Welcome to the regular meeting of the Public Health Safety and Equity Committee for July 8th, 2026.

I am Jason Chavez, and I'm the chair of this committee.

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

These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase accessibility of our proceedings to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the role so we can verify a quorum for this meeting.

Councilmember Payne.

Present.

Vice Chair Stevenson is absent.

And Chair Chavez.

That is five members present.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

I'll remind my colleagues that today we're going to be using the tags here for speaker management.

So please use that if you want to get on queue to speak.

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

After the consent agenda, we will move to the public hearings.

And if you would like to speak during the public hearing and have not signed up to speak, please see the clerks in the hall to register to speak.

On our consent agenda, item number three sets a public hearing for July 22nd to consider the mayor's nomination of Dr.

Reginald Freeman to the appointment of fire chief.

Item four, postpones consideration and next steps for law enforcement concealment of identity ordinance until August 5th PHSE meeting.

And without objection, I'd like to move to approve item number five with the content agenda as I have no questions on this item.

Item number five is a gift acceptance from the University of Chicago for police inspector Molly Fisher to attend the University of Chicago Policing Leadership Academy.

Any objections to that?

Great.

Colleagues, are there any discussion on these items?

Or would anybody like to pull any item out?

All right.

With that, I move to set the public hearing for number three and move the motions for number four and five for approval.

Any discussion?

Seeing no further discussion on the motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstention, and those motions carry.

Next, we'll take up our public hearings reflected in items number one and then after that, item number two on the agenda.

Anybody who signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify.

If you have questions, please see our clerks at the registration table outside the hall.

For everyone in attendance, and especially those who may participate in our hearings or comment period, let me offer this notice.

These hearings are being recorded and broadcast.

Both the recording and the broadcast are classified as public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

By attending and participating in these proceedings, your image and any testimony or information that you provided will also be subject to disclosure under that law.

That includes but is not limited to to your attendance, your name and other personal details you provide, as well as any testimony or comments you provide, which includes any written submissions you make which are included in the record of this meeting.

On the first public hearing is to consider Mayor Fry's nomination of Kayla McConnell to the appointed position of civil rights department director.

To introduce this item, we have been joined by Mayor Fry, who is with us today, who I'll now invite to speak on behalf of his nomination.

Thank you, Chair Chavez, members of the city council.

I'm grateful uh to be here with you today, and I'm very proud to formally introduce Kayla McConnell as my choice to continue leading the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department.

For over ten years, she's brought immense passion, some sharp expertise, and a strong commitment to civil rights work here in our city.

Having served as the interim director, deputy director, and director of the complaint investigations division, and even as an investigator herself, she knows this department inside and out.

She doesn't need time to get up to speed.

She's already driving these results, and as a result, staff have been able to focus on the work and improve the lives of those who live, work in, and visit the city.

Under her leadership and in line with our settlement agreement, the department completed its portion of the historic 234 case OPCR backlog.

I want to note the place that our civil rights department was previously in, and the place that it is in now.

And the juxtaposition is stark.

And because of a combination of Kayla's great work as well as the work of former director Michelle Phillips and their whole teams.

The backlog is gone.

And that's why our civil rights department is recognized for excellence.

They investigate thoroughly and transparently, and they protect residents.

Under Miss McConandieras, our leadership, our labor uh standards enforcement division will remain a powerhouse for economic justice.

True compliance means partnering with and educating our businesses, aside from just penalizing them.

It means working with them.

This includes providing over 4,000 free technical support sessions to help local businesses thrive while doing right by their teams.

As far as protected classes go, Minneapolis continues to lead the country in progressive civil rights work, and Ms.

uh McConandierra's hands-on leadership was instrumental in crafting our historic civil rights ordinance expansions.

We are one of just a handful of cities nationwide to explicitly ban discrimination based on height and weight.

We codified protections for housing status, so housing and security isn't a barrier to opportunity, and we banned discrimination against justice-impacted individuals to ensure real pathways to a second uh to a second chance.

Throughout her time in leadership, uh civil rights made important amendments to all of our civil rights ordinance.

In conclusion, um the nominee here uh has been willing to stay doing the work through historically tough times because of her passion for the work, the department, and for the city.

I know that Kayla in this role and her incredible staff behind her will continue to robustly enforce civil rights protections for everyone in Minneapolis.

In a time when we've witnessed uh civil rights setbacks, it is also important to have someone like Kayla at the helm in our city.

So, regardless of what is happening nationwide, we can do the work here in Minneapolis to show that we're a beacon and an example for others to follow.

So I am uh really excited about this nomination.

There's simply no one better suited to elevate this critical work and see it through to full implementation.

Uh, council members, thank you for your time.

I ask for your affirmative uh vote.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor Fry.

Before we proceed to the public hearing, I'd like to recognize that we've been joined by minority leader onesley, and without objection, uh minority onesie.

Would you like your vote reflected in the consent agenda?

Yes, I would.

And I'm assuming those are in approval.

Yep, affirmative.

And clerks, if you can note that, please.

Uh at this time, I'm going to proceed to open the public hearing for the appointment.

The first person on this list, and I'm going to try to read it as eligible as I can, is I think the name says Bethany, uh, if you're here.

That would be number one.

Bethany number one.

And I know that folks may be signing up for different testimonies here today, and they may be confusing the different public hearings that are happening, but Bethany Piley, number one.

And if not, the next person would be Franklin.

And last name starts with an R, number two.

Welcome to my name's Franklin Reed, R-E-E-D.

Thank you.

Um I appreciate this opportunity to speak in support of Kayla.

Uh, the director of the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights.

Though I hail from Iowa, please don't hold that against me at all.

I've lived here much of my adult life.

I attended law school here.

I was married here.

I raised three wonderful children in this city.

And I still reside in the city.

Professionally I served as the assistant uh city attorney for six years.

And I was the interim director of the civil rights department for a period of time beyond that.

And I have I had the foresight during that time to elevate Kayla to her first leadership position within the city.

And with those years of public service and experience, I believe that I can state the following that the defining challenge facing government at this point in history as a deficit public faith.

To rebuild that trust, proven leaders are needed in place through the needs of others before themselves.

Leaders who know the cultural landscape of the city, leaders who are committed to solving problems in a transparent way, leaders who will work with anyone to achieve the better goals and find a way forward.

Kayla is that type of leader who will create stability and continuity on all these points as a director of the Civil Rights Department, and she will ever to excel.

I think you all.

Thank you.

I'd like to acknowledge that we've been joined by Vice Chair Stevenson after this item.

We'll talk about the votes and the other stuff.

Next up we have Viviana from Ward 5.

That's number three.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Well, number one could go next.

So good afternoon, Chair and Council members.

Uh, my name is Viviana Salazar.

I'm from Ward 5.

Um, I had the privilege of serving as chair and vice chair of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission, and I'm here today in strong support of Kayla McKinnon Diaro's confirmation as Director of Civil Rights.

Over the past years, I've had the opportunity to work closely with Kayla, and I've seen firsthand the kind of leader she is.

