons.

Um, it can be that they don't feel that you have enough to prove beyond a reasonable don't.

They don't think you have enough evidence, they don't think that you have they just don't think they can win.

Um that's typically the reason uh that they won't go forward.

Okay.

Um, and then the real-time crime center as a solution that you presented, where has this been successful in other jurisdictions that you look at?

Um, well, see if it's in here.

I don't remember.

We went to another place, Las Vegas.

Las Vegas.

Okay.

What what is that like that's different than the intelligence unit?

Well, right now we're not 24 hours, okay.

So it's 24 hours.

Yeah.

And then it's um there, even when we were we were at one point 20 hours.

So we didn't go quite 24 hours.

It was really more investigations during the day, and then it was kind of more patrol at night.

And what I would like to do, or what the department would like to do is we would have staff for investigations, and they would still do their role of putting out we have a um a DIB, which is a daily intelligence bulletin, and they would still do that function.

This would just be real time.

It would be all for patrol.

But in doing that, it would help investigations.

I would still have an intelligence that assists investigations, but this would be something separate.

It's just real-time intelligence all the time.

And it would help, I think, the community in I've been in a traffic accident.

Well, we saw that, and we can get you that footage, or um, I'm we've noticed that somebody's fallen down and they need medical aid.

Like they're constantly looking, and it would be less you would need fewer cops because you would have eyes on all the time too.

It helps with staffing.

So I just think it would be a benefit to the community as well.

Thank you.

And I'll just say this kind of echoing some of the things my colleagues have said up here.

I think like we're in a moment in time like looking at all the the cases that are here, where we have to evolve this conversation about public safety and how we get there away from this like pretty rigid polarizing place that we've been in for a while, of like defund or not, uh not oppose officers, or oppose or not oppose ex-elected official, um, because frankly, I think it's I think it puts us in our different camps and it gets us further away from addressing these things.

I think everyday people, especially working people, they're tired and exhausted of not getting the things that they deserve, and then also like we are holding this truth at the same time that like our police department very notably has all of these issues and in the realms of race, um, sexism, ability, like it's just documented, and now we're on a path towards achieving this settlement agreement and these other things that's needed for police accountability that Minneapolis very much very much needs, and we're on that road.

I think the place where we have a lot of agreement, like it sounds like we're like over agreeing here as we've had some tension up here and having this discussion is like clearing these cases and helping victims of crime, and and for me particularly um I'm thinking a lot about domestic violence.

I think we all have been the last few months.

Um I've been an advocate uh to help those who experience domestic violence and relationships with violence since I was about 15, and that was not a choice that I made, it was something that I fell into because I had relatives and people in my life that experienced that, and it just feels like the system constantly fails women and women of color in particular because their voice just isn't doesn't matter as much to the system, and so that is something that I really want to resolve, and we had a really great presentation given to the committee of the whole where the domestic abuse project was there for a number of ways that the Minneapolis police department can help victims of domestic violence and survivors of domestic violence.

So I appreciate the presentation and the conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All righty.

Well, thanks so much for being up here for giving us this presentation.

It was really helpful.

Thank you.

Seeing no more discussion, I'll ask the clerk to receive and file that report.

Our next and final item is a presentation related to the city's work on the opioid epidemic.

I'll invite Deputy Commissioner Richie to get us started.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Oh, should it all right?

You're the best, Michael.

Thank you.

Oh, it was off.

I mess it up.

What do I do?

Okay, got it.

Yep.

Good.

Put my little thumb drive away.

Good afternoon, Chair Chavez and members of the public health and safety committee.

My name is Heidi Ritchie, and I'm the Deputy Commissioner of Health.

I'm grateful for this time in front of PHS to present on the city's opioid response work over the past few years or the past year.

First, I want to acknowledge our teams.

We have our opioid response team, which is headed up by our senior project manager, Suzanne Young, who's here with me today.

Her team also includes public health specialist Jason Jason Schildman, who is also here, public health specialist and peer recovery specialist Tony Ziccardi, and our newest member who joined in August, our harm reduction public health specialist, Tamir Popovic.

We also have our amazing mobile medical team supervised by the manager of maternal child and adolescent health, Stephanie Graves, and supported by director of public health initiatives, Luisa Pessoa Brendau.

The team also includes our registered professional nurses, Jasmine Bloomdahl, Megan Joyce, and Melissa Goverick Westermeyer, and our physician assistant Omar Fernandez.

Tony also pulls double duty as our peer recovery specialist on the MMU and as well as driving uh the unit.

And finally, Dr.

DeZwee Nataba or Dr.

D, has he has been in front of this body before, but he is now uh contracted to be our medical director and consultant.

He was here earlier, but he had a shift in the ER that he had to leave for, unfortunately.

So if you have any questions for him, you can let me know and we can take them back to him and uh get a response.

We really do have a great team here.

I'm happy to have some of them with me.

Um, the commissioner of health, Damon Chapman was here, and he also had to leave for a different engagement.

First, I want to start out with the data right into the numbers.

Minnesota saw a 32% decrease in opioid involved deaths from 2023.

Uh Minneapolis side 26% decrease in 2024.

This is preliminary data, and so uh we might see that percentage fluctuate a little bit up or down as we get um confirmation on the numbers.

Uh Minneapolis represents about 7% of the state population, but 26% of fatal opioid involved overdoses.

By race, we don't have the information yet from the state or the US United States by race, so we can't recreate that data.

While we have seen a 26% overall decrease in fatal opioid uh opioid related ODs, as I mentioned in the earlier slide.

Um, that is not true for our American Indian community, which is held steady.

There has been a decrease by 43% in the black community and 56% in the Hispanic communities.

The rates for black and American Indian residents remain at three and eight times higher than for white residents, respectively.

Some of the initiatives that we've been working on this year include harm reduction, which is our main program is the Narcan saturation, public health, sorry, public safety and harm reduction in our syringe abatement program, public health and safety in our Rome World Medical Unit, treatment with our first step hospital-based intervention program, youth prevention with our brain waves curriculum work with the Masonic Brain Institute with the U of M, and then prevention work around the sex trafficking awareness campaign that involves the intersection with substance use disorder.

One of our goals with the mobile medical unit, which I'll talk about a little bit later, but just wanted to talk about it briefly now is to connect with primary care and longer term treatment that will facilitate long-term recovery and re-entry into community and society or renewal in being active in society.

I bring that up now just because it's one of the things long-term recovery that you don't see on this list.

And so I just wanted to mention that up front that some of these things on the list are designed to help with people's full journey from where they access the medication or the treatment to when they are in long-term recovery.

Our first step program stabilizes people into treatment and also follows this with long-term recovery and renewed participation in society, as I mentioned.

And then our brain waves provide youth with the knowledge and empowerment they need to make safe, healthy, and self-determining choices versus just being told to just say no, which if you've ever told a child that you'll know their reaction oftentimes.

So right in a Narcan saturation, we added a third Narcan vending machine just recently to fire station 5 in Ward 9 at 27th and Bloomington Avenue near Lake Street.

Our first box was installed on July 2024 at station 29 or 21.

That's near the 38th and Hiawatha Light Rail Station.

The second box was installed in May of 2025 at station 14 on the north side on Lowry near Penn Avenue.

So we've got those three boxes out there now.

We've distributed through those three vending machines 560 boxes of Narcan, and that's through the end of October, so it's pretty recent data.

The second and third vending machines are being supplied with Narcan by our opioid response partners at Hennepin County.

So we're really appreciative of them.

So they are providing that stock for those two machines.

In addition, per the state law that passed in 2024 that required schools to be equipped with Narcan, we've been partnering with the Minneapolis Public Schools to ensure Narcan availability on school grounds and ensure staff are trained to administer the medication in case of an overdose.

More recently, we have been partnering with the Minneapolis Police Department to track Narcan administered by the officers as well as transfer the purchase and distribution of Narcan, which will allow expanding locations where officers can restock from one location to five.

So we're looking at making sure that each precinct has Narcan that when an officer uses it, they can go get resupplied in their own precinct.

The other piece of that is data collection, and so we're working with them on a smart sheet that when an officer goes to resupply their Narcan, we can get a little bit of data that comes to the health department so that we can be strategic and also have that data which will help us uh focus our limited resources and energies where we're seeing the most need.

So the types of data we'll be collecting are things like age, um, uh zip code, how many people were administered Narcan, and how many doses each person got, so that we can understand the trends in how many doses it takes to actually revive a person who is overdosed.

And that's something that's important as we see the drug supplies changing pretty rapidly.

Um, you know, a couple years ago we were dealing with oxycodon, now it's fentanyl.

Our syringe abatement is a four-pronged approach.

We do sweeps, syringe drop boxes, 311 requests, and then training and education.

The opioid response team conducts sweeps two to three times per week in high priority areas as prescribed by the council in the last budget, which includes the South Side Green Zone, the Hiawatha Corridor, and then we also look at other hotspots such as Penn Lowry and West Broadway, etc.

We always have two people go out for safety, and so you know, we we are averaging about 16 hours a week with just that cleanup portion of it.

In terms of syringe drop boxes, there are 26 syringe drop boxes installed citywide.

We're adding 15 new boxes in quarter one in partnership with the state contracted syringe service, syringe exchange providers.

So they will then be emptying the boxes, the new boxes that we'll be putting out in quarter one of 2020 2026.

As you can see, there is a picture of one of our drop boxes, and then the website that's the Hennepin County Waypoint site.

We partner with them to get our syringe box locations on their waypoint site.

As you can see, each one of those dots is a location, and then there is corresponding information with the address, and then if you click on any of those plus signs, it'll show you things like you know, if there's specific uh locations.

So if it's inside to the right, or if there's certain hours that those can be accessed.

Our contracted syringe abatement partner is a mother's love initiative, and they respond to 311 calls.

Once a request for service is generated in the 311 system and sent to a mother's love, the service level agreement says that the response should happen within 24 hours.

Recently, we partnered with 311 thanks to uh flag that we got from a council member's office about some of the turnaround times uh maybe not being at our service level agreement.

Um, and so we updated our procedure to enhance quality control, public health, safety, and responsiveness.

We did this by changing the process on when things were closed, and also we were granted access, one of our staff was granted access to the system so that instead of the 311 person who's taking the case, closing it right away, because they don't then get follow-up information as to when the cleanup happens.

It comes to our staff to be able to do that because we our staff are notified as soon as the cleanup happens.

Um we also offer training materials for syringe cleanup training and materials for syringe cleanup to community groups, businesses, individuals, which some of you have taken advantage of.

Feel free to let me know if you're ever interested in having us come out to the community to provide training on safe cleanup and materials.

Um, as you know or may need reminding, we are unable to have our contractor pick up on private property, and so that's a way for us to be able to help folks who have needles on their property pick up safely and have the equipment that they need in order to do that.

Oh wait, okay.

Um, the hot new item that uh we launched just at the end of August, so I think August 29th, if I'm not mistaken, was the date that we launched in Elliott Park.

Um since then, the mobile medical unit has been deployed 33 times in very in a variety of locations and in partnership with several community organizations.

Our amazing mobile medical unit team has interacted with over 1,300 Minneapolis residents, providing health care services, health education, resource information, and NARCAN.

178 individuals have received health care services, which is about 13.5% of all encounters.

And they have distributed 336 boxes of NARCAN.

The 178 medical encounters resulted in 110 referrals for housing, medications for opioid use disorder treatment, and connection to community clinics for follow-up care and hopefully to find their primary care home.

In addition to referrals, medication prescriptions and wound care kits have also been provided.

43% of those seen for clinical care self-identified as having unstable housing.

We joined the Arts and Culture Department to accept awards on behalf of the city at the Minneapolis Regional Chamber Leaders in Innovation Awards.

The health department was awarded for the work of the mobile medical unit.

Brett Brett Jelly joined us, our Deputy City Operations Officer that oversees both the health department and arts and culture, and did a few of our, as did a few of our mobile medical and opioid response folks from the picture from the award.

From left, you can see Jasmine, MJ, Suzanne, and then Brett, me, and Tony.

We were really pleased that the folks that do the work every day were able to join us in accepting this award.

Through the end of October, we have had a number of deployments.

We try to be consistent in our deployments week to week so individuals know where we're gonna be.

That also allows us to have our teams provide the best care for people by developing relationships and creating a safe environment.

So we're hoping that consistency where people might be hesitant to approach a city vehicle or something like that.

If they see us consistently there and they see other folks approaching the vehicle and getting services, we're hopeful that any reticence they may have will slip away eventually.

The upcoming edition, so the schedule and the request form can be found on our website.

It's pretty easy.

I think it's still the first thing that comes up on Google if you if you Google Mobile Medical Unit Minneapolis.

If you want more than a monthly schedule, we usually do it for a month or two.

I think this one goes to the end of the year.

Let me know.

And as we add things, we can we can let you know, but we uh generally are pretty good at getting them on the calendar as soon as we schedule them.

Umcoming additions to the mobile medical unit that we're hoping to add in 2026 include dental services in partnership with the School of Dentistry.

Um there is a dental chair on board, and we heard loud and clear from community members that that is a huge need, especially in our unhoused community.

Medically assisted treatment services using MOUD, offering buprenorphine access on the MMU as part of our expanding low barrier access to MOUD, and then vaccinations such as COVID and flu.

This includes an innovative approach providing the long acting injectable form of buprenorphrine called BRICSODI through the emergency room and at walk in clinics in our highest risk communities.

Our first step program was started in 2022 in partnership with M Health Fairview.

It is now being replicated across Metro and other parts of the state.

We've been training and providing technical assistance to Regents Hospital and St.

Paul Fire EMS.

Dr.

D, who I mentioned earlier, is our medical consultant, represents Minneapolis on the Minnesota Department of Health and Department of Human Services Low Barrier MOUD work group.

Their recommendations brought forward by that group include the California Bridge model as a statewide standard of care.

This is what is being used in Minneapolis as a model for our first step program.

Another one is a recommendation of take home starter packs of slow uh buprenorphrine.

This is how we've started the first step program.

These starter packs also include NARCAN.

The prescriptions can be filled 24-7, 365, like I said, using something like what you see in the picture here, which is a vending machine located in the lobby of the hospital between the emergency department and the recovery clinic.

And we do know that it is being well utilized.

The last recommendation I'll talk about is the long-acting injectable buprenorphan, which I mentioned, which is BRICSODI.

This is happening now through a partnership with M Health Fairview Emergency Department, their recovery clinic, their OBGYN department, and then the Native American Community Clinic.

We're also working with the Northside Urban Coalition to expand this pilot initiative to the North Side.

We are assessing and mapping which pharmacies stock buprenorphine and have low barrier access.

We know that not all of them stock it, and we know some of the ones that do stock it have some additional barriers in place that we're trying to work on breaking down.

We are also working to identify and train navigators.

We've done this already, but we're continuing to do it, who can help people co-design and navigate their journey from a point where they access care to long-term recovery.

This helps build capacity and sustain a workforce by training community-based navigators drawn from and embedded in the communities they serve within a network of low barrier access points.

In summary, we're working with partners and contracts to develop training opportunities to expand first step, including connecting with OPGYN and other providers for expansion, strengthening the non-clinical workforce to connect individuals to treatment and go with them on their long-term care journey and recovery journey, and then expand the numbers of pharmacies that not only stock the medication but have low barrier access.

Around youth prevention, we're partnering with the University of Minnesota to develop and implement a neuroscience-based substance use prevention curriculum called Brain Waves.

It's being piloted by health educators in our eight school-based clinics.

The curriculum helps youth understand how substance use affects developing brains, such as their own.

This empowers them with the knowledge to make safer science-informed choices and promote their own brain health.

With the rising mental health challenges for youth, including how they consume information, learn and communicate with internet and tech changes.

So, what makes the curriculum unique and why is this important?

It's important because it's rooted in neuroscience, which is science and health.

The people providing education already have trusted relationships with the youth, and it is hands-on learning that adapts to the new ways in which youth consume information and make choices, as I mentioned.

The objectives of the brainwave curriculum are to promote understanding that addiction is a brain-based condition.

Equip youth with science informed tools to say to stay safe and make healthier decisions, and reduce stigma by showing that addiction is complex, it's treatable, and it deserves compassion.

Next steps with uh with this is um we um the structured feedback from facilitators and youth, which will help us improve the pilot curriculum.

Um, and then other work related to the curriculum includes uh developing digital media assets, facilitators to guide ongoing technical assistance, LMS stands for learning management system, um, and then co-design with community partners and outreach workers to contextualize curriculum for secondary prevention and health promotion.

Um the cool thing is that other schools in the metro area are now implementing, such as Brooklyn Center and St.

Paul.

They're part of our cohort.

Um, and then with the Department of Health, the State Department of Health, and the State Department of Education of Education are adding links to their websites which share this curriculum.

And lastly, before I open it up for questions and give you all thanks for giving me the time here, is um our sex trafficking thrives in silence campaign that I mentioned.

The campaign was launched, launched in January of 2025.

Posters were put on metro transit buses, shelters, and light rail in bathroom stalls in 30 locations and shared through billboards and social media.

Posters were developed in collaboration with survivors and symbolize growth and hope.

This campaign received three different awards from different advertising groups, so we're pretty proud of our partnership with Russell Herder for that.

Um then uh we're gonna be relaunching in January 2026 in honor of Sex Trafficking Awareness Month.

So we hope to revive the awareness campaign.

Um it's not going away.

We have great materials.

Apparently, um, with the awards we've won and the national attention we've gotten, and so we we want to uh re-elevate um the campaign.

So I'm sure we'll be before you in January with a resolution.

Uh that is it for my presentation, and I stand for questions.

Thanks so much for the presentation, colleagues.

The BET is meeting at 4 p.m., so my recommendation is that we end the meeting at 3 45 p.m.

to give enough time for folks to be able to set up for that meeting, uh, being cognizant of the time.

Any questions that we don't get through, I recommend that we just uh send it to Claire Michael and Deputy Commissioner Ritchie if there's a follow-up uh needed by the council.

So I'll first pass it to Council President Payne.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

No questions, just want to say I'm really, really grateful for this body of work in it.

Um not just because of how amazing the work is, but it's actually I feel like a model on how we work together in government, right?

This started as like a legislative directive in 2022, and we didn't have any authority or we didn't know what our authority was, but it was just a sincere attempt at trying to solve a problem in our community.

And I remember that very first presentation with Dr.

D and how much promise there was with a path forward and to see that translate into the mobile medical unit, the all of the Narcan stations out in the community are partnerships with health institutions.

This is just like a really amazing reflection of the government actually working, and I'm grateful for your leadership and being able to do that for us.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair Chavez, Council President Payne, thank you.

Uh no one else is on queue, so I'll make a quick comment.

Just want to thank you, Deputy Commissioner, for this presentation and the incredible staff that we have in the health department.

It's very clear that we have some of the best staff in this country, and many cities across the United States are probably very jealous about the innovative work that we are doing here in the health department, and it's thanks to you, staff that is here in this room and the entire health department who have really dug really deep in finding ways to address not only the opioid epidemic, but finding ways to keep our community safe, healthy, and thriving.

So I just wanted to at least give my kudos to the entire department for their work on this, and just have one question, and I'll be quick, and it's about the campaign.

One, thank you for talk telling us that it's gonna be ongoing or it's gonna continue to happen next year.

I'm a part of the Lake Street Group Partnership, and I help lead uh the sex trafficking prevention work group in there, and this has been a big topic in there and one of the questions that folks are asking me is like how do we uh continue this program that you all are doing and how does community have input in where some of these uh posters and this campaign goes towards I'm talking about Lake Street that is where folks are reaching out to me part of this work group that I'm a part of that would love to see some of this work in these corridors we've heard about it on the East Franklin corridor as well and you don't have to answer that today I guess it was good to hear that it's gonna continue and I guess the the question would be how does community have input on where we need this on top of the expert level staff that we know you hear from community concerns as well.

So Chair Chavez uh first thank you for the acknowledgement you're right we we do have an amazing staff um and the two that are here thank you for being here the rest um are out on the unit and in other areas but um I will make sure that I pass along um your thanks council president and your thanks Chair Chavez as well in terms of the question um I would say uh as we're developing you know our next iteration uh just reach out to me and we'll figure out a way to make sure that we um uh can provide an uh uh an avenue for feedback for folks that that want that feedback also uh once we get closer to knowing like how this campaign is gonna roll out um I'll be able to uh to identify like where you're gonna see the um the campaign uh materials um and I don't know if we provided that last time I think we might have just said here's what we're doing we've we've got this many locations but I'm not sure if we uh provided specifics on that but that is certainly something we can uh look into doing in January thanks thank you thank you so much for your time chair and council members yeah thank you so much uh seeing no more discussion or questions or anybody else on queue I'll ask the clerk to receive and file that report and see no further business before us I will declare this meeting adjourned.