Welcome to the regular meeting of the Public Health Safety and Equity Committee for May 13, 2026.

I am Jason Chavez, the chair of this committee.

Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase 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 will ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify a quorum for this meeting.

Councilmember Payne.

Present.

Wandsley.

Rainville is absent.

Vita.

President.

Whiting.

Present.

Vice Chair Stevenson.

Present.

Chair Chavez.

That is six members present.

That's the record of the Let the record reflect that we have quorum and we'll be joined by Councilmember Rainbow shortly.

I'll remind my colleagues that we'll be using speaker management today.

So if we can confirm that it works for all of you, otherwise we'll go to badges.

Good.

All right.

Our agenda is in front of us, and we will begin with the consent agenda.

Item number one authorizes a contract with Forest Lake Sportsman's Club for police in-service trainings and outdoor range facility use.

Staff did provide a memo with background information on the contract and images of the site, which has been included on the looms file.

Item number two is a contract amendment with AGE and Associates Inc.

and GBR Inc.

for interpreting translation services.

Item number three approves the contract amendment with certified language international LLC for remote interpreting services.

Accept grants from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal and Spain neuter training conference attendance.

Item number seven approves the gift acceptance for site visit to the Chatao Health and Wellness Recovery Center.

Item number eight approves the gift acceptance for drone assessment and response tactics training.

Uh thank you, Chair Chavez.

As you all know, we received the mayor's nomination of Brian O'Hara for police chief last Thursday at our council meeting.

It was a late breaking letter uh the evening of the before the meeting.

Uh per our standard process that gets referred to the subject matter committee, that is this committee today, uh for setting a public hearing, which we have on our agenda for June 3rd for a final determination on June 11th.

Uh, I'm working really closely with the City Attorney's Office because we are anticipating uh the next semi-annual Alifa report for the settlement agreement implementation where there would be really valuable information in that report as it relates to how we're doing on the implementation of the settlement agreement.

I think it would be extraordinarily important for um us as decision makers but almost more importantly the public to be able to see the contents of that report before we do take that final determination of a vote um at this time we don't know the specific date that we are should get that report it could be possible that it could come as early as the beginning of June and be here in time for the even the public hearing and the final vote or we may learn that it's going to come later in the month I'm trying to stay on top of when that will happen and so uh as we set the date for our standard timeline for June 3rd for the public hearing once we get to June 3rd and we know more specifics about when that report might come I may want to uh hold that nomination until we get that report but at this time we don't have that information so I just wanted to give you all that update and the public that update so councilmember wants to thank you uh Chair Chavez I wanted to make some comments in regards to item number one uh which is the contract with Forest Lake Sportsman's Club for police and service trainings and outdoor range facility use um I'm excited to see another one of these type of contracts come forward for us to consider and approve um largely because it affirms what I know a number of us council members and residents have been saying which is we don't need to build uh 40 million to 80 million dollar building in order for our Minneapolis police department to have uh the training spaces that they need to execute their jobs um pd does currently practice in a residential area in war four that has been of um constant conversation of what do we do about that relocation as part of that um and I do believe that there is a shared interest in relocating it to a more appropriate um location but this contract demonstrates that we can rent a gun range and meet that need for about a hundred thousand dollars per year which is truly a tiny fraction of the astronomical amount that we're talking about paying um for the mayor's proposed cop city um so I'm really excited to see more contracts like this come forward um that's meeting the quote unquote training needs that are being proposed in that large cop city project um and to be able to see these type of trial uh contracts uh ideally come forward more frequently um so that we can truly create an alternative plan to that um so yeah just wanted to make those comments councilmember whiting thank you chair chavez just was wondering if we could pull one for discussion we can pull the the item out for discussion you want to vote on that uh no then you can just make your comments like am I able to ask someone to come up with that case okay um commander are you able to to come chat with this piece a little bit not too many tough questions for you.

Good afternoon.

Council chair vice chair uh council member I'm Commander Chris Brown from the uh police department and I run the training division.

Yeah perfect thank you commander and just a few quick questions here is not necessarily even related to uh this item specifically but um as kind of our training around firearms training like I I think would trying to get a sense of because I you know I hear council member wandsley's uh comments as well um if you can kind of just touch space on uh the required individual officer uh yearly bi-yearly whatever the training is that is needed for our firearms if you could kind of just give us a a background uh of what that training entails.

Sure.

Um it's it's pretty extensive um overall what the police department provides uh handgun and as well as rifle and uh our special operations which I can't speak to but um what we use uh do training related to firearms.

So related to um just in general, we do handgun qualifications once a year um that usually uh comprises of about uh it's about a month and a half, but it is only we only pull the officers off the street for as as minimal amount of time as possible.

It's more of a uh um an exam.

We examine their firearms, their equipment that is um uh securing the firearms.

We also go over uh um malfunctions and such like that.

So it's but it is not we don't we don't really consider it a training, we consider that an assessment or um their qualifications to meet the state standards.

So that is uh a brief training, but it does require us to have about um somewhere between 15 to 20 training sessions uh offered up for that.

Um, and then uh each officer that is authorized to carry a patrol rifle would um go to a patrol rifle school and the patrol rifle school um so historically has been uh held off site because uh too many too many rounds with a patrol rifle in a small area um uh is not good for the cost of the city for the going through the uh cleaning and and the processing of the uh uh spent rounds that go into that uh into that area.

That range we have right now is specifically designed mostly for handgun.

And so it wouldn't be feasible to do it.

Plus, we do um we need a place where they can use the uh the rifles uh you know and learn the tactics that are appropriate for safely uh uh you using and and carrying those weapons.

So that's the general officer that those are the two things that they often carry.

We do use um uh the range staff still also does, um, and it's very similar to handgun qual or qualifying with other weapons.

Is we have less than lethal uh 40 millimeter um as well as uh um trying to think of the other other things that generally do with it, but um officers that do go through the the be able to carry the patrol rifle are required to do annual recertifications for that so that uh we do use utilize facilities for that as well.

Thank you, Commander.

And again, just the last kind of question.

Is there any uh trainings related to like uh post-certification when it comes to or is that kind of this once a year handgun training that is to keep that kind of your your post license?

I'm I'm not sure.

Yeah, we we do any any uh any firearms that you carry, whether it's uh patrol rifle or a handgun is post post-certified requirement.

Okay, that you uh go through annual training.

All right, that is all that I have.

Thank you, Commander.

Appreciate it.

Uh with that, I'll move approval of all items, including the minute agreement amount for item number eleven.

And seeing that there's no further discussion on the motion to approve, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions, those items have been moved to full council.

Uh our first discussion item today regarding is regarding a sponsor a kennel program for the animal care and control.

Uh welcome, Director Shendle.

All right, good afternoon, Chair Chavez, committee members.

My name's Tony Schendel.

I'm the director of Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.

Here today to talk about a new program that uh came to our attention by MACPAC, who's a 501 C3 nonprofit organization, and I'll talk a little bit about the program and uh how excited we are to introduce it.

So this program uh sponsor a kennel program is something that's being done by other both municipalities and private shelters across the nation.

And we're hoping to launch this program to allow businesses and other residents uh or community members to make donations to MACPAC, who then in turn would donate the money to animal care and control, and that uh would all be done um through quarterly reporting, no different than we report our donations now quarterly to council.

Um but that is gonna directly help the animals in our care uh by providing enrichment due to rising costs and increasing care to the animals in our facility.

Um, so donors could sponsor a kennel or a cat condo for a one-year period.

They would have a personalized plaque that would be posted on the kennels in recognition of their partnership with us.

These are just some example photos of other shelters doing it in the nation.

The community impact, um, these donors will help offset the growing care uh costs and provide essential care to the animals, which includes veterinary services, uh toys for enrichment, and then some other supplies that aren't currently covered by our annual operating budget.

Um, this is instrumental to help further our success as we work towards helping as many animals as we can and continue achieving our our no-kill status.

This program won't have a financial impact on the city, and it in fact won't use any city resources as a part of this program.

Um, this is a community centric approach that will bolster community support for the growing number of animals in our need.

Um, MacPack, our 501c3 uh partner, would lead this effort all the way from start to finish.

They'd accept the donations, hang the signage, follow up with the donor to share a success story of an animal that's been adopted out of that kennel they're sponsoring and help found its new forever home.

Um, therefore, no impact to the city financially or resources, lessening the taxpayer burden.

And with that, this concludes my presentation.

I'll stand for any questions.

Yeah, and director will one first of all, thank you to our staff at Miami's Emerald Care and Control and the City Attorney's Office for working fairly quickly on this, something that will actually save many of our animals and uh, you know, that is really important to our city.

So I just want to say thank you to staff on that.

I'll pass it to Vice Chair Stevenson.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say this is a great idea.

I'm really glad you're doing this.

This is awesome.

Keep up the good work.

Um, and excited to see uh, you know, community members and community partners be able to assist your efforts.

Thank you, councilmember.

Councilmember, thank you, Chair Chavez.

I wanted to say also this is a uh true testament to partnership with community and um nonprofit organizations, and it certainly is going to help us not only help the animals that we have, but future animals that come to the shelter.

I appreciate supporting this.

I can't um wait to hear the impact that it has because it feels really it feels like it's gonna be really good for not only for the staff but for the community to help in this type of way.

So thank you for always thinking outside of the box and being a good partner.

When you're a good partner, people want to work with you.

So thanks to you and your team for being good partners, and I'm looking forward to seeing the animals in the kennels.

Thank you.

Council Merwanse.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Um, also just want to echo the gratitude for you all's leadership and helping us find a way to bring the community into supporting our animal control facility, supporting the animals.

Um, as you mentioned, I know you all are working within the confines of a shoe string budget as the growing needs are, you know, rising in regards to how you're receiving an increased number of animals, and as you mentioned, still trying to maintain that no-kill status.

Um, I don't know if we're gonna be entertaining um next steps around priorities, but I at least want to name I know this is one piece of of many needs that our animal control facility has.

And for me, um, I know on our capital um or in our capital program, a big piece too is making sure you all can have a new home to accommodate not only, you know, increased numbers of animals, but also having a 21st century um facility space to carry out the services that you're doing at a very high quality level.

Um, and I will name that will be a priority of mine to make sure that we are protecting that funding stream, very much connected to the first item too around um making sure we're not divide diverting funds for critical services like this and some projects where we can find alternatives to meet those needs as well, particularly related to our police department.

So I'm just really excited to see this come forward as again, you all being innovative, community centered, and making sure that we care for our animals and maybe we can have a resolution.

Can we bring have some pets?

So, no, let me stop.

Present the resolution with some pets at hand, um, as well for some council therapy or pet therapy.

Thank you.

Council pet therapy.

Thank you, councilmember.

Yeah, yeah, go over there to present the resolution and hold a cat.

There we go.

Oh, yeah, no, whatever you want to do.

Oh, absolutely.

But the point to do it as a group for the therapeutic effects.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

I'll move approval of this.

I don't see no further discussion on the motion to approve.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any obsession that item carries.

I'll also acknowledge that we've been joined by Councilmember Rainville.

Councilmember Rainville, were you able to vote on the other items?

Yeah, I did vote in the okay, perfect.

Great.

Just making sure.

Thank you.

All right.

Colleagues, next item is item number 17.

It's approving a legislative directive related to the collaboration between the police department and the federal government on the Homeland Security Task Force.

This is an item being brought by myself, Councilman Vice Chair Stevenson and Council President Payne.

Uh open record request made by both mainstream and citizen journalists revealed in late April 2026 that the MPD participated on a Homeland Security Task Force.

The agreement provides that the FBI can pay overtime costs for officers who work on the detection, investigation, and prosecution of crimes against the United States.

The agreement does not define what constitute crimes against the United States as interpreted by the Trump administration.

This directive is inquiring into this task force and any other agreement with federal law enforcement agencies that were not brought before the council.

This is something that is important that has raised a lot of concerns in the public.

And it would just be great to get more information on these reimbursements and the work that are happening here.

One of the main concerns that I have is what protocols do we have in place in the police department in the city of Minneapolis when our law enforcement gets deputized by the federal government, what rules they have to follow, who is enforcing our city separation laws regardless.

I think I hear the concerns from the constituents that are present that when you deputize our law enforcement with the federal government, we need to make sure that there are strong protections in place to make sure that there isn't a violation of human rights.

So I at least wanted to bring this forward with my colleagues and hoping we can get more information just so the public can be more aware of what these agreements are.

And if we see a need to push for changes, that would be something that would be welcomed.

Next up, I'll pass it to Councilmember Wansey.

Yeah, thank you, Chair Chavez.

I just want to say thank you to the authors of this legislative directive and for bringing this forward.

I think, you know, since Trump's uh second presidential tenure started, uh, residents have made it clear that they want to see no collaboration whatsoever or coordination whatsoever happened between our police department and our federal um agents as it pertains to detaining, kidnapping, terrorizing not only our immigrant neighbors, but as we know our the targeting of our immigration uh neighbors then be gone becomes a catch-all for terrorizing um non-immigrant neighbors as well as shown throughout the recent federal occupation.

Um so I just want to say thank you all for bringing this forward so we can get further um information about what are some of the loopholes that we're overlooking, just as we saw with our sanctuary or sorry, our separation um ordinance that does allow for either that perceived collaboration um through MPD carrying out crowd control, all the things that signals um to our residents that there is a sense of uh collaboration.

And I think particularly getting some follow-up on um what happened on June 3rd, 2025, where you know, we saw federal agents swarm our immigrant uh businesses and neighbors on Lake and Bloomington.

Um, you during uh what was told to us as a non-immigration raid, um, but we then found out that you know, the department of Homeland Security was involved, ICE was involved, and in many ways.

That June 3rd operation was used as a testing ground for what they would then carry out throughout the federal occupation that started in December.

And what would we as a city allow?

What our state leaders will allow if we did not hold them accountable and did not get these loopholes closed.

That doesn't allow for any city personnel to make it um seem that we tolerate ICE coming into our communities and separating families and destroying businesses and making life just generally hard and creating lifelong trauma for our residents.

And I am just so grateful that this is a continuation of responding to residents who have been on the front lines of resisting the Trump's attack on our communities and making sure that we as city leaders are doing everything that we can to not support any potential collaboration complicity to really further that resistance that's making us a national uh model for resistance.

So I just wanted to say thank you all for your leadership on this.

And I'm looking forward to hopefully a rapid response to this legislative directive that can give us some concrete answers and potentially some action steps.

Vice Chair Stevenson.

Yeah, this may be a little uh late to the party, but I was just I was just thinking, and and I don't know if anyone is here to to speak to this item or to hear about this item, but um one other thing that would be good for us to know is what kind of um transparency measures uh our officers are um when they're in collaboration with HSI.

What's what's going on in terms of transparency measures?

I'm thinking back to previous task force where officers weren't required to wear body cam devices, uh, and that that caused troubles in our city, uh, particularly around the uh killing of Winston Smith.

So um if someone uh either now or at an at a later date could report back on what kinds of accountability and transparency measures there are uh for our officers who are participating in this in this, that would also be super helpful.

Uh council member once.

Thank you, Vice Chair Stevenson for flagging that.

I did want to also raise this piece too that uh this uh body pass a legislative directive um that asks for information of how um the city is um setting up systems to um capture unlawful behaviors by federal agents when they are um in our city and in our communities, and we have still yet to get a return date or presentation date from OCS on this.

Um I know this is also similarly important to our residents in regards to how MPD is sharing data or surveillance footage um with federal agencies, especially when we know those agencies are prone to lying about how they are about their conduct in our communities.

So, this is another area of like data sharing in itself that is really important, and if we're truly all about holding these agents accountable so that they don't think they can just come in and do whatever they want and make sure we have protocols for our residents to protect themselves if their rights are being violated by federal um ICE agents.

I would like a staff memo to also request when are we getting that presentation back related to that item?

Because I think that complements this as the points raised by Vice Chair Stevenson.

I added myself back on queue and Vice Chair Stevenson.

We can connect offline, see if we need to add more language onto this legislative directive ahead of full council, or if this directive would be enough for that.

We can connect with the police department.

Uh also what does it look like for our settlement agreement to be enforced when our police department is being deputized by the federal government as well?

So we can have more conversations ahead of full council.

All right, colleagues, and then for the memo, do we did we get that?

Great.

No.

May you repeat it once more, please.

Sure.

Uh I would like the administration's um presentation uh date for the legislative directive tied to um the city's response to unlawful um actions taken by federal ICE agents.

And I can also send you the actual limbs file via teams.

All right.

Seeing no further discussion, I'll move this item for approval and on the motion to approve.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstention, that motion is forwarded to the full council.

Our next item is number 18, receiving a report regarding the internal review of the shooting of Davis Maturity.

This was was presented at Calm and referred to this committee to continue the discussion.

Colleagues, does anybody have any discussion on this item?

Otherwise, I'll just receive and file it and go on to the related topic, which is next.

All right, colleagues.

With that, um I will receive and file that report.

I'll direct the clerk to that.

Our next item is number 19, approving a legislative directive related to the maturity lucher after action reviews quarterly updates that is being authored by myself, Vice Chair Stevenson, and Councilmember Wandsley.

And that's the reason for this report is there was a lot of recommendations that were given on these after action reviews, and I think it is important that as the body of the public health safety and equity committee that we are tracking any of the proposed changes to policies, procedures, training protocol, staffing issues, 911 emergency response, disparat policies and procedures, and other recommendations to make sure that uh we address the concerns that were highlighted in the after action review.

So I just wanted to at least highlight the reason for this legislative directive.

It'll be an opportunity for us to make sure that recommendations as a council are being implemented and that there is strong oversight.

Are there any questions, comments?

Alright.

I'll move the item for approval and seeing over for discussion on the motion to approve.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstention that motion carries to the full council meeting.

Our next item is number 20, receiving the first report on the implementation of the rental license ordinance.

I'll invite inspection services director, April, to present that.

Good afternoon, Chair Chavez and Council members.

My name is April Bogart.

I'm the director of inspection services.

I'm here today in response to the legislative directive on rental licenses.

The legislative directive requested an update on regulatory services implementation of a new rental licensing ordinance that was approved in 2025.

Set to go into effect on January 1st.

The new ordinance requires applications for rental licenses of properties in the highest risk tier or those subject to rental licensing conditions to go before city council for consideration.

To understand our implementation of this ordinance and who it impacts, I'd first like to take a step back and provide a deeper understanding of what tiering is, why we have it, and what it means for property owners and renters.

Our rental license inspection program is fairly unique in that we categorize rental properties into three different tiers.

The tier impacts how frequently we inspect a property and also the rental license fee that is paid by the property owners.

Tiering is intended to provide renters with transparency about the places they call home, and it's designed to help us allocate more attention to the properties that need it most.

In terms of what each tier means, tier one properties are considered well maintained as they meet the minimum housing code, and generally we plan to inspect those every eight years.

Tier two properties are still considered well maintained, but they do have some documented issues that may impact renter safety and livability, and generally we plan to inspect those once every five years.

Tier three properties may be poorly maintained, and they do have documented issues that impact renter health and safety.

Those are inspected annually.

So how do we determine the properties tier?

The process for determining the properties tier is much simpler on paper than it is operationally.

In short, the first step is to do a two-year look back at all of the records at the property.

We score 11 different factors that have points assigned for each of those factors, and those total scores determine the properties condition and the tier level.

So here are some examples of the 11 elements that get scored and factored into tiering.

As you can see, we look at a variety of factors, including code violations for life safety, quality of life, nuisance conditions at the property, the number of reinspections and administrative citations it takes to achieve compliance at the property, whether or not property owners are paying their rental license fees on time, and if they have special assessments or authorizations, and whether there are any license conditions or license revocations.

Some of these factors contribute only to the rental license fee, and some of them contribute to both the tier and the fee level.

So with that as our foundation, I'll now address some of the specifics in the legislative directive.

Currently, we have just over 23,000 rental licenses in the city.

Operationally, we have decided that those impacted by the new rental license ordinance will be both tier three properties and those with rental license conditions.

So currently that's about 75 properties.

So 75, approximately 75 is our working number for right now.

We think this number feels a little bit low based on what we're hearing from community and what we're seeing out there.

We know that our tiering system is not working the way it is intended.

So I think it's also important to remember that tiering doesn't tell the whole story of what is happening at the property.

And while some code violations might feel very impactful to renters, they're not always life safety issues.

So the way we're weighting tiering right now, they have less of an impact.

And secondly, the way we're tiering right now means that tiering doesn't always reflect the building's condition at this exact moment because it's based on records from just the last two years.

So we are undertaking a very robust and multi-year process to help us address these challenges with tiering.

Part of the legislative directive included the geographic distribution of the high-risk properties.

So you can see on these heat maps that the tier three properties are fairly spread out throughout the city.

And I do want to point out that even though we're focusing on the tier three properties right now, I don't want to lose sight that most of the properties in the city are tier one properties.

They are in good condition, and rental property owners are doing their part to meet or exceed minimum standards for safe and healthy housing.

So as I mentioned, we are working through a multi-year analysis and engagement process to make tiering work better for everyone.

We'll be providing a project overview at a council round table in June.

Oops.

So we'll have a round table coming up where we can dig in a little bit deeper on this.

So, like I mentioned, this new ordinance goes into effect on January 1st of 2027.

A critical step in implementation will be working with council to pursue a technical amendment so that the ordinance language fulfills the spirit in which it was enacted.

We were recently informed that under the current phrasing, licenses up for renewal will not be impacted, and we know this is not what the intent was.

So we will be working on some amendment language so we can get that corrected.

Operationally, our work on implementation has focused on identifying which properties we think will be impacted, project planning, um, identifying implementation questions, such as any adjustments that we need to make to the license renewal cycle, uh, internal timing for changes that might be needed for our data systems to make this ordinance implementation work.

And then we know we need to do some education and notification to property owners.

Um we are also acutely aware that staff capacity is a potential challenge for us here.

We are working hard to streamline our internal processes, um, but even without added responsibilities, our staff who are working on this are already stretched beyond capacity.

Um in summary, we're still in the early stages of implementing the new rental license ordinance.

Um, and as we continue, we are committed to the spirit of this ordinance to benefit the community, and we will keep those who are impacted up to date so they know where we're at and what to expect as we near the effective date.

Thank you for your time today.

I'll stand for questions.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Yeah.

Uh thank you, Chair Chavez.

Um, really excited uh for this presentation as the co-author or as lead author of the original um ordinance called stop.

Is it tier uh stop slumlords basically?

Um that said though, I I absolutely am looking forward to the June council uh round table, only because I um I think this body, of course, wants to make sure that we are upholding a standard of quality housing for every resident across um the city, and even seeing that those dotted lines are concentrated in certain pockets of the city that are largely more diverse, usually low income, and your zip code, your economic background or your racial identity shouldn't dictate if you have access to quality housing or not.

And landlords should know that that is a standard and that is an expectation, and our ordinances should not just reflect the spirit of that, but reflect the intention of holding that standard and enforcing it.

So I look forward to working closely with you all around whatever amendments that you're considering, um, and also of any financial resources that's needed.

Um, we of course never want staff capacity to be used as a barrier for making sure that residents don't get the type of quality housing that they deserve and that they're currently not being provided based off of our existing tiering structure and based off of how some of those that's currently in tier three have not and have basically been given kind of a pass to deny those residents the quality housing that they deserve.

Um, so we want to make sure any amendments of this ordinance stays within the line of its intention, which is to hold those landlords accountable and not to create any free pass for segregated housing conditions in our city.

Um so I'm really excited to do further work on this and do again, as you mentioned, further outreach to let residents know you have this as a protection and that the city is here not only with um this policy measure, but we have a whole host of other protections to support you if you are not being given the type of housing that you deserve, or if your rights are being violated by your landlords.

So I'm excited to have many more updates in the future as we work to strengthen this ordinance.

Councilmember Whiting.

Thank you, Chair Chavez, and thank you, Director, for the presentation.

I'm catching up to speed here, and so I appreciated uh the presentation.

Just a kind of quick questions as kind of looking through some of uh the ordinance changes and kind of the way we kind of tier these systems out.

Uh, I was doing a little bit of research here uh that we used to have kind of in the past, uh like a quarterly list that would kind of score, use a data metric of kind of the worst landlords in the city.

Does that still metric exist?

Did we move away from that?

Um, and if there is, I know we have like our policy desk or our uh violation dashboard, um, but it was unsure if there's like a list anymore.

Um, Chair Chavez, Councilmember Whiting, I think maybe what you're referring to is something we call the good cause list.

Um, that is something that we're also looking at potentially updating.

Um it's a list of it's slightly different in that we look at properties by portfolio.

So we look at the entire portfolio under an ownership and assess all of the violations and try to get a sense of whether or not there are problems across the portfolio.

Um that I think we have we have taken off of our website as we work through some changes.

That is also part of this uh update to tiering.

Great.

Yeah, the the article I'm reading reading in the Star Tribune article back from 2015.

It says the quarterly list now features 124 of the most troublesome rental properties in the city based on factors such as unpaid fines, police calls, condemnation letters, delinquent taxes, uh, etc.

Um, and then it's the 108 property owners with too many violations, must talk with city inspection staff and develop a plan to fix these problems before they can obtain additional rental licenses.

I have no idea of the context and background of that, and I was just wondering if we have anything similar to that at the same time.

I think it's the good cause.

Okay.

And we'll work on getting that back up on the website.

Perfect.

That's helpful.

Thank you so much.

Yep.

Thank you for the presentation, Director Bogard.

Seeing no further discussion, I will uh ask the clerk to file that report.

And before we head on to item number 21, I asked the assistance by the clerks.

Uh, I want to acknowledge that we've been joined uh today by Mr.

Maturi, who was actually here for an item number 18, an item pertaining to him.

So, colleagues, I'd like to suspend the rules to allow Mr.

to address the public health, safety and equity committee.

But before I do that, I would I would I think I could just say without objection, does anybody have objections here?

You may join us if you wish to address the public health safety and equity committee.

Oh right now.

Yeah.

Hello, all of you.

Um, Davis Monterry.

Um I'm here to speak about my experience with uh Minneapolis police and uh with my neighbor John.

Um before my shooting, um, we moved into my house about uh that was September, August of 2024.

You know, um I, you know, we were happy, you know.

I was excited.

First time homeowners, um, you know, it was the best time of my life.

Um about a month, month and a half after I moved in.

Um I had my first encounter with my neighbor.

Um it was negative.

Uh violent.

There were threats, and I made a police call.

The officer who showed up to my house was an officer who I had an interaction with, an officer who racially profiled me about three months prior to that.

It it having a call for help, in it having to call 911 in my time of need and be presented with that officer.

It was shocking, but not very not shocking at all when you're a black when you're a black person living in this city.

Living in my home the past, during that time for that year, you know, I I never know what I would come come home to.

You know, coming home after a long day of work, it should be exciting.

It should be something you look forward to.

But I had to live at the end of every day with a coming home with a dark cloud hanging over my house.

The home no longer brought me joy and happiness.

It brought me dread, fear, and terror.

Something as simple as mowing the lawn or my wife, you know, planting some flowers, you know, it required preparation.

She couldn't step out of her home and do yard work without me being there.

You know, I'd be ready.

You know, something something as simple just stepping out and, you know, sitting in your front, sitting in your front lawn, you know, it became a matter of life and death.

It when I think about it, it's just insane that I was living like that for so long.

Just constant terror, dread, I couldn't sleep, you know.

I I I still don't understand, I still don't understand how I did it.

It's still just so shocking when I think about you know, all the times that I had to call 911 uh dozens of dozens of times, and like three dozen dozen times, you know, and I remember telling my boss it and I knew anybody I told that they just wouldn't believe it because it was just that crazy, you know.

And dealing with the violence and the threats, and you know, there was a point in time where he poured human waste through my mail slot and to come home after after a long day of work and be presented with that.

It's a level of foul, I wouldn't wish I'm my worst enemy.

You know, I I still have nightmares about that.

Like it's it's such a grotesque act, and to have something like that just discarded and have nobody care, it's it's disgusting.

You know, you do everything right, you work hard, you pay your taxes, you know, you're a productive member of the society, and still you're denied any sort of protection.

You know, it was me against this terrorist, this racist terrorist, and I deluded myself into thinking that the officers who showed up to my house eventually would get the message and try to do something.

And it wasn't until I was attacked by my neighbor, and the responding officer told me to just move, that it really struck me that they don't care about my life.

In fact, it it it got so bad, it still feels like they were trying to kill me as well because if you saw someone fighting for the lives, someone who was having knives, guns pointed at them, and you do nothing, I you know, and I would I would think they were working in concert with them as well.

It you know, after dealing with so many different officers, I don't know how many.

On varying levels, and getting the same response, it's it's disgusting, you know.

I I wouldn't treat my worst enemy that way.

You know, and this whole experience has ruined my life.

You know, I've turned into someone I can't recognize, you know.

I don't recognize myself, I barely leave my house, you know, I don't sleep, gain a bunch of weight, I lost my job, I haven't worked for two years, you know, I barely see my friends and my loved ones, you know, I have to take all sorts of drugs, I have therapists, I have, you know, the whole shebang.

And it sucks.

And even though I've had to go through all of this, I still see zero accountability, you know.

I remember being in the hospital and thinking to myself, great, finally, I woke up thinking, great, finally, he's gonna be arrested.

And that didn't happen for five days.

You know, I was forced to watch the police chief and the mayor throw dirt in my name and blame me for getting shot.

That press conference was insane, you know, and I thank the citizens of Minneapolis for rallying behind me and demanding that something be done.

And it's shameful for a police chief and a mayor to go on TV and and treat uh an innocent victim like that.

You know, it was so shameful that the mayor deleted his part of the video, uh, his part of the video in which he supported what the police chief had stated.

It's shameful, embarrassing.

And it it felt like they were kicking kicking a man when he's down, you know, at his lowest.

You know, I'm sitting there with a bullet, bullet in my neck, shattered spine, broken ribs, collapsed lung, tubes coming out of all sorts of orces, and this is the response that I got, you know, it I still can't believe they doubled down like that, you know.

It every time I think of that, I just feel a rage inside my chest, a fire of a thousand sons.

It just makes me want to just explode, you know, and still, even despite this audit, it doesn't seem like there's any sort of accountability.

And it how much longer are we gonna have to deal with this?

You know, it especially saddened me to know that even after this happened to me, it happened to the other two women who were who sadly lost their lives when they begged for help, and they received none, and it cost them their lives, and nearly cost me my lives, no thanks to them, you know.

When I needed help, I didn't call anyone, I called my wife.

She responded, she came came and found me bleeding to death on the ground.

And that's not a position that anybody should ever be in.

And I hope that one day I can become a fraction of who I used to be.

But you know, well, have to see, you know, only hope and pray, and I know with a consent decree, and you know, the mayor and folks have stated that, you know, MPD has uh made steps to changing, but I haven't seen it at all.

I have not seen the smidgen, you know at best it's stayed the same and and at times I feel like it's even gotten worse.

You know I witnessed it and I felt it I lived it you know and the racism that I had to deal with day in and day out you know and still having portrayed as a tough between neighbors it's disgusting.

You know I was dealing with a racist and I was dealing with a department that also is racist.

They don't view black life as worthy of protection and the consent decree and my own situation.

I mean that it's for the proof of it you know there's been zero change at all and you know my only hope is that this will spawn some change you know that my suffering wasn't for nothing you know that those two women who lost their lives sadly their deaths were for nothing and yeah thank you for your time.

Thank you for being here one of the items that we approved um after this item was quarterly reports on your case and Alice and Lucia's case and our hope is that yes we got an audit I think it's important that this body tracks that audit and make sure that any of those recommendations that were uh recommended to the police and actually get implemented because what we don't want what I don't want is what happened to you what happened to Alice and Lucia what happens to countless neighbors here in the city of Minneapolis to continue to happen.

So I just at least wanted to thank you for being here and you know I think accountability is important and you sharing your story is a part of that accountability so I just thank you for joining us today in committee and want to see if any of my colleagues have any comments before we move on to the last topic uh councilmember onesley I just want to say thank you uh Mr.

Motori for also coming and sharing your experience I know that's not easy uh being in a place that absolutely failed you in your most vulnerable moments um and one thing that I just want to amplify that you shared um in making sure that we're not reducing what transpired in your situation it was not a neighbor to neighbor conflict this was a hate crime committed against you and your family and I think that is also a critical piece of work that needs to be uplifted um at the city of not only just with the police department how are we neglecting to recognize hate crimes when they're being enacted against black residents making sure we have organizations that are equipped and have the expertise to make sure that we're not allowing what happened to you to any other black resident across the city and I I just want to amplify that because you absolutely mentioned that of like at the one of the action steps that was proposed is a neighbor to neighbor mediation program.

And it had to be like that is that that was not the point you had a hate crime you had a racial terrorist who was extended grace more grace than a lot of black people in their most vulnerable moments who was shielded behind the perception of mental distress or mental illness that is often afforded to white people more so than black people and I am grateful that there are people who recognize that and recognize that we are are far behind and truly just saying like that that played a role um and why you were denied five days of response.

So I just wanted to uplift this this was a hate crime.

It's been framed repeatedly in a multitude of ways that has reduced that um and you were targeted because you were black.

And we have, regardless of black people shouldn't have to suffer racial terrorism from their neighbors, from their police department, from any city staff.

They should not have to experience that.

Especially when we're living literally under a clansman in charge of Trump.

So I just want to say you have my commitment to doing everything that I can, and I know with the number of my colleagues on this body to make sure that you, Alison, share Mariah Samuels, and as you mentioned, so many other victims who have been denied service because of their skin color.

That that's not the norm, that that's not the status quo that we continue to preserve and protect here.

Thank you for coming and thank you for sharing this here with us in the public record and in this building in particular.

Um I know what it's like to sit at home and have the days roll by after uh MPT violence.

And I I feel your pain of all of a sudden you wake up and oh my god, a month has gone by, and not even remembering much of what happened in the last month because you're not leaving the house very often.

I I've been there as well, and so I'm I empathize with you on that.

Um I wrote down a quote that you said uh that I'll be keeping with me, and that's I hope one day to be a fraction of who I used to be.

That is devastating to hear.

Absolutely devastating.

I'll be keeping that quote with me.

Um I have one question for you.

You mentioned that, well, what you said was there had been no accountability.

And I was wondering, it doesn't have to be the fullness of your thoughts, and we can have future conversations, but just in this moment, what does accountability look like to you?

Um of the things I'd like to see is uh O'Hara not be reappointed.

Um, there were interactions that I had with officers, um uh one of them being an officer told me to move after I was attacked by John.

Um I I I know through the audit uh uh there were quite a few things that there were quite a few interactions that I had with officers in which they didn't treat me respectfully at all, and I would like those of the officers who committed those actions uh to receive some sort of punishment, um and there were there were definitely quite a few.

Um, and I've heard nothing uh about any of those officers who acted poorly receiving anything uh any sort of even just talking to any sort of even coaching, and so I would like to see that happen.

Okay, um I'll follow up with you about uh the officers that you're mentioning here if you filed any complaints if if we need to do that.

And also I uh I would like it to be noted that uh the mayor deleted his part of that press conference after the public backlash.

The the press conference in which uh and what would you like to have happen?

Uh I would just like that to be acknowledged publicly.

And I would I would I would like a apology, public apology from the mayor for that.

Anything else on your mind?

We can always talk about this more in the future, so don't feel like you have to get it all out now, but anything else on your mind?

Um I have a few other um other things, but yeah, I can discuss that with you later.

Okay, thank you.

And thank you again for being here.

Thank you.

Um I don't see anybody else on queue.

Clerks, given that I suspended the rules for this, do I need to do anything?

Or is it we can go on to the next topic?

Okay, great.

Good.

All right, all right, colleagues.

Now we're on to the last item, which is number 21.

Receiving a report responding to a legislative directive about drones as a first responder pilot program by community safety chief of staff, Andrew Scugman to begin that presentation, while also knowing that this was an item brought forward by Councilmember Vita.

So not sure if you want to talk before or after.

Okay, sounds good.

Good afternoon, Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson, Council members for the record.

My name is Annie Scugman.

I'm the chief of staff for the Office of Community Safety.

Thank you for the opportunity to present today on drones as first responders or DFR.

Simply put, drones as first responders are drones that launch immediately to certain 911 calls arrive before officers or firefighters and provide live videos so first responders know what they're responding to before they get there.

The Office of Community Safety in general, MPD in particular, has been exploring the deployment of drones in this manner for almost two years.

During that time, we worked with multiple vendors.

We've shared our calls for service data to see where in the city, which areas in the city would be most beneficial for this technology.

And we've evaluated how a pilot project could operate in the city of Minneapolis.

Due to staffing, due to resources, due to other operational priorities, we ultimately put this work aside, at least temporarily.

So I do want to thank Councilmember Vitaw for bringing this legislative directive forward and helping us uh move this conversation ahead.

Um today's presentation will outline a proposed pilot project in the fourth precinct, but it's also important to uh to understand that this technology has potential applications across the city uh and beyond policing.

I I'd like to note that this technology is not intended uh to replace human interaction.

Um that remains essential in policing and in public safety.

What it can do, however, is help determine when officers or first responders are truly needed and avoid sending personnel to situations where by the time they arrive, there is ultimately nobody there to interact with.

In a department MPD that continues to face significant challenges, we believe that matters.

Um if technology can safely clear certain calls or provide better information before officers arrive, it potentially frees up officers to respond more quickly to other calls for service and other potential crime victims in our community.

In addition to MPD, you'll also hear from fire, 911 and regulatory services today because many city departments, not just MPD, could potentially benefit from this technology.

Cities across the country, across our state are using this technology in this way, and they're seeing some great successes, and we'll talk about that.

Ultimately, this conversation today we hope is about exploring whether technology can help us respond faster, uh, improve situational awareness, increase officer and resident safety, and deliver city services more efficiently for the people of Minneapolis.

With that, I'll turn things over to Commander Tom Campbell of the Minneapolis Police Department to begin our presentation.

Welcome.

Thanks, uh Chief of Staff Schugman.

Good afternoon.

Uh Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson, and Council members.

Um my name is Thomas Campbell.

I am the commander over the special operations division.

Uh part of that I oversee the MPD drone unit.

I also have along with me Sergeant Roger Moa.

Uh, he runs the day-to-day operations for our drone unit that is up and running for the MPD.

Uh I'm I'm pretty excited today.

I'm going to be giving you a presentation on the drones as first responder pilot project that has a potential to benefit multiple city departments, uh, which would include Minneapolis Fire Regulatory Services, the police department, and Minneapolis 911 and many other uh others that we can uh we don't know uh quite yet what those are.

Um just a level set, just so you're for your awareness.

The MPD has used drones in the city since 2022.

Uh we currently have 12 pilots that have Part 107 licenses, which allow them to fight fly drones.

Um our current drone fleet consists of 12 exterior drones and uh 10 interior drones.

The total missions from our start date in fall 2022 uh to now have been 584 missions, uh which would include patrol assists and um high research warrants.

To date, there's been zero, no uh citizen complaints about MPD drone usage.

And currently, just for your knowledge, uh we fly either from our drone command van or we fly out of our squad trunks.

Um covering again what is DFR, what is drone as first responders?

It's the proactive use of drones to immediately respond to 9-1 calls for service.

Um upon arrival, live video is streamed back to our dispatch where we have our pilots seated.

Uh, they then provide real-time situation situational awareness to officers who are in route to those calls.

Uh first responders watch what is happening in real time before they get there, which allows for a more informed response or even the clearing of the call prior to uh squads even having to go out.

Um, the proposed DFR pilot project would be a free 75-day trial period conducted in the fourth precinct, and that is driven by data while we selected that area.

Uh the proposed partnership is with SkyDio.

And just for your information, SkyDio is the largest drone manufacturer to date in the United States.

They're currently working with five agencies in Minnesota with a DFR program, which would be St.

Paul, Duluth, Rochester, Minnetonka, and Brooklyn Park.

Skydio also is working with 236 other agencies nationwide.

And to note they are working with 24 of the uh major city chief departments across the nation.

The purpose of DFR uh is to reduce MPD response time to uh 911 calls.

We're gonna see if we can clear, we'd have the ability to clear low-level uh 911 calls for service, so then we wouldn't have to have an actual police response to those calls.

Um, this inevitably will increase our officer safety, but with that real time information coming in, and it will overall uh protect community safety even more.

We're also looking to work with these other uh departments throughout the city to improve their effectiveness and their efficiency on what the what jobs that they do.

Um how many drones and where again we said the trial location will be in the fourth precinct if it's approved, and they'll be launching from uh fire station 14.

Uh the goal there is to also on top of station 14.

If it's a go-ahead, um, we're gonna put two drone docks on top of there, and then they'll be responding to the fourth precinct calls for service.

Um, as a chief of staff Schugman noted, we uh gave SkyDio um all of our 2025 calls for service.

Um they looked at priority zero and one calls.

They noted that in that uh fourth precinct, they had 33,402 calls for service in that priority zero and one selection.

Within that data, um, SkyDio was able to take that information and they determined that with just those two drone docks on station 14, those two docks could have serviced 4,643 of those priority 001 calls under two minutes.

So 120 seconds or less, they could have been on site on a priority 001 call.

The drones, so the SkyDio X10 is like the gold standard for the drones that are out there today.

They're rated for inclement weather, rain or snow.

We can fly them, approximate 45-minute flight time.

So, two of those drones up there, and they can either go on separate calls or they can work off of one call and always have that operational overwatch and video feed.

They'll be equipped with a parachute, so if for any reason there was an issue that a drone was um had a malfunction, a parachute auto deploys and it safely goes to the ground uh for recovery.

Um they'll have police markings, police, uh red and blue lights running at all times.

So if somebody looked up in the sky, saw one flying at 200 feet, they could see the lights on it.

They would know that it's a police, um, police drone.

And they operate under Wi-Fi and cellular networks in concert, so the possibility of them losing um connectivity is next to zero.

Um, I'd like Director Hotting to quick come up from she's the director of MECC to speak on the benefits of this in her department.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Chavez, council members.

Looking at this from the aspect of some of the benefit that can show up in the 911 center is even going beyond some of the priorities there on one calls.

We look at some of the lower level priority calls that do take a lot of time for getting officers out there, such as a vehicle that's been parked out in front of someone's house for the last day.

Oftentimes we'll get someone out there to look at it, and that vehicle's gone.

This is something a drone could be able to fly over, let us know that vehicle is no longer there, it's not a response out to that location.

Another really important piece that this can be used for is if we have a missing person, we have to contact the state patrol and ask them to get the helicopter up into flight for us to help look in certain locations for them.

That can take an hour or longer to get that helicopter fly up and flying where a drone can be over an area, as he said, in just a matter of moments to be able to look and see.

And we've had times where we've had children, especially near water that seconds could really have made a difference if we got out there with uh some type of sight on them to know where the children are at.

Also beneficial when somebody's in the river.

Sometimes when we get a call that says, I see somebody out in the river, it looks like they're having difficulty.

I'm standing by this bank and they do their best to describe.

But if you're walking along the bank, oftentimes it's not easy to tell exactly where they're at.

This could get uh location and a spot for us much quicker to get response.

The fire department in itself, we could also see a big difference with if there's a technical rescue, somebody falls off of the side of the cliff at Mini Haha Falls.

This helps them to be able to get a view of what kind of sources, what kind of resources do we need to get down to that person?

Um these are all calls that come into the 911 Center that could be beneficial for us to have another tool to be able to send some resources out there.

Um with that, I think I will be turning it over to are you commit to Tom Campbell again?

Thank you.

Welcome.

Uh thanks, Director.

And just to note on the screen here, there are a couple photos.

This is um an active, uh I'll say it's an active photo, but it's just a photo of MECC down in dispatch.

We currently have uh two drone pilot stations already set up ready to go if we get a thumbs up on the program.

Um for the MPD staffing piece for those pilot stations.

We are looking at having um our drone, our current drone pilots cycling in uh during the during the trial uh period, learning with uh the SkyDio like their IT team.

Um, they'd be able to come in and help us uh learn the ins and outs of running the program.

Uh but these hours are adjustable as we uh become more uh familiar with the program.

Uh data collection, uh, what will be tracked on this?

So it'd be drone dispatch time as soon as a call comes into MECC.

How quickly we can dispatch a drone out to scene, the arrival time of the drones, and could we have code for the scene, made the scene safe prior to even a squad arriving on scene.

Um, and we want to compare that data, and we're still gonna send a physical squad out with every call.

So we're just trying to see if you know we could have done this without the squad, but um during the trial period, we're still sending a physical squad to all these calls.

Um, and with every call, we we are uh keeping track of all the analytics, the um after action reports with these and MPD, any kind of PIMS uh reports that have to be completed with them.

I'll I'll discuss this um shortly, but we we are um only authorized to operate under state law, so everything we do is highly regulated, but just for people's um I guess sense of security uh kind of a thing.

But when we launch these, we can we can launch them by remote pilot or autonomously.

Um they'll leave the drone dock.

The camera stays at the horizon.

They'll never pan the camera down until they get on scene.

Um, once they're on scene, the remote pilot takes control of the camera, can you know see what's going on, get direction from officers on the ground or fire whoever's out there that needs assistance.

They can clear the call, it goes uh the camera goes back horizontally to 180 degrees to the horizon, it returns to the drone dock, lands in the drone dock, and then it immediately starts uploading all video evidence into evidence.com, which um to note, I guess um Scottio works directly with our axon ecosystem, so our body cams, our tasers, our fusis, mapping system, everything.

It's it all works together seamlessly.

Um any video that comes in that the pilot determines to be have evidentiary value will be um held by state law.

So we can either delete it.

If it has no evidentiary value, we have to delete within seven days.

That is um mandated by state law.

We can actually tighten that up if we wanted to and say, hey, we can go down to three days and delete any unnecessary videos, and that's what uh the city of Minnetonka does.

They do a three-day window.

Um, but us working in compliance with our MDHR settlement agreement, uh, through a leafA and through the city attorney's office.

Uh, we've determined that any evidentiary um valued video will be held indefinitely.

Um incidents where MPD could respond to, again, it'd be those priority zero one calls.

Um, and as we work through this uh program, we you know we could definitely go to the lower priority calls, um, but anything that comes through 911, we could send a drone out to.

So persons with weapons, medical and fire calls, um, accidents, auto theft calls, burglaries, robberies, sounds of shots, um, sounds of shots, shot spotter calls, foot and vehicle chases, shooting, stabbing, suspicious persons, missing persons, um, and even things that we know it's a huge concern in North Minneapolis is um illegal dumping calls we can we can send drones out on.

Um I'd like to have uh assistant fire chief Wes Van Vickel step up, good afternoon, Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson, and council members.

I'm Wes Van Vickel.

I'm the assistant chief of operations for the fire department.

Um, I do see this like Tom said as being a force multiplier for us, so we are able to maximize some of the efficiencies where this will get us there faster and allow us to streamline our responses.

One of the ones is aerial recon aerial recon and monitoring at fires.

A lot of times we need to see above so we can see the changing conditions on the roof to keep the people operating underneath it safe.

So, for instance, at uh commercial structure, seeing the HVAC equipment, seeing what's on top of there, so we're not having them operate under a potential collapse.

Hazmat recon.

I would look at like Hawkins Chemical, where it's a big big area.

Instead of sending two of our personnel in to see what type of container is leaking, what is leaking, what's being released, we could put a drone over that, get an aerial picture, and come up with a plan to see how we could safely mitigate that without putting people in harm's way.

Um, like Director Hodney said, special operations, uh on the river banks, being able to see whether we have a low angle rescue, high angle rescue.

Are we able to lower that person to the riverbank and take them away by boat, or can we bring them up to the top and safely get them away in just an ambulance?

Water rescue, especially on the river.

The call comes in a lot of times where that's at is not where the person is found.

They're found down river away, so having that drone follow them would allow us to get to the area we need to be quicker to affect a rescue.

Thermal imaging for hot spots.

This actually was what allowed us to put the fire on 15th and central out.

We're able to get above it underneath all that debris.

They were able to see where there was fire burning.

We were able to get some heavy machinery in there to move that debris and put that fire out and get rid of those three days of smoke.

And then also multi-vehicle accidents.

Currently, we send uh engine and a ladder.

If we have multiple people trapped, this would be able to get there.

We would also be able to then send another rescue crew to more effectively get the people that are trapped out rather than having to wait for them to respond.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chief.

Um, next, we'd have Regulatory Services Director Ahmed Adal.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, it'd be Director of Inspection Services, April Bogard.

Welcome back, Director Bogart.

Thank you, Chair Chavez and Council members.

When we were asked to think about how drones might be useful for inspection services, I posed this question to my staff and got a huge list of potential ways that drones could be useful to us.

I was actually a little bit surprised by what they came up with.

I think one of the one of the big things that's already been talked about is the illegal dumping on the north side.

I think that could be very useful for us.

Also illegal auto repair.

Like some of my colleagues have said, oftentimes we get these complaints, and by the time staff are able to respond, the activity is no longer taking place.

So having a faster response would be uh beneficial to us.

Um I think it could be particularly useful in monitoring vacant buildings, large commercial properties, especially that are vacant.

Sometimes we have a hard time identifying where people are getting into the buildings.

And so having drones being able to see a little bit higher and a little bit deeper would be very helpful for us.

We often have challenges with nuisance abatements uh in people's backyards.

If we can't see over the fence, we sometimes have a hard time writing orders.

Drones would definitely give us line of sight that we don't have right now.

Um, as some of my colleagues have already said, during emergency hazardous situations, fires and structural failures, drones could be very useful.

Um exterior inspections of high-rise buildings, drones would be very helpful.

Being able to see flat roofs that might be in disrepair would be very um beneficial for us.

Like I mentioned, the large abandoned properties, grain silos, places that become um attractive nuisances for urban explorers.

Being able to use drones would be very helpful in those situations.

Uh large city events or pyrotechnic events, um, drones might be useful there as well.

And then as has been mentioned already, uh viewing hazmat spills or leaks.

If we have a report of spill on the river, having a drone, being able to um help us see that a little bit better would also be helpful.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chair.

Uh, next, I'd like to have uh regulatory services director Ahmed Adal speak about uh traffic control.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Chair Chavez, Council members.

My name is Ahmed Adal, and I'm the director of Minneapolis Traffic Control.

And I wanted to touch base um some of the benefits that we could get from the use of uh drones for traffic control.

And one of the main things that will help us uh use uh drones is special events, especially those large events where we manage multiple intersections.

One of the things that we do for our supervisors is they go around each intersections inspecting to make sure that we have everything that we need.

And having a drone, it will give us a real uh time visibility and also an aerial map to kind of identify where we need our resources and also the staffing needs and to make sure that uh we can identify those condition uh points and uh respond uh uh rapidly.

Um another way that we could use is illegal auto repairs and also illegal snow damping, which is really uh major issues uh in many parts of the city.

And one of the things that um impacts how we enforce is we have to witness when the uh events taking place or the activities taking place.

And a lot of the time when we respond to these events, um the event is no longer either going on or it has actually ceased, and it kind of impacts how we enforce that.

So having a drone, we could fly that remotely to uh get a real time and and get um aerial map to also capture the evidence and then follow up with fines uh to identify that.

And something else that we could also benefit from it is um also identify repeat offenders and also hot spots in the city so we can be more proactive when we're enforcing too.

Um the one of the last things that I also wanted to touch base was no emergency enforcement.

As you know, that it's a critical operations, and having a team of 40 uh traffic control agents to cover the entire city, it brings a lot of challenges to make sure that we could make every corner of the city.

So having a drone we could fly to kind of uh get a real-time visibility of the road conditions and also identify some of the uh inaccessible uh roads uh where we could go ahead and and and uh deploy our resources so we can be more responsive uh during those critical uh time and ensure that the streets are clear, clean, and also accessible to everybody.

So that's my time.

Uh thank you, Director.

Um moving on to the regulatory oversight.

Um, so we're we're governed by the FAA, they uh they have complete regulatory control over our drones and our airspace and and how we fly where we can fly.

Um, we're also mandated and um controlled by our state statute 62619 and our department policy.

Um, our the state statute here regulates when uh when a U of Eight drone can be flown um and operated Minnesota.

There's 11 subdivisions here that we can fly under, um, and every flight has to be categorized on when uh or under what uh um subdivision here that we fly under, and it mandates yearly reporting to the BCA.

So every year we have to create that report, send it to the BCA uh for them to go over to make sure that we're flying in compliance.

Um, the state law mandates uh retention laws in Minnesota, which I mentioned um earlier.

Uh it prohibits drones from being utilized for random surveillance, so no uh random surveillance or just random flying around the city.

It has to be under one of these 11 exceptions.

Um the state statute prohibits drones from having facial recognition, and it also prohibits drones from being equipped with any type of type of weapons.

Um, in our department policy, we also have to do quarterly reports to the chief of police regarding our UAV usage.

Um, and then if we're flying currently, if we're flying, um if any of my pilots are flying, if it's outside of these three subdivisions that are on the screen, um they have to call me directly for approval or the rank of deputy chief or higher.

Um this is a really good slide.

Um, this is the public facing transparent transparency dashboard.

So during the um uh if we if we get the trial period uh approved, this uh dashboard will be active during our pilot project.

It tracks all flight data and the reasons for the flight under what subdivision we're flying, and this will be located on the City Talk website for anybody in the community uh to click on to see um when and where and uh under what subdivision we're flying.

Uh in the legislative directives asked about just community engagement.

Well, currently, you know, we fly all the time at the precinct open houses, um, showing the community what we do at the community M stats.

They were there.

Um, our team was there uh to present um our drones, the Peace Internship Academy, and uh and a real cool one that SkyDio does.

Uh they have a program called Scottio for all.

Um they provide uh it's all it's provided free by them, but they bring in their staff, they bring in their drones, and they it allows the community to fly their drones and they teach them exactly um everything about drones.

It's pretty cool.

Um, and then moving into the future, um, having a dedicated drone web page uh for the MPD um would be something for our uh additional community engagement.

Um I just wanted to touch real quick um on outside agency DFR success.

You probably saw it on the news, Minnetonka police has a really good program.

Um the first six months of the program, they've had over 400 DFR flights for 911 calls.

65% of those calls.

The drone was the first on scene, and the feedback from their officers, they said that 90% of their officers said that the um the information that they received for the drone was helpful on their 911 calls, and they were able to clear 20% of their calls without even a patrol response.

San Francisco, much like here, they have a huge problem or had a huge problem with auto theft and theft remotes.

Um they have uh and with in conjunction with their auto theft um task force, they've had a 44% reduction in auto theft and um and auto theft when their drone program was working in concert with it.

They've had over 500 arrests and 166 stolen vehicle arrests.

Uh October 25 to February 26, only 16 weeks.

They had 622 flights, 36 of those uh flights.

Uh the calls were cleared without even a ground unit having to be dispatched.

Um, and 84% of those the drone was the first on scene to arrive.

Uh Redmond, this is Redmond Washington.

This one's pretty cool.

Uh in a full year 2025 stats, uh, they arrived on scene uh in a minute 33 in a 911 call.

80% of the time the drone was the first one on scene.

Um, and kind of to note here they have 113 hours of overtime hours saved, $60,000 cost saving from clearing calls with just a drone.

So those are just a few that uh I selected.

So this slide right here, um, again, I'm really excited about this, the potential moving forward with it.

And if it we do get it up and running, I invite all of you.

I think it'd be great to have you all down to MECC to see how we do it, um, how the pilots are flying, uh, get a real understanding on it, ask questions and just be engaged with um with our people.

Um, and now I guess I'd open it up for any questions that anybody may have.

Thank you so much.

Uh first I'll see if Consumer Vito would like to say a few words.

Um, say words, comments, and then I'll pass to the rest.

What a fantastic presentation.

Those are my first words.

Um I thank you so much, Commander Campbell, and thank you for all the city departments who have collaborated on um the possibilities of how we can improve livability and public safety in our city.

This is really exciting for me because over these last couple of years, I've really been trying to figure out with these departments how we help some of the issues we're facing, like uh longer call times for police response, like um trash dumping, which is hugely impacting North Minneapolis in particular, my ward.

A lot of my colleagues are in queue to ask questions.

I'm gonna let them ask their questions, but I wanted to just say thank you.

This has certainly uh been a long time coming, but this um I I had a um I went to go watch the the drones fly.

They did a preview for me, I think it was last summer, and just to see that we finally gotten here where you can present it to myself and my colleagues, I really do appreciate it.

Yep, thank you.

Uh Council President Payton.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Uh, thank you, Councilmember Vita for authoring this legislative directive.

I think having this type of information is really important.

Um, and I appreciate this presentation.

I think the benefits of it are very self-evident, right?

Um, and I especially hearing about it takes an hour to get the state patrol up, and you could be there within a you know, a minute and a half or less.

Um, the benefits are very clear.

I'm also trying to be really cognizant of the risks, and I see these risks in there's probably more than two categories, but two that are the top of mind for me.

And the first one is around security and vulnerabilities, and I think especially as we look at some of the protections that are enshrined in law, just law just moves so much slower than the technology itself.

Um, and you know, I just even just doing a quick Google search on SkyDio here and vulnerabilities.

You know, one of the vulnerabilities that they've published is um interference with emergency radios.

Now, I happen to serve on the Metro Emergency Services Board, so I have maybe a slightly higher than average understanding of our emergency radio service system.

So we operate at the 800 megahertz, and it sounds like that vulnerability is at the 400 to 450.

I don't know that anybody that we are in jurisdiction with would be on that uh wavelength, but that that's like a known published vulnerability by SkyDio themselves.

I'm more concerned about the unknown vulnerabilities, and I follow along with uh um, I guess for the sake of this conversation, I'll call him like a white hat hacker, uh his name's Ben Jordan.

You should all look him up.

He did some phenomenal reporting on flock vulnerabilities.

And there's a big gap between how the vendors um sell their technology versus what the actual capabilities of those technologies are, versus what the unknown vulnerabilities of those technologies are.

So that's just a broad risk category that I that concerns me.

But I think for the sake of this conversation, I actually want to read directly from the Trump administration's uh counterterrorism strategy just published this month.

Um I'll just read directly from it.

Uh, starting with in addition to cartels and Islamic terrorist groups, our national counterterrorism activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.

We will use all tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent.

We will do the same with the state sponsors of such groups and those governments undertaking lethal plots on US soil or against Americans anywhere.

It's pretty ominous language coming from our federal law enforcement partners.

Um I have a lot of concern from a governance perspective on how we don't end up having a technology platform that is ultimately ultimately managed by a vendor who also has direct relationships with the federal government.

How do we like protect our residents from, you know, under this telling, almost every resident of the city of Minneapolis could be categorized as a terrorist in the way that the rhetoric is used by this federal government.

Um those are the types of things that concern me.

It's not like you can have an answer for how we can, you know, mitigate those risks, but it's a risk that I think we have to take seriously.

Um I would encourage everybody to look up Ben Jordan and read our uh he does YouTube videos, but he did one on Flock, and he just recently did one on a uh like a dog-based drone that law enforcement uses.

I think that one might be a Chinese drone, and I know that SkyDo SkyDio explicitly has a made an America uh strategy, but uh in that one, there were some silent callbacks to servers in China that you know were were kind of hidden within the uh the frame the software of that um of that drone.

So like these are like there's the known risks, there's the known vulnerabilities, but then there are the vulnerabilities that we don't know of.

That's one risk, and then the other risk that I'm really concerned about is um hostile federal government, which sounds hyperbolic, but in Minneapolis, we embodied what it experienced the experience of being occupied by a hostile federal government, and that's a risk that we can't take lightly.

So those are just some comments that I wanted to make sure we're also here as we were looking at not just the benefits but also the risks of this technology.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry.

No, I mean I would I would be interested in exploring exactly what those hostile risks would be, like what I don't know what those would be um at all, but yeah.

I mean, I'm I'm getting to the limits of my technical knowledge and even making that assessment, but I think that um it's an emerging area of risk for all of these technologies, maybe not specific to SkyDio that I know of off the top of my head, but it's something that we need to be actively monitoring.

Got it.

Consul number one.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Um, first, um I'm wanting to know if there has been a cost analysis already done on this, of course, you're proposing at some point for us to consider a 75-day trial post-that, especially since you're having other departments present.

It sounds like you want some type of entreprise-wide contract, so a cost analysis of what that will look like post the 75-day trial.

So we haven't done a full cost analysis.

I mean, everything is, I think moving forward is negotiable and it depends on how we scale it.

So, I I we don't at the moment have a cost analysis on any of this.

Considering y'all are already running or MPD is running into a 23 million dollar deficit.

I think any cost analysis proactively is helpful if you're talking about bringing this in as an operational like line item.

Um, I think starting as a staff memo, then a follow-up with the case examples that she pointed out, um, looking at what were the contracts that they got in place um in their first years for us to then be able to assess also where is our starting range?

Are you looking at a million or so?

I can imagine it's probably gonna be in that.

So just wanted to follow up on that as a staff memo, uh cost analysis uh cost analysis post-trial.

Um also I wanted to get clarity on, and this is going to slide 18 because um originally this was proposition as just the first responder situation, so thinking OCS.

Um, I'm interested in how are these then going to be deployed for the non-MPD and MFD services then, since you all are kind of the hub of it.

Um and especially record or referring to rec services where you're saying you want to use it as a potential tool to verify occupancy.

I'm assuming that occupancy concern is really related to unwanted persons and vacant buildings.

So just trying to figure out how you all talked about that too as you're thinking about contracts.

Uh, because I was a little surprised to see life rec services and some of these other non-first responder programs looped in and want to know the deployment mechanisms for that.

Yep.

Um, so through the chair, um, Councilmember Wandsley.

Um, it's it's definitely regulated under state law.

Um we can, if let's say regulatory services wanted, um, let's say they open well hypothetically they call it open a ticket, right?

They could they could come to us under subdivision 10 um in the state statute, they could in writing request um uh request something.

And if we deem that it's uh something that we could fly under under that subdivision, we would work with them to fulfill whatever they needed.

So you're talking about like real-time tickets then because some of the things that they mentioned also kind of what you're propositioning for um first response is like having on site immediate response.

I usually think of tickets as like 311 where there might be a little bit more of a grace period.

So that's why I'm trying to figure out the real time.

Yeah, um, and then you know, stuff of that nature, other agencies are doing as well.

Like Minnetonka does it.

They work through like public works and they're doing a lot of work with their their enterprise partners, um, which obviously that's what we're trying to do here.

So I guess we would have to leverage maybe some more information from them under under the statute how they do that.

Um again, that's why the 75 day trial period to help us learn and get through these these little hiccups in it to make sure we're doing it legally.

Um, yeah, just doing it legally.

And some of those case examples just referring back to then the cost analysis.

I'm assuming if you're talking about then utilizing this tool for multiple departments, getting a sense of then who's fully paying for this.

Is this now something that will be a share cost amongst REC services, MFD, OCS, however that's happening, and if that's gonna then inflate the total amount for the contract itself, um, and if there's other examples where there's been departments that has multi-kind of or other agencies that have multi-department contracts, like what is the average amount for that type of contract this morning?

And then I just want to make a note for just the uh not even a question of comment, um, referring to uh the snow emergency piece for traffic control.

Um, I just want to clarity if this is also tied to some of the work that we've been trying to do with sidewalk clearing.

I'm just gonna know for like the public record, I rather spend money or actually investing in the citywide sidewalk clearing pilot than like having technological drones drive around.

So I would name that's my priority that I'll be submitting, but I was like, wait, really?

For snow, but okay.

Uh more so of a comment, but those are my two follow-ups for everything else.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Vice Chair Stevenson.

Thank you for.

And before I pass it on to you, Vice Chair.

Sorry, I do see our city attorney on queue, not sure if you wanted to address them before the vice chair speaks.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair, council members.

I just wanted to point out, um, I'm not sure what the status is of any sort of contract or trial, you know, even if it's a zero dollar contract.

Um, I just wanted to remind the council of its own ordinance requiring a public hearing before um acquiring any surveillance technology um or um signing a contract to pro to procure anything like that.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Stephen.

Thank you, City Attorney.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Um thanks for the the presentation.

It was really thorough, really excellent.

I personally found myself oscillating between, wow, this could be extremely useful, and oh my god, this is Big Brother coming to uh ruin our lives.

So um but that's not to say that I don't see many, many, many ways in which this would be valuable.

I wrote down one question that you later answered of stolen cars, people driving around, breaking windows, and you know it's so hard for us to track down where this car, this group, whoever it is doing it.

I mean, that would just be an incredible asset to be able to identify those um incidents quicker and identify how to stop that before they do a rampage between Ward 8 and Ward 11.

Um so there was that.

Um I had did have a question.

Would this count?

You you had noted response times being much lower.

Would this count towards like the general response time uh of MPD?

And the reason I'm asking is because I think uh many constituents might feel that uh response time should be when an officer arrives that they can talk to rather than when a drone is now watching the situation.

So how would those be calculated in terms of response times?

I mean that's uh that's a fair question.

I don't know how exactly our analysts um do all those calculations, but I mean if we're arriving on a you know, if if a uh or an officer is flying the drone to the scene and they're able to determine that the um let's say it's an accident scene, people have already exchanged information and they and they left.

Um I I think you could argue either way and say, yeah, we are counting that towards our response times.

We responded out, we took a video we visually observed the area, nobody was there, and they were able to clear the call.

Um, so I think you you you you could argue that um they would work towards the response times.

Um and to that point, would there be any sort of communication with or from the drone to the public?

Um short of um a pilot flying out to a scene uh picking up the phone and making 911 call.

We talked about that in our meetings um of actually having that that contact with a caller saying, hey, we're we're in route, this is you know, a drone pilot or however we're gonna have that conversation and letting them know that hey, we're we're coming to the scene or we're over top of the scene.

You know, is there anything additional we should add, you know, the remarks to the call for that physical um arrival of a of an officer.

Okay, but the drone wouldn't like have a speaker on it that says this is a police drone.

No.

So nothing like that.

Okay.

Um there was one thing about looking into people's backyards.

I don't remember if that was regulatory service or or whatnot.

Um is there any sort of like concern around needing a warrant to do this kind of surveillance?

Yeah, short answer is yes.

So uh we would definitely have to have those conversations to make sure again that we're following state statute and we're not um violating anybody's any anybody's rights.

So um the short answer is um we'll we'll definitely be very mindful on uh making sure we're following the statute on that and not looking into people's backyards unnecessarily.

Um yeah, I have just general, this is a comment, not a question.

I have general Fourth Amendment concerns about this.

It just hits me the wrong way.

Um, but I also see tremendous opportunity here.

So um both of those things.

And then um I also feel a little odd about us having a pilot uh on the north side.

I understand that um uh council member for the north side is the one leading on this, so that makes sense, but it just also feels a little odd to have our latest big brother project um exclusively on the north side for a little bit.

So these are just things that I'm thinking through, and I I totally respect that um uh council member that you're bringing this forward and that you really want this, and so um not trying to step on that at all.

Um yeah, looking forward to hearing more.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And we have, I think.

Did I skip over you, Consumer Whiting?

Uh no, you just got to me right now.

It's perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Chair Chavez.

Um, just to uh and and to not belabor the point here, also have I think uh you see that see the value of this as well as as many of my colleagues have said, I think it's a a great presentation that speaks to uh how this can be used uh and should be used in areas both on on uh officer safety and community safety as well and so uh excited to see how this is used um I also have I think similar concerns uh of kind of the the usage of them um especially as like the hope with these being kind of like those first uh kind of responders on the scene right and these things have to happen very quick um and looking right obviously at section uh 626.19 and then subdivision three with kind of the authorized uses in there um it sounds like right whenever uh a drone goes up in the air uh we need to hit one of those kind of uh specific uh subdivisions or I guess paragraphs within the subdivision how can you just walk me through a little bit like how that goes how that process goes is like someone sitting there before a drone gets sent out like hey yep this hits uh paragraph six of subdivision six seven or sub sorry subdivision three sends it up like how does that process work?

Uh sure so our our drone pilots will be down in dispatch um they'll have all the the cat information that our call takers are taking in and that the dispatchers are seeing right and they can see the priorities of the calls um they have the ability to go through and filter through okay this is a priority one call let's send a drone to that call to see if we can get real time information so that drone can get launched and they can click on the address of where it um it'll pop up on a map and or kind of like an overlay map um they can click on the address and the drone can autonomously take off fly with that camera facing the horizon it gets on scene um and either they can hover there autonomously or the pilot can actually take control of the drone and look around and then add remarks to the call so that the officers have it and dispatchers are seeing it real time.

Does that answer your question?

Um kind of I guess then is it would it be the dispatchers that are making that decision of if it hits kind of the the piece of one through eleven the authorized uses is it the dispatch or is it MPD?

Like who in the when you're authorizing the use of that that would I'm sorry to interrupt you that would be on us on the pilots.

Okay so it's so if the dispatch kind of sees it come in they are sending over to it to MPD hey we have a uh let's use a a car accident um and they say this is good to go we have a car accident we received a car accident goes to you all as pilots to then say hey this is an authorized use let it go yes or is dispatch kind of letting it fly no dispatch has no control over the drones at all.

Completely different systems um so it would be completely on the pilots and again everything's tracked um through that transparency dashboard of why they fly and then we have to track everything that goes to the BCA to the chief so the accountability pieces there.

Okay.

So it sounds like the pilots are the ones that are that are deciding which what is the authorized use of one through eleven that is for it launches up and flies.

Okay.

Right and I think the reason I'm asking right you know I think it's it's great and I think there's a there's a version of this right where you know looking at kind of the the the ways that this could be flown.

Sorry I'm just trying to pull up the the kind of uh the uses uh that you all kind of list here uh incidents where a drone can respond to these things right so like let's say we have a the one that kind of flag for me are kind of the suspicious person um incidents um I mean burglaries could also be in there probably not robberies because that has a uh an attachment to uh violence to a person um but specifically the the suspicious person and and burglaries piece um tr having a harder time trying to look through one through eleven here um right let's let's just use suspicious person right there's a suspicious person um that you get a call and it's in somebody's backyard uh right so it's not a public uh area right you're gonna need the written consent of that individual uh that called that in of of their property before these things get get launched off.

Like I guess uh you know, when I see suspicious person here, right?

Obviously, there's not a massive thing underneath that talks about all the different scenarios.

Um, but I just think making sure, and I haven't seen the the MPD policy on this yet either, uh, but that you know there's there will be a lot of different examples.

I know you all have a lot of different calls that come in, uh, but then making sure that we are in in um uh accordance and compliance with both state law and our policy, and so I think uh wanting to tighten this down to um and then kind of last kind of question here with this um uh training the 75 day trial.

Um, are you all gonna be kind of uh like having a list of data of like, hey, here's every single time that this thing comes out.

Here's how we make our decisions.

So that would be really, really helpful.

I think for me on our end of kind of making that decision if we want to expand it out as well.

Yeah, through the chair uh council member.

Yes, we will have a complete um along with the transparency dashboard.

We're gonna have our own uh data analytics um dashboards, and we'll be tracking everything.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

And then I forgot, and one more too.

When uh reg services, fire, etc.

are are using these uh drones, is it MPD pilots that are piloting them?

Um, and then fire reg services are using them for like I guess subcontracting from MPD.

Is that the using your skills as pilots?

So through the chair uh council member.

Um initially it'll be just the MPD pilots.

Um I could see, you know, in the future having, you know, possibly even civilian pilots, right?

Um real-time crime center stuff where yeah, you do have civilians that are flying these things again.

Like some of our partner agencies, that's what they do.

Um it's not just law enforcement, it's using everybody to help, you know, solve crime issues.

Yeah, and that's and I think that was that was the other kind of question I had that it raises more and might be a thing that probably have to chat through with the city attorney's office, uh, but thinking through right, if if right, using and uh operating, I think are probably different.

I don't that it doesn't necessarily specify this in the in the uh state statute, um, but just wanted would want to be sure that if we are if MPD is the one piloting these and operating them, does that constitute uh a level of use, like a law enforcement agency using them?

And so, right, because you know, you could see if reg services is going to a private property and it's actually MPD operating them.

Does that constitute usage?

And so wouldn't want to put us at violation of this either.

And so I think there's some things to think through with some of these definitions of use or operation on there too.

But appreciate the presentation and then the answer to the question.

Yeah, thank you.

Council Mervita.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Thank you, Commander Campbell and colleagues for the really good questions.

Um I have a few questions.

The first one is about uh the ACLU because I know they were tracking a lot of this with other cities who have this technology.

What do they what are they saying about this sort of a program?

Chair Chavez, Councilmember of Etah.

So the um I haven't spoken directly to the ACLU, um, but I did look at their position.

Um, and they they their recommendations are community consent, so agencies should seek approval from um their city's councils before launching any DFR program, and as the city attorney's office referenced our next step here is to submit a request for council action to set a public hearing on this and to move forward.

So that's one piece community consent, transparency.

The ACLU talks about recommendations around transparency.

They publish uh that means publishing drone flight data policies and capabilities, which we talked about the public dashboard, and then oversight, which is requiring that drone operations comply with FAA rules and as Commander Campbell talked about.

Um we are looking at all of those things.

So again, um, one one when I did a little bit of research, the ACOU has expressed cautious support for drones as first responders and their recommendations include again community consent, transparency, and oversight.

So we're covering our bases as far as good as you can get with the ACLU is what you're saying.

Yep, Chair Chavez, Councilmember Vita.

That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Stevenson, I wanted to assure you that the North Side is okay with this form of big brother, as you called it.

Um this work is actually coming out of years and years of work with my constituency in North Side.

I was happy to hear uh regulatory services and folks talk about um uh illegal auto shops and dumping and um our police uh response times, these are things that people on the north side want to be better, and this is a tool we can use.

I know in other parts of the city technology is certainly a big problem.

There were folks who um were trying to get rid of um shot spotters for a while, and the north side was up in arms because they really believe in the shot spotter technology and that um it helps to save lives, and so I just think we live in different parts of the city, and I'm certain that there are people on the north side who do not like it, but I will say that this this work and this initiative just looking into this is coming out of what the north side has asked me to do, and that's not just the residents, that's also the fourth precinct, um, which leads to my next question.

And one of the the big things that I got out of this presentation is the um the P uh zero and P1 call times and um like how the the response times how many first of all calls there are just in the fourth precinct, but um could you speak to what the response time is now versus like the the times that the drones would be on scene?

Uh through the chair, councilmember vita, um through Monday, uh May 11th, 2026 precinct four priority one median response time is seven minutes and forty-eight seconds, notably much faster than the same time last year, which was nine minutes and thirty seconds.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does.

And what do you remember what that slide said for the drone being on scene for what was that response time?

Yep, the response time to priority zero or one calls was under or under roughly two minutes.

So under two minutes, and now we're not the the trial is not to not send the officer out the it during the trial.

The officer will go out, but at some point it could go from uh nine minutes last year, seven minutes this year, um, but down to a two-minute response time to over 33,000 calls in just precinct one.

Is is that what you're saying?

That's correct.

That is awesome.

Um, and then another question I have was around overtime.

There's been a lot of conversation around how we're spending money on officers, just wondering, is there any connection to potentially lowering overtime and like how this technology could possibly help us there?

Through the chair, councilman uh, council member vita.

I mean, from everything that we've seen through other cities, um, overtime costs have gone down with the use um with with the drones.

It helps with clearing up calls for officers.

Um it clears calls faster, and it allows officers, it frees up their time to handle their calls and and get out of work on time, possibly.

So um, so there if we if I looked further, there's data that shows that overtime um change that like the use of overtime shifts in these uh areas where there's these sort of programs.

Correct, yeah.

Overtime go down.

Thank you.

And then council member wandsley, I I the cost is certainly an issue for me too, but I haven't even got that far yet.

This the work that we're doing now is really about um the pilot to see if it can be used before we get to a place of cost.

I think it would do us a disservice if we start exploring this and not even knowing if it's gonna be useful.

And um, you know, I know that it's gonna be happening on the north side, and it it really isn't because I like I'm the person leading this, it's because the data shows that things are happening on the north side.

There's there's another ward that is showing it's happening too, but I think that um it just it just shows strongly that it's happening on the north side that the things that I'm trying to work on, so I'm I'm happy that we are using the north side as a place to pilot this program.

And of course, if it works out, I want to figure out how we fund it.

That may be the police department's current budget that may be a collaboration of everyone, but I think we have to determine how it can be used and how it touches the different departments before we get to that.

Um, and then you talked about the dashboard.

So that is like um, you can just click on this uh on the city's website, go on to the dashboard.

How soon do you think um the flights would be on the dashboard once we start to build up the program?

Uh through the chair, Councilmember Vita, very good question.

Uh we could have those flights put on there probably within 24 hours or under 24 hours uh of the flights actually being flown.

Okay.

So that is an actual thing, not in real time.

You're not gonna be able to go on there and watch the drone flying on Pin and Lowry.

It'll be it'll be a later thing where you can go and check the flight that it was somewhere.

Correct.

Okay, all right, I got it.

And then the last question is really about the 911 response.

It is it is a 911 call that comes in.

This pilot will be triggered by 9-1-1 calls.

This is not like a um someone has a warrant for something.

Because we use drones already in Minneapolis for certain things, but this is more of a 9-1-1 trigger thing.

So if someone called and said, someone's dumping outside of my house.

There's a lot of trash out there.

They call 9-1-1, they say someone's dumping, and I don't want to go out and take a photo of the car.

I'm afraid we could deploy the drone through the 9-1-1 call to the site where the dumping is happening.

Is that how this would work?

Chair Chavez, uh, Councilmember Vita.

That's correct.

And hopefully, I can give you a little bit of an explanation for everybody here on how this works with um into the 911 center and with tracking some of the information on the calls.

The calls will continue to come into the 911 center and be put into our CAD system the way that we always do it for no matter who we sent, whether it's traffic control, whether it's police officers, so we will still be doing the same process at 911.

What will happen is the drone, the people who are flying the drones will be sitting right down at the end of the dispatch center.

And part of why we decided to do that is just to be able to have communication through the pilot program and be able to talk to each other.

They will be able to go in and decide okay, this is a good call for us to go out with with the drone.

That call will stay live and active.

So we will still have that call in there during this trial period.

The drone will go out there, look at it, make any of the notes into the CAD system that that apply to what we saw with the drone, and then we'll still send a police officer and close it.

What we're gonna do with all of that data then is be able to look at it and go, okay, this is how fast we could have closed that call had we been able to do it with the drone, or this is how fast we could have gotten the information on we saw the person out there dumping the trash now.

They weren't gone already because the 911 phone call just came in and we couldn't get an officer there for 10 minutes, right?

Or two hours because it's not a priority.

I mean, the big issue too that's happening with the dumping is I think the neighbors have been doing a great job at trying to report it.

They've been getting pieces of mail, they've been um reporting license plates.

But if a person comes to dispute it without proof, which these drones can provide real time proof, that helps us.

Like people get citations and all these things, but if they come disputed, there's no way for us to say no, you were there.

I mean, no, the neighbors aren't gonna show up in court and say, no, I'm identifying the person.

So these drones could help us in real time.

And then the other thing is like the snow removal stuff.

Um, one of the biggest complaints is like people not moving their cars, or you know, we got a huge street clearing, and there's five cars on one side of the street, and we don't get to remove the snow from the entire street.

And so I don't think um, I mean, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think the pilot is about reprimanding people for snow removal.

It's really about being able to clear up those livability issues, like making sure the street, because 9-1-1 gets those calls, even though you don't answer them, you get the calls from people saying my neighbor's not moving their cars from out of the street, and today is plow day.

Chair Chavez, Councilmember, that is correct.

This will give us some real time information, and even with those calls that they do come into the 911 center, we're still sending them over to traffic control and still having to have traffic control go over there.

So this could potentially be a time saver, and that's where you asked about the overtime costs and some of this.

This could potentially be a time saver for many of the departments.

If we can say, okay, that vehicle that we were gonna send an officer out to is now gone.

Now we don't need to take that extra time to send an officer to that call.

They can focus on clearing up the priority calls that are sitting out there, and so hopefully we'll help contribute to, and this will be all part of the data that we'll be pulling together.

Well, but will contribute to we won't have a bunch of calls hanging there for the officers to have to continue to go to when these can clear.

Thank you, Director.

I think he wants to say something.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Chavez, Consulmember Vita.

Just wanted to clarify about this no emergency.

It's not about people calling and saying my neighbor did not move, it's about just uh before we are in force, we fly the drone to kind of get an aerial map of the city and areas that are more inaccessible, so we can prioritize and go to those areas and and maybe tag and tell because some streets are kind of narrow so they're wide, so kind of prioritizing which ones need more uh savage right away buses, my neighbor is not moving.

We still want people to call those calls through a 311.

Or maybe we can warn people to move their cars because you are on the way.

Yes, yes, I like that better.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rainville.

Thank you, Chair.

Just a couple of real quick questions.

Uh, number one, uh, commander uh so very good presentation.

Uh, but like with all new ideas, we have new questions, and I can really appreciate the privacy concerns.

But what experience have these other jurisdictions had uh operating with these state regulations which are intended to address the privacy concerns?

Are they working?

Uh, have people filed complaints in Duluth or Minnetonka?

Do you know?

Uh through the chair, uh Councilmember Rainville.

I am unaware of any.

Um, it's definitely something I could look into and and get you some answers on that.

Uh but I'm not aware.

I'm not I I don't expect to have the answer today, but you can see there's concerns that it would be great to know uh what's happened uh in these other jurisdictions.

Okay, so uh uh I I appreciate that, and then I just have uh I don't know if it's for you or for the fire department, there's in my ward, there's a lot of problems with kids, you know, urban uh burglars, urban explorers that climb up on these high rises, and they take pictures of themselves and you know sooner or later one's gonna fall.

Um would would that be the fire department utilizing that?

The police department utilizing uh to put a damper on this.

If I just I got a call just yesterday from another incident, but would that be something that this could help with?

Uh through the chair, council member Rainville.

Um, I believe it could be a combo, right?

It could be um a police thing if they're trespassing, if it's a trespassing issue, and um I know it's uh I know it's definitely an issue um over in your ward in the past, so it's definitely something we could send out um and check an area to see that uh if there's any urban explorers uh doing something that they shouldn't be doing.

Um I personally have been on calls where um somebody had fallen in one of those little grain elevators and died from doing the urban exploring.

Sure, yeah, on the rainbow.

Okay, uh, thank you, and I do have uh a question for uh the fire department.

Okay, welcome.

Assistant chief, how you doing?

Good.

Say uh just curious.

So you think these would be helpful?

You have a fire, you want to see the roof conditions so nothing falls on one of your firefighters.

Uh uh, how does heat play into this and for the drone operator as I mean can you fly over?

Is it heat resistant or or maybe it's uh a police question?

All right.

Uh, through the chair, council member Rainville.

I'm not sure on their technical capabilities or how high above it it would be.

Um, I am aware of being able to use thermal imaging technology to stay high enough where you can look down though.

Okay, I just don't want the police department to get mad at the fire department because you erect one of their drones.

Not worried about that.

Okay, thank you.

That's it.

Oh, Joni, yeah.

Director Hodd.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Uh Chair Chavez, as a councilmember.

Perhaps I can help a little bit too on some of these calls with police and fire response jointly.

Um, even though the police department will be flying these drones down there in MECC, whenever there's a large fire event and a lot going on out there, one of the fire battalion chiefs comes down and works in the nine one one center.

So they're sitting right there during the the active large event that we have going on, and it's very easy for their communication and the communication with the police department to be joint, uh, either through us or just walking across the room and talking to each other.

Great.

Thank you very much.

That's all, Chair.

Great.

Thank you.

It seems like no one else is on queue.

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

And seeing no further business before us, I will declare this meeting adjourned.