She believes in partnerships, she listens, and she understands that the strongest policies are built by bringing people together.

Under her leadership, the commission, the department, the mayor, and city council worked collaboratively to advance important protections, including justice impacted status, housing status, and height and weight.

Kayla created a space for honest dialogue and meaningful collaboration.

She respected the commission's role, welcomed our input, and worked with us to move policies forward that will make a lasting difference for Minneapolis residents.

She also expanded our reach beyond Minneapolis by bringing the department into the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies.

She ensured that I, as chair of the commission, was able to attend the annual conference where I saw how respected Minneapolis is among civil rights agencies across the country.

At a time when many cities were scaling back their civil rights work, Minneapolis stood out because of the strength, stability, and vision for this department.

What I appreciate the most about Kayla is that she leads with integrity.

She builds relationships and she empowers others and keeps the focus on serving our community.

She understands that protecting civil rights requires both courage and collaboration.

I'm proud to support her confirmation because I know she has the experience, the values, and the leadership the city needs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bethany.

Good afternoon.

It's lovely to see you all.

Love to see all these young students here.

Um, my name is Bethany Lorraine Piety.

I live in the Falwell neighborhood, and I have served as an NPS educator on the North Side for 15 years.

Um my first year as an MPS educator.

I actually met you, Mr.

Mayor, uh, over at Edison.

So nice to see you again.

Um, I am queer, I'm also a widow.

Um, I'm a mother to children with special needs.

I'm a new homeowner on the north side through the good neighbor next door program.

Um I'm an advocate for my students above all anything else.

And I'm an advocate for the families that I serve in NPS, and at this point in time, while I do not represent MPS, it is a part of who I am as my identity.

So, um, in my service to the north side, I have witnessed countless acts of police brutality to our community and my students.

My students reported an increase in anxiety and distrust towards our police and each other during Operation Metro Surge, and they deserve to allow their nervous systems to heal, so that they can return to the great work that they are doing.

The presence of drones will simply serve to activate an already activated case.

I don't mean to interrupt you, but there's that's the next topic.

So the drone conversation is a next public hearing.

Well, this is about our director.

So if you can keep it to the topic of the director.

No, I have nothing to say to the director.

Oh, okay, cool.

Uh, if if you are here for the drone conversation and you want to speak to that, there are folks outside that you can sign up to testify.

Uh, and that's I I kind of had a feeling that folks are.

There's two public hearings.

This one's about the civil rights director appointment, the next one's about the drones.

If you're here to testify on the drone situation, please sign up and testify and we'll get a chance.

Thank you for your time, and I apologize.

No worries.

Totally understand.

All right, Michelle Phillips, number four.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, Michelle Phillips.

Thank you, Council members, for giving me the opportunity to come and speak um in support of Kayla McCannandera for the director of civil rights position.

I want to speak a little bit about her leadership within the department.

During a time of uncertainty and a lack of stability, Kayla stepped up.

She has been a vital staple within that department for ten years.

She's grown up in that department from an investigator to the deputy director and now to the interim director.

As a former director of civil rights, I was able to work with her.

She taught me a lot.

I sat down and I realized that she allowed me to lead the department for a time certain it was her department.

She didn't know it.

I helped her to realize that fact, bring her along as we stabilized our divisions.

We worked with several of you council members, as well as the mayor's office, the administration, to let the civil rights department understand their full potential.

Kayla led that charge.

We made sure that we were out in community.

We established some very strong civil rights protections with several of you, as well as worked on our CCPO ordinance, stabilized that commission.

She helped to make that happen.

In a situation where there was a lot of blowback for where we were, but she saw where the department in the city could go.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for this young lady to continue to move this department forward to continue to cultivate the young professionals that we have in that department to grow them to continue on with the succession plan to strengthen those protections.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, everybody.

Is there anybody else that would like to address the committee?

Going once.

Going twice.

Going three times.

Alright, seeing no one else wish to speak, I will now close.

Okay, I will now close.

Good.

Okay.

I will now close this hearing and invite the nominee or Mayor Fai.

Okay, Mayor Fry.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Very briefly.

I just wanted to note how cool it is that former Director Michelle Phillips came to this particular hearing.

Both she and Kayla were obvious really important partners in transitioning this civil rights department and doing some effective work.

But the fact that she flew across the country from Oakland to testify for two minutes on the dot, I just think is really amazing.

And so thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, for the brief comment.

No worries.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson, committee members.

It's my pleasure to be here and speak with you today.

I want to start by thanking the mayor for the nomination and the confidence in me to continue doing this work in the permanent director role.

And then I also want to thank, of course, you all as members of the committee for uh considering that nomination today.

It has been both a pleasure and an honor to have worked within the Civil Rights Department for the last 10 years.

As has been mentioned, I've held a variety of different roles within the department, both as an investigator, a division director, a deputy director, and then as the interim department director.

And I've chosen to stay in this department to grow my career in this department, and I'm energized and inspired to take on this new opportunity because I believe so strongly in the work that the Civil Rights Department does.

It truly is impactful work that really has impact on all the folks that live in, work in, and visit the city of Minneapolis.

The impact of the Civil Rights Department, I think is both varied and vast.

It includes a person receiving back wages who may have been making less than the city's minimum wage, a family with a Section 8 housing choice voucher being able to access the housing of their choice, a monetary settlement for a victim of racial discrimination, a police officer receiving discipline when they engaged in inappropriate behavior, or small business owners getting access to work on city contracts.

This work really importantly helps individual people.

It makes them whole after their civil rights have been violated or ensures they have equitable access to opportunities, but it also has a much broader impact in creating a more just Minneapolis.

Cases investigated in the civil rights department often bring about large-scale change in practice and policy.

They raise awareness and promote education around civil rights and what rights folks have in our city in a way that truly prevents civil rights violations from happening again in the future.

I'm thrilled at the opportunity to continue to lead this department into that future and continue to provide tangible, impactful outcomes that make for a more just Minneapolis.

I see the role of the civil rights department as bringing to life the protections that you all work so hard to put into ordinance and into law that we are able to enforce.

Those laws are foundational and vital to being able to have civil rights protections, but they become that much more meaningful when we robustly enforce them.

And that's a responsibility that the department, I as the leader and our entire staff take incredibly seriously.

As you all know, we have four different divisions within the civil rights department, and I do just want to note each of the types of work that we do.

We have our Office of Police Conduct Review, which investigates complaints of misconduct against Minneapolis police officers, and this is specifically complaints that are made by members of the public here in Minneapolis.

We have our complaint investigations division, which enforces our civil rights ordinance and does all our anti-discrimination work, investigates discrimination allegations.

We have our labor standards enforcement division, which enforces all of our city level labor laws that are super important, and we have our contract compliance division that ensures equity in city contracting.

Our collective vision, which we drafted as a department, is as the people's investigator, we strive to eliminate civil rights violations in the city of Minneapolis by rooting ourselves in service, justice, and community, and working to remove the systemic and institutional barriers that cause harm.

And that's really what we do every day.

I think it really accurately encompasses our ultimate goal across all of our staff and all of our different divisions.

My vision as the department leader, which I've shared with all of you in various forms, is I want to ensure that our civil rights department is truly the civil rights agency of first resort.

We want to be the first folks that people think of when they feel like their civil rights have been infringed on or violated here in the city of Minneapolis.

And we want them to come to us because, of course, they know that we're here and they feel like they can access services.

But we also want them to come to us because they believe that they will be treated with dignity and respect throughout the investigative process, and that we're highly professional, objective, and really produce those impactful outcomes.

I'm really proud of the work that we've done in civil rights up to this point to already make this vision a reality.

Over the past two years, we have engaged in a significant department restructure, staffed up and retained highly talented staff, maintaining a department that is largely fully staffed for the first time in recent memory.

We've improved case timelines, cleared investigative backlogs, increased community engagement, and worked with you all to strengthen each of the ordinances we enforce within the civil rights department.

And we have engaged in continuous improvement of all of our processes and procedures across the department.

In this new term, I will continue to prioritize ensuring that we are the premier civil rights agency doing enforcement work in Minneapolis, providing accessible, efficient, and effective services to any members of the public.

I will take on the significant challenge of navigating the changing civil rights landscape and charting a sustainable and effective course through uncertainty.

Continuing to ensure that Minneapolis is a leader in providing robust civil rights protections and enforcement.

I will continue to foster an environment of continuous improvement, ensuring effective implementation of recent amendments to our civil rights enforced ordinances, as well as continued progress towards compliance with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights settlement agreement.

I feel really confident that we can accomplish these things because of the incredible leadership team and staff in civil rights and especially leadership team, both past and present.

And the folks that work in civil rights, our leadership and our staff are highly effective at doing their jobs, and getting to work alongside them every day really makes it a joy to come into work.

They are mission-driven, passionate, and committed to this work.

I believe in democratic and participatory leadership.

I lead by asking for input, collaborating and seeking shared decisions.

Leadership and staff in civil rights are incredible thought partners, and their ideas and perspectives are absolutely foundational to the department's success.

I do and will into the future consistently prioritize staff support, engagement, and engagement as the department's leader.

Civil rights work is hard work.

It's especially hard when we see such drastic and troubling shifts in civil rights protections and enforcement throughout the country, alongside the Minneapolis specific challenges that we've faced over the last year.

I'm committed to ensuring staff feel supported, valued, and respected, and have the resources they need to do this work sustainably.

I'm incredibly grateful for their trust in me as a leader and thank them for their commitment, their continued commitment to enforcing the civil rights of everyone in Minneapolis.

I'm really proud of the work that we're accomplishing in civil rights.

I thank you all on City Council, the mayor, the city operations officer, and other city leadership for your partnership in this work, and I remain incredibly hopeful about what we can continue to do in the future.

So thank you very much to this committee for your consideration today, and I'm happy to stand for any questions you might have.

Thank you, Director Keyla McConnell.

I am excited to support your appointment and part of the work you've done to lead the Civil Rights Department and excited to see you in this new and permanent role.

Not necessarily new, but new in terms of being a permanent role for you, I hope.

I think of the work that my office, Minority Leader Wancy did together with you, your department, your credible city staff to expand the protected classes here in the city of Minneapolis, which is something that took a lot of work and it was collaborative, and I think about the approach that we did in that work and the approach you have done with your own department, the passion you bring to uh give a voice to the Civil Rights Commission and to those uh that work with you.

So just wanted to say thank you for your service and very proud to support your appointment.

And I'll move this for approval if I can get a second.

And colleagues, we are using.

Oh, okay.

I didn't look so council.

I don't let these get by without talking.

Thank you, Director.

I I too support your reappointment, and we actually had a wonderful meeting to just catch up.

I I really appreciate the passion that you bring to this job, and I would say more than anything, your passion to educate some of the most complicated things I've had to work out with your department behind the scenes.

You know, there's been this public talk about the things around protected class, and but you do a lot of things behind the scenes that people don't know about that support our businesses that support people's everyday lives here in Minneapolis, and I appreciate the passion that you bring to that, and um the the biggest thing is I would be remiss if I didn't say the miracle you all pulled off in getting through those cases.

I I just really never thought that was gonna happen because year after year after year we were told, you know, it's happening, but it's not happening, right?

And so, like the work that you all did collaboratively to get through those cases and to give me as an elected official the freedom to say to constituents who were watching that, um, so closely that it's done.

It's we have zero case, there is no backlog.

I really never thought there was gonna be a day when I got to say there was no backlog because there were just years of um us being at a standstill with those cases.

So thank you so much.

That that really showed me how committed you are and how committed your team is to making sure that the city of Minneapolis is transparent and that the city of Minneapolis is uh providing a service to residents that they really want.

So thank you so much for that.

I'm forever grateful to you, uh, former director Phillips and the entire team for doing that work.

I know it was uh heavy low, but it got done, and I'm proud of what you all did, your entire team to make sure that that was done.

Um, I have a few questions, um, and I think we may have talked about some of this before, but just wanted to know like what do you see as your biggest accomplishment so far in this role?

Yeah, so it's hard to narrow it down to Chair Chavez, Councilmember Vita, thank you for the question.

It's hard to narrow it down to one.

Um I think that the maybe two things that I would say is one building the incredible team that we have, um, the staffing up of the department and staffing up with really talented, highly qualified um folks has really been the foundation of how we've been able to move this work forward, how we've been able to accomplish um so much, especially in that investigative space and moving all of those cases forward.

Um, but also the the staff that we've brought in really have developed uh really impressive and meaningful bonds across their own relationships and across our different divisions, and that really is um kind of the glue that I see as what allows the department to move forward in a sustainable way, doing really challenging work, but being able to continue to do it effectively, efficiently, and sustainably.

Um, and then the other piece, and this has already been mentioned um by Chair Chavez, but I am really proud of the expanded protected classes and the amendments to the civil rights ordinance.

I think it's so meaningful that at a time that we're seeing really shaky ground for a lot of civil rights protections across the country, that Minneapolis was committed to moving forward with expanding those protections with being creative, innovative, responsive to community, and really making true changes in ordinance and then in practice and enforcement and the work that we do to really move the needle in a positive way, which is really contrary to what we were seeing um in other places around the country.

So that's the other piece that I would say I'm most proud of.

Thank you for that.

And what initiatives or projects are you most excited about advancing if you're confirmed?

Yeah, absolutely, Chair Chavez, uh, Councilmember Vita, thank you again for the question.

Um, one thing I'm most excited about right now is exploring what it means to be a civil rights agency in this kind of new landscape.

How can we really be a standout leader and an example of what it is to continue to robustly enforce civil rights protections despite everything that is happening around us?

Um, I've spent a lot of time talking with my staff, and we're kind of in the infancy of some of these thoughts, but what does it look like to expand our reach beyond civil rights into more of a human rights space, right?

And what sort of relationships can we build across the country with other municipalities that have a very similar set of values, a very similar set of priorities around civil rights enforcement work, and how we can work together to again continue to innovate, lead, move the needle in a positive direction.

Thank you.

And my last question is what's been the biggest challenge in this role?

Yeah.

Chair Chavez, Councilmember Vita, another good question.

Thank you.

The biggest challenge probably for me in my tenure in civil rights has been some of the instability of the department.

But I'm really grateful for how stable the department is now.

I'm very grateful to our previous director, Michelle Phillips, and her partnership in moving the department into just a really stable and sustainable place.

One, making it a place that people really want to work, and two, making it a place where we can enjoy each other and also do extremely effective professional work.

We can do those two things at the same time.

And so that that was a challenge, but one that I feel like has largely been overcome, and something that I'm really appreciative and grateful for.

Thank you, Director.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Thank you, Chair.

I too will be supporting you.

And I I want to thank you most of all for the the backlog issue.

That was really, really important.

So thank you for that.

I had a chance to talk with you.

I'm so impressed with your energy.

And we had a long talk about your vision for the future.

So I I thank you for that.

And I agree with you 100%.

And last, I have to tell you how impressed I was that past director of Phillips scheme to speak on your behalf.

Your words were very well taken.

So thank you for your support of our new director.

Councilmember Whiting.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

And thank you, Director.

And soon to be, I assume, uh permanent director uh for our civil rights department.

Uh just wanted to take a few notes in a few few seconds to uh to give you your flowers here.

I think like the true mark uh of leadership is shown by the people you surround yourself with.

Uh, and and as we see here, uh, you know, I think we've seen uh across the city, um, but the civil rights department itself I think shows an example uh of what dedication and expertise looks like um in a department.

Um and right, I know we have many here that are sitting here, but what a lot won't see on this broadcast and in these chambers, right?

There's 20 more outside of this chamber.

When I was walking out there, I was like, this is this is a full of a packed room for for your support here, and so uh uh want to thank you for that and like a share a quick story.

Uh my first foray into into the city of Minneapolis, I'm not sure if you remember, but uh right you interviewed me uh as a as a commissioner on the civil Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission, and that was my first kind of interaction uh to the city, and what I remember from that was was a uh not only a positive um uh demeanor and individual, but somebody that deeply um cares about the city of Minneapolis uh and respects what this work is and the service to this community.

And so I have full faith uh in your leadership um over the next hopefully uh continuous 10 more years uh in this role uh and thank you for for what you have done uh specifically as we've talked about to to the backlog uh within OPCR uh and then more, I think pointedly uh with the the turnover um and vacant positions that have been uh uh I think permeated throughout uh the civil rights department.

I think that is something that many won't see uh is that version of stability uh here in our office.

So thank thank you, and I'm very, very excited to support your uh nomination.

Council President Payne.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

I'm very excited to support you in this role.

Um, and you've just been such a great partner and so much just transformational work over the years, and I just want to just make sure to also acknowledge just the fact that this is such generational work, so it feels only fitting that the previous director came to speak on your behalf because we've all been in the trenches together, and we know that the work has like we've been able to accomplish things, but we know that the work is not done.

And I'm it it just feels so good to know that we get to support you in having the sustained leadership that is required to be able to take some of these challenges on, and I'm looking forward to that continued partnership.

So thank you.

Nobody else.

All right.

Thanks so much, Director.

On the motion to move this forward with approval, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

The item carries.

Colleagues, we're gonna go on to our next item.

Before that, without objection, yes.

With out of objection, uh clerks, if you can please mark Vice Chair Stevenson as an aye on the consent agenda that we voted on earlier today.

Any objections?

Great.

Our next item is a public hearing regarding a contract with Sky Deal Inc.

for a drones as first responder pilot program.

I will invite OCS chief of staff, Andy Schugman to present about the pilot program before we open the public hearing.

If you're here to testify, please sign up with the clerks.

I think there are 39 people signed up.

Good afternoon, uh Chair Chavez, uh Vice Chair Stevenson and members of the public health and safety and equity committee for the record.

My name is Andy Schugman.

I'm the chief of staff for the Office of Community Safety here in the city of Minneapolis.

Uh thank you for the opportunity uh to present today on a proposed drones as first responder pilot project.

At its core, uh drones as first responders or DFR, we believe is a fairly simple concept.

When certain 911 calls are received, a drone can launch immediately, arrive ahead of first responders and provide live videos.

So 911 dispatchers, officers, firefighters, EMS personnel have a better understanding of what's happening before they arrive or if they should go at all.

Today's hearing is about exploring whether using technology in this manner has a place in the city of Minneapolis, not deciding uh that it does.

Over the past year or so, the Office of Community Safety and MPD have worked with uh multiple vendors, we've worked with city departments, we've reviewed calls for service data, we've evaluated available technology and studied how similar programs are operating in communities across the metro area, across the state and across the country.

I think it's important to thank Councilmember Vita for bringing forward a legislative directive this spring that helped move this conversation forward and created the opportunity for today's public discussion.

So thank you.

Uh public safety is changing rapidly, and technology is becoming an increasingly important tool for helping cities respond more efficiently, more safely, uh, and with better information.

Drones are not a replacement for police officers, for firefighters for EMS personnel or other first responders.

They're simply a tool that helps ensure the right resources are sent to the right call at the right time.

In some cases, the information gathered, we believe may confirm that immediate police fire or EMS response is needed.

In other situations, it may show that a different response is more appropriate, such as dispatching the behavioral crisis response team or another non-sworn resources.

Add in some instances, the drone may determine that the situation has changed or been resolved before responders arrive, allowing those resources to remain available for other emergencies across the city.

Minneapolis, like many cities across the country, continues to face staffing challenges.

If technology can help us improve efficiency, enhance safety, and provide better service to residents, we believe it's worth exploring.

Lastly, I'll add that other departments in the city have told you, uh, and they did testify that did testify before this committee in the past that they too could use drones for a variety of regulatory functions.

But today we really do want to focus on how MPD would like to use the technology.

So with that, I'll turn things over to uh the deputy chief of patrol for Minneapolis Police, Tom Campbell.

Welcome, and we can make sure that we're moving the slides so the public can see what's happening.

If you're on the topic, uh good afternoon, Chair Chavez, Vice Chair Stevenson and Council members.

My name is Thomas Campbell, and I am the Deputy Chief of Patrol and the Special Operations Division.

Uh, part of my duties is to oversee the MPD drone unit.

Um, I brought with me the Special Operations Division Commander John Syseth and Sergeant Roger Mua, who runs the day-to-day uh drone operations for the Minneapolis Police Department today.

I also have assistant director of the emergency uh communications center, Leticia Cardina's with me, who will be speaking later during this presentation.

Uh today, uh just like the last um directive time we're here in May.

I'm very excited to be giving you a presentation on the drones as first responder 75-day no cost pilot project.

The project has immediate benefits uh to Minneapolis 911, police and uh and fire response.

It's important to note MPD now, MPD now uses drones since 2022.

We currently have 12 pilots with their Part 107 licenses, which allow them to fly drones in the city.

Um, our current fleet to date have we have 12 exterior drones and we have 17 interior drones that we use.

Uh since the fall of 2022 till today, uh these numbers are a little higher from when this was when this was created.

But um today we have 640 total missions, and that would include uh patrol responses already and uh some responses under the special operations division.

Um, and currently we do fly our drones from squad trunks um or from the from the drone command vehicle if it is um asked to come out to a scene.

What is uh drones' first responder?

Uh, DFR for short, it's the proactive use of drones to immediately respond uh to a 9-1 call for service that comes into dispatch.

Upon arrival, that live video is streamed uh back to dispatch to where the pilots uh will be seated.

It'll provide that real time situation awareness to that drone pilot.

Um, that in turn, the first responders will be able to see in real time.

Um I'll say the pilot first responder will be able to see in real time what is happening on scene.

They can relay that information to um officers that are dispatched out there to give them a more informed response or the possibility of clearing that call later on without even having a police uh squad response to a scene.

The proposed DFR pilot project is stated, um, it's a free 75-day trial period conducted in the fourth precinct in the fourth precinct alone.

Uh, that is driven by by data.

Um, I'll be showing that to you here in a few minutes.

Um, this is a proposed partnership with SkyDEO.

SCOTIO is the largest drone manufacturer in the United States today.

Um, they currently work with five agencies in Minnesota: St.

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

Um, it's also important to note that they work with 236 other agencies nationwide, and uh 24 of them are part of the major city chiefs association.

Uh the purpose of the DFR pilot project, again, we're trying to collect data to see if um if the drones as first responder can help reduce response time to calls for service.

Uh could we have cleared certain low-level um calls for service without even having to dispatch a squad car out there?

Um, we also want to talk to officers, survey officers, see if they feel that this increases their um overall safety, their awareness on what um what calls uh they're going on and what maybe lies ahead before they arrive.

And obviously, we want to we want to talk to the uh the community and see if this if they feel like this also increased uh their safety as well.

Um, lastly, we want to see if this could improve effectiveness and efficiency of other city services that'd be in fire.

Uh EMS at during this trial period, but later on, as Chief of Staff Schugman had noted, um, some something along the line of regulatory services if they could uh find benefits in this.

Again, the trial location is at the fourth precinct.

We're hoping to launch from the uh fire station 14 off of Lowry Avenue.

Um the plan initially will be to have two drone stations on top of station 14.

Um we sent our 2025 uh calls for service for the fourth precinct uh to SkyDio through their IT um IT department.

They went through our priorities zero and one calls, priority zero and one calls are our uh our highest priority calls that the city has.

Um they were able to show that MPD got 33,402 calls for service in the priority in zero and one categories.

Of those calls, they they put it through their analytical system, however they do it.

They they found that just having two drone docks on station 14 uh could have responded to 4,643 of those priorities zero and one calls under 120 seconds.

So now one caller would have a drone over top and under uh roughly two minutes.

Um, pretty impressive.

And that would cover, you know, seven, you know, 17% of all calls for service in that priority zero and one uh category.

Incidents, you know, priority zero and one incidents, these are just it's just a snapshot of a few of them, but persons with a weapons calls, medical fire, uh, accidents, auto theft and progress, burglaries, robberies, sounds of shots fired.

It could be uh to shot spotter calls, foot foot and vehicle chases, shootings, stabbings, suspicious persons, or even missing persons.

Looking at the drones that um we hope to use out there.

This is the SkyDio 10 drone.

Um, this is their uh their flagship drone that they use in all their DFR programs.

Uh, this is rated for inclement weather, which is great here for Minnesota rain and snow.

They'll fly.

They have approximately uh 45 minute minutes of flight time.

Lur we've learned, you know, from St.

Paul, Minnetonka that that flight time is actually drastically uh reduced into maybe 25 minutes.

Um, but these will be equipped with a parachute.

So if something was to happen while it's flying, for some reason, let's say a um a paragon falcon comes down and hits the drone.

Um it has the ability to auto launch a parachute and it'll safely come to the ground.

All the drones will have police markings on them and they'll have red and blue lights, and they'll have redundancy in their uh connectivity so it operates on Wi-Fi and cellular.

So the um possibility of us using connection is next to zero.

Uh next, I'll have the uh assistant director of MECC come up real quick.

Welcome.

Hi, I'm Assistant Director Leticia Cardinas of Minneapolis 911.

We are um approving MECC to have the drone stations inside of our location.

Currently, what we have set up is two flight stations that are located inside of dispatch.

This is gonna allow MPD to work along with us as this pilot program is um launched so that they can speak directly with the dispatchers that we currently have inside of MECC.

Uh, we we've created two different call signs.

This is our way to track how MECC and MPD can know when the drone has been dispatched out to a call.

Our process, what we're planning on is that um MPD is gonna self-assign to any type of call that they think the drone can assist with in the area that they do the pilot location.

Um, at that time that drone will go out, check out the scene, decide if you know they would be able to clear it or uh code for it or determine if an officer would have needed to be out there or not, and then add remarks to the call.

That call is still gonna go back into our pending for a dispatcher to put the police officer out to the location.

They may be going out there simultaneously.

The goal in that is to try to figure out is the response out to the location faster with the drone and able to be cleared than it would be to have an actual officer go out.

It also is gonna assist us with not utilizing an officer when they're not needed out on a scene for a 911 call.

So the plan right now is to have two personnel from MPD um rotated out weekly or bi-weekly.

They're gonna be working Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

They won't have any weekends or holidays unless it's deemed necessary by MPD leadership.

The reasoning for that is it gives more uh communication and uh able to work with SkyDio, who is gonna have some people on site as we work through the pilot to see what's working, what's not working, if there's any issues with the technology piece of it.

It also is gonna allow for um command staff for ourselves inside of MECC to be on site during the times this pilot is actually occurring to make sure that it it remains functioning and um in addition to that.

We also are ensuring that there's not as much overtime or uh additional staffing needed to take care of this pilot project.

That way it's covered by just a basic nine to five or eight to four personnel for the time being.

I'm gonna kick it back over to commander deputy chief.

Thank you.

You need this piece, and I gave you my work.

Okay, um I could talk to either one.

Um our data collection, uh, very important piece of this.

Um, actually, it's the driving force behind this.

We want to look at dispatch times, the times it takes uh from that 911 call coming in and how quickly we can launch a drone to a scene, how long it takes from that dispatch time to the arrival time on scene as well.

We're gonna make sure we track all that and code for time.

Could we have code for to scene with the drone um prior to a squad arriving?

So we're gonna keep track of the ability to say, yeah, we can code for these uh these scenes.

The clear time, the total time from dispatch to the incident closure.

So part of this is gonna be you know a comparison between the drone response times and traditional officer response time, regardless of the priority call zero or one.

We are gonna send a drone and we will be sending a physical officer to the scene.

The drone may have to leave after entering in some remarks, um, but we're not gonna eliminate the squad car from going to that scene um during this trial period.

After every um after every flight, we are gonna be doing an MPD reporting.

Uh, we're gonna look at um uh putting all this into our I don't into our system, our tracking system, and to see how the performance um is on each deployment privacy data and compliance safeguards.

Um, I understand this is a huge thing, right?

Privacy, I get it, it's very very important to all of us.

Operations conducted only as authorized by state law.

Um, that's the only way we're gonna be flying these things.

Uh, the camera, when it's when a drone is launched, that camera remains pointed at the horizon the entire time until arrival um at the 911 call scene.

Uh the camera then will be actively controlled by the uh the remote pilot once they're on scene um at the incident.

All flights are recorded and uploaded to evidence.com as soon as that drone lands on its dock, it starts immediately downloading on evidence.com.

It's much like our body cams when we get to a side uh a Wi-Fi signal.

Our body cams do the same thing.

So the drones will be mirroring that.

Um, non-evidentiary flights are automatically deleted within seven days.

We do have the ability to uh shrink that time period.

Umka does three days, so that's up for um for conversation.

Whatever whatever we want to do, we can we can shrink that, but to seven days is it is mandated by state law that we you have to uh delete.

Uh flights with evidentiary value are retained recording in Minnesota evidence retention uh requirements.

However, uh, through conversations with our city attorney's office, a leaf of which is the independent monitoring team with the MDHR settlement agreement.

Um we will be keeping all evidentiary video indefinitely.

Regulatory oversight, lots of oversight, a lot of governance on this, which is super important.

Um, the FAA, we're we are bound by the FAA on how high we can fly, where we can fly.

Um, our state statute is another thing that obviously controls uh when we can fly, um, and then our department policy.

So three levels of governance here and oversight, state statute 62619 um regulates when we're authorized to use the drones, um, it mandates yearly reporting to the BCA for every flight, they have to be recorded and sent to the BCA at the end of the year.

It remain maintains, I'm sorry, it mandates retention laws, which I stated before, how long we have to retain information and videos.

Uh it prohibits drones from you being utilized for random surveillance, prohibits drones from having facial recognition.

It's it's important to note that the X-10 doesn't even have the technology or even the ability to have any type of that software or equipment put on it.

Uh, and it pro and also the state statute prohibits drones from being equipped with any kind of weapon system.

Our MPD policy mirrors state law.

Um, also that we've included in our policy that quarterly reports, um, not just a year like the BCA, but um the chief of police will be getting a quarterly report on any and all UAV usage in the MPD.

Um, under the subdivision one, seven, and eight.

If a drone pilot wants to fly outside of those subdivisions, they have to call the special operations division commander and seek approval and explain why they want to um fly a drone outside of the the three sub subdivisions here.

Um, and if it if that uh if the commander is not available, then a deputy chief or hire has to approve those flights.

Um a real cool thing that I I I like to look at on other departments.

They have a public-facing transparency dashboard, which we will be have uh we will have here.

It'll be active if we're allowed to have the pilot project.

Um, this tracks all flight data and the reasons for the flight, and the community can go on the City Talk website where it will be live, and they could say, you know, if they're out one night and they see a drone fly over the top and it has red and blue lights on it, and they say, hey, I want to know where that where that drone is headed, what it's going on.

Within 24 hours, they can go into the public-facing dashboard and look up that information.

Uh, community engagement, uh big piece for our drone unit.

There are they're always fulfilling a request to go out and show schools or um, you name it.

Some people in the community want to come out and have these demos done.

So we've got we do the precinct open houses as well.

Uh community MSTA, they go for demos on that.

Um, the Peace Internet Internship Academy got a pretty cool demo.

Um, SkyDio themselves, the company has a has a program called SCATIO for all, provided free by the company.

So if we if they have a request, they'll they'll come out with their trucks, all their drones, and they'll inform and educate the community on how to fly, why you know um how the drones work, how they fly, and they'll allow the community to fly them as well.

Um, lastly, my hope is if we do get um a DFR program up and running that we get a dedicated drone web page on the city website that has full engagement with the community.

Umside agency DFR successes.

I I think this is uh a really important piece.

Um St.

Paul PD has been flying drones since 2023.

Uh they just started their own DFR program in May, May 30th.

Uh they have three docks, one in each one of their districts.

Uh they've flown over 585 missions to date.

They've arrived on scene on 585 of those missions in under 90 seconds.

They've helped locate 45 people, contribute to 46 arrests, and uh the commander over there yesterday I spoke to him.

He said they they have zero complaints since their program began in 2023 of their drone usage.

Minnetonka.

Uh, this was the first six months of their program, over 400 flights.

65% of their drone was the first on scene on 911 calls.

Um they showed that 20% of their calls uh were able to be canceled.

Uh a patrol response could be canceled.

And they surveyed their um their officers and they said that 90% of the time they believe that the drone gave them uh good information prior to them arriving on scene.

San Francisco, a lot of the same uh issues that we have here with auto theft, uh, some of the crime patterns, but San Francisco showed that in 2024, when they started their drone program, it had a drop of their crime overall crime by 30%.

The reduction in auto theft in 2026 went down 44%.

They had 500 um more than 500 arrests um related to their drone program, and they recovered, um or I'm sorry, they had 166 stolen vehicle arrests associated with it.

Redmond, Oregon, um incredible numbers here.

But in 2025, they had a minute 33 average response time with their drones to 901 calls, and 80% of those calls, uh, the drone is the first on scene.

They noted uh overtime hours saved, 113 hours of overtime saved in 2025, and then $60,000 cost savings from clearing calls with the drone and not sending a police uh in a squad car.

Um just a quick cost analysis.

Uh, we looked at the current pilot project.

If if we were to pay Skydeal for this for a full year uh for the two drone docks, is approximately 150,000 per year.

Um just I know some of you were wondering about that on the last uh legislative directive.

Um we mentioned this, but not only not only police, but fire had mentioned that they see huge benefit in the incidents that fire could respond to these um the drones could respond.

Um, and a great example would be Central and Lowry Avenue, had a building fire.

Um they were able to use one of the drones to go up and see where the water was shooting out of the uh I don't know, the ladder fire hose, lack of a better term, but they were able to redirect where the fire was where they couldn't see from the ground.

Uh, but they said they could use it in hazmat recons where we don't have to send our people into these hazmat areas.

You could send a drone in to get an aerial look, water rescues, rope, rope rescues, you know, mini haha falls.

Sometimes there's things down there where we could send a drone to get a bird's eye view, uh eye view on things.

The next steps, if approved, um, I have a if approved today, but we know this goes to full council.

Um, you know, July 16th.

We if if it's if it's approved, we could be flying by July 20th.

That's the earliest um we could do it.

Um, and obviously, we want to set after the 75-day uh trial period, we want to present again to to this committee here on the results from the 75-day trial.

Um, as I stated before, too.

Um, I know it's easy to have opinions on things, but I really want to invite everybody here to come down to MECC and see how everything works, how this program works, talk to the pilots, talk to dispatch, and see how efficient this can really be.

Ask questions and be engaged.

Um, so with that, I'd like to say thank you for your time and open up for a few questions if you have any.

I think we'll we'll do is open it for the public hearing and then after that we can open up for questions.

Okay.

All right, colleagues.

Well, thank you for the presentation.

Thank you.

As I said earlier, there are at least 39 people here to testify.

So I'm just gonna ask the public to please keep it to your two minutes and don't go over.

Otherwise, it's gonna be very difficult for us to finish the rest of the agenda, which we still have a few other items left.

I will ask everyone uh to please keep it respectful.

I will now open this public hearing.

The first person to speak on this item, and I'm gonna name your number if I don't say your name correctly, and also um just a lot of cursive writing here.

So number one, Deshaun McDonald.

He had to leave.

Okay, thank you.

Number two, Dan.

Is it almonds?

Number two.

Okay, someone overflow room.

So I'm gonna say the names out loud for the numbers.

That way, if you're in the overflow room, you can start walking over here.

Number two will be Dan.

Number three will be S.

Heller, number four will be Elizabeth Oppenheimer.

Number five will be Gabe Heller.

Number two, welcome.

Oh, yeah.

Number three.

The person who had spot number one left, so he gave me his spot.

I was originally in person number 21.

Okay, thank you.

Hello, my name is Meredith Abbey, and I'm the director of women against military madness, and I've been a resident of Minneapolis for 30 years.

Wham has been organizing against drones both domestically and internationally since 2012.

We see them as weapons of war and mass surveillance, and do not want them to be used to control or kill people, either at home or abroad.

Drone attacks that can cause thousands of fatalities across the globe and are a leading cause of civilian casualties in war.

For example, in Sudan, over 80% of civilian deaths are caused by drones.

Wham activists have led protests here in the Twin Cities, have traveled to Camp Bripley, have traveled to Boeing's corporate offices in Chicago, all to protest against drones.

We do not support a contract with SkyDio because they profit from the use of drones as weapons of war in Palestine.

In fact, the only reason why SkyDio is a large enough is a large company and can afford to entice Minneapolis with a 75-day free trial is because they've made bank from killing Palestinians.

Any contract with SkyDio would be using taxpayer dollars to support a country that not only sells its drones to apartheid Israel, but would be funding their RD to make more drones and therefore more weapons.

The people of Minneapolis do not want SkyDO's blood on their hands, and passage of this proposal would be completely in contradiction to the 2024 City Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza and supporting an end to taxpayer dollars contributing on Israel's attacks.

We also do not support the use of SkyDio for drones as first responders program.

Support a note our city is known throughout the world for the murder of George Floyd.

Since its murder in 2020, the city of Minneapolis, including the mayor's office, has done virtually nothing to rein and kill our cops.

We cannot give this police department access to drones.

Without community control of the police, we have no reason to believe that they wouldn't use them to police black and brown communities.

It would be completely irresponsible for the Minneapolis City Council to give this police department any technology that could be used to surveil Minneapolis residents.

Next up we have number two, Dan, number three, S.

Heller, number four, Elizabeth, number five, Gabe.

Hello, uh, I'm Dan Edmonds, a member of North Minneapolis in Ward 4.

I'm here to speak in opposition of the trial of the SkyDo drones.

Uh, it is with great frustration and disappointed that I am required to be here today to speak out against this.

I would assume that given what has happened in the city during our occupation, when we were terrorized, kidnapped, and gunned down in the streets by the federal government, that the use of drones as first responders would not be the best path forward.

It is not lost on me that many of the council members who support this initiative were also those who were wholly absent during the occupation and subsequent resistance to ICE, and that many of the members who stood shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors during that harrowing time do not support this partnership.

It is also not lost on me that many of the council members who supported the so-called Cop City initiative are also in support of using AI drones to provide somehow adequate care to their neighbors.

The same drones, mind you, that the Israeli defense forces use to locate, target, and kill innocent innocent Palestinians.

These machines are tools of genocide in Minneapolis must reject tools used to oppress and murder people, and instead stand in solidarity with people with whom we share a similar struggle.

We cannot provide more money to a company complicit in genocide.

Additionally, why are the taxpaying citizens of this city meant to foot the bill of the Minneapolis police police department yet again?

A police department that, while this city was occupied, sat on its hands while racking up thousands of dollars in overtime that cannot be accounted for.

A police department who still has not publicly apologized or taken accountability for the murder of George Floyd and its abandonment of the community in the months after.

A police department that cannot explain why it is gone 20 million dollars over budget and then constantly asks for more.

No more money to the police, no drones.

We are all Palestine.

Thank you.

Next.

I can ask folks.

It's gonna be hard to hear people's names if we keep clapping.

Uh number three, S.

Heller, number four, E.

Elizabeth O.

Number five, Gabe H.

Number six, Will.

Number seven.

Everett.

I'm just naming it out loud because there's folks in the overflow room that need to be able to hear us.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sarah Heller.

I have been a proud resident of Camden and Ward 4 for 16 years.

Uh I have also uh been told that the reason that I should support this program by my council person is that it will do something about illegal dumping and chop shops in North.

We have a serious problem with illegal dumping and chop shops in North Minneapolis, let me tell you.

I have been personally fined thousands of dollars for uh mostly house flippers and their subcontractors who dump their construction waste in my yard.

A drone will do nothing to solve this problem.

Nothing at all.

That's a 3-1-1 call.

I have been through this a lot of times.

That's a 3-1-1 call, not a 9-1-1 call.

So when I read that uh they want to use this for emergency response, and then I am told that I should turn out to support it because of regulatory issues.

What I take away from that is that no one knows what this is really for, right?

They want the drones first, and they'll figure out what they're gonna do with them later.

And that concerns me deeply as someone who has uh lived in a part of town that has suffered a lot of police abuse, every interaction I have ever had with a member of the MPD in North Minneapolis has been one in which they degrade me as a person.

The relationship between the police in Minnetonka or Rochester or Duluth is very different than the relationship that we have in North with the police.

Uh yeah, there's no excuse.

I have more notes.

Uh, but I know that we have a lot of people coming, so thank you for listening.

Please oppose this.

There's a l I I read names again, so if you don't hear me, let me know.

But number four, Elizabeth, number five, Gabe, number six, Will, number seven, I think.

Emmett or Everett.

Welcome.

My name is Elizabeth Oppenheimer.

I live in Ward 4.

Everyone with whom I've communicated directly about this proposal have reported that no one has asked if we wanted a drones program for first responders.

No one I've interacted with ever even heard that this was being proposed until two weeks ago.

I'm strongly against the concept of using drones as first responders, especially drones from a company that currently uses them for military operations.

When will the militarization of our city's police draw down for good?

I became interested in the right use of technology by the MPD when there was growing interest in using body cams.

So I went to a public hearing for my first time around 10 or 12 years ago of this very same committee.

As that hearing got underway, I heard one officer say to another, they're going to give us body cameras, and we will just break them.

I have since read that MPD officers often sought ways to undermine technology or resist its implementation until they learned how they could expand its use and get away with it.

Police officers and their supervisors have looked the other way or have made their process of investigating themselves completely opaque to the public.

Also, the police themselves reported unease in MPD's own technology systems per a summary of the information collected from focus groups ahead of implementing the consent decree, and you should have packets with some of this information.

Should have been brought to you.

Other cities don't have the harmful history of police killings of black people that Minneapolis has.

Say their names Terrence Franklin, Jamar Clark, George Floyd.

We need respect for our individual and shared humanity.

More relational work on the ground, not remote drones in the air.

Next up, Gabe.

Number five, six, Will, seven, Emmett, or Everett.

Hello, uh, my name is Gabe Heller.

I live in Weber Campton in Ward 4.

Um, so I've lived in North for nearly 20 years, and I've had people dump things on my property, even cars.

But the solution is not drones, it's for the police to get off their duffs and do their jobs.

Last time someone dumped a car in my yard, I called the police.

They shone a spotlight in my eyes and yelled, this better be stolen or else it's your responsibility.

Those are not the words of a policeman.

The with the patience to stake out an illegal clock chop shop or serial dumper to catch them in the act.

That man would not use a drone to catch people illegally dumping stuff in my yard.

That man would use a drone to catch me, not mowing my lawn during no moy and get me sighted for it.

That is a man who solves problems by killing the messenger.

The problem is not that the police don't have drones.

The problem is they don't trust Minneapolis residents.

They don't trust me.

So I don't trust them.

And sure, the consent decree is supposed to solve that, but it hasn't yet.

And until it has, I don't want the police to have access to drones.

And if boots on the ground is just impractical, and surveillance is the only solution.

I want that surveillance placed in the hands of the community, so we can decide what problems are serious enough that sharing information with the police is warranted.

Number six, well, seven, not sure.

Number eight, Heather, number nine, Caitlin, number ten, Bob.

Hello, my name is Will Really.

I've been a resident of Minneapolis Ward 4, Precinct Five, Weber Camden neighborhood for about five years now.

Um in the last few weeks I've helped my neighbors and friends organize uh grassroots petitions against this proposed DAFR program.

Those in over 500 signatures were emailed to the city council this morning.

My community has been having resources pulled out from under it as long as I've lived there.

We've lost grocery stores, biometrics, we're an urban food desert.

We're rapidly losing funding for our schools, especially for the arts and humanities.

Classes are being axed.

Uh my neighbors, I have neighbors struggling to afford food and rent, and their kids are struggling in under-resourced schools.

So when I hear that the city is potentially going to be spending big money on military-grade drone technology to the police in our neighborhoods, you'll hopefully understand that my first thought is you can't be serious.

We just spent months and during a brutal winter of military-equipped federal occupation and terrorization.

And on the heels of that, you wish to provide uh military-grade drone tech to the cops in our neighborhoods, in our already over-surveilled neighborhoods, purchased from a company that directly profits from warfare and imperialism.

You can't be serious.

And don't get me wrong, it wouldn't be okay even if these drones are bought from Timu.

It's just quite a red flag that you went straight for this particular provider.

We need money for our schools, for housing, for grocery stores, not drones for police.

Do not go forward with this program.

We're not okay with any version of Big Brother.

Thank you for your time.

Number seven, Everett.

Number eight, Heather, number nine, Caitlin, number ten, Bob.

Number eight.

Number seven is Everett.

That's next.

Number seven.

We can move on.

If Everett comes back, let us know.

Number eight, Heather.

Welcome.

Thank you.

My name is Heather Michelson.

I'm a resident of Ward 5.

These drones are not safe.

Two weeks ago in Brooklyn, New York, a SkyDo drone crashed out of the sky.

There's no explanation from the city or the company of why that happened or how.

That's the second one in a year in New York City, in Brooklyn City, sorry, that crashed for apparently no reason.

And these drones are, as someone else mentioned, used by the IDF for in the sorry, in their genocide on Palestine.

And not only that, but in October 2025, the Washington Post did a story that SkyDio provides information to ICE.

And Minnesota state law also permits drone footage to be used by any government entity, provided that they make a request in writing.

That means any time that there's a protest that drones that drones fly over.

Any government entity like DHS, ICE, can ask for that footage.

And that means any of us that attend will be put under a microscope.

Sorry, a microscope by people like Stephen Miller, who wants to classify anyone who attends those protests as a domestic terrorist and put us in jail for exercising our First Amendment rights.

And most of us in this room, I think, would agree that what ICE did and what they're continuing to do is wrong, and nobody wants to be.

Sorry.

And we don't want to fund this program or any other program that gives money to a company with offices in Israel to help fund their genocide.

Thank you.

Number 10, Caitlin.

Number 11, Maddie, number 12, Yan.

I think that.

Hi, my name is Caitlin Metzel, and I'm a resident and a property owner in the victory neighborhood of Ward 4.

Frankly, I was disappointed to learn that my council member is the one at the helm of this proposal.

This comes from the same council member who is virtually silent as our neighbors were being targeted, harassed, and snatched by ICE earlier this year at the peak of Operation Metro Surge.

My main concern with this pilot program is what happens after the pilot.

What will the true cost be to our community and our rights?

How and where will any data collected about our city and its residents be stored and for how long?

Will it be encrypted?

And most importantly, who will it be shared with?

And how can we guarantee it won't quickly be handed over to invading parties?

How can we guarantee it will not be used to observe, surveil, and target oppressed communities and constitutional observers within our city?

Sure, this presentation provided a hazy outline of usage policies, but historically the Minneapolis police department have not had a great track record of following their own policies and procedures.

Furthermore, we should not be sending our tax dollars to the Silicon Valley-based entity who are aiding the Israeli defense forces in their genocide of Gaza.

Over 21,000 Palestinian children have been murdered so far at the hands of the IDF, and some of that blood is on SkyDO's hands.

The MPD already has some drones it can use in the most emergent situations.

We should not be rewarding them with shiny new toys after they continue to rack up nebulous overtime, yet still fail to show up when called, and who cannot effectively answer why they so egregiously exceed their budget year after year.

Say no to SkyDio.

Thank you for your time.

Number 10, Bob.

Number 11, Maddie, 12, Yon, 13, Brandy, 14, S.

Martin.

Hello, my name is Bob Gunan.

I'm a resident of North Minneapolis in Ward 4.

I'm deeply disturbed that just months removed from Metro Surge when drone technology was used to surveil our immigrant community and the protests that followed.

That anyone would propose putting more drones in the sky over Minneapolis.

I oppose contracting with surveillance drone manufacturers SkyDio, the same company that sells drones to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

I am Jewish.

I oppose contracting with SkyDio, the same company that sells drones to the Israeli military for use in its genocide in Gaza.

Minneapolis should not be doing business with a company that profiteers from genocide.

I oppose the proposal to put surveillance drone technology in the hands of the Minneapolis police department, the same police that the Department of Justice found and engaged in unlawful discrimination against black and Native American residents and an unconstitutional surveillance practices that infringed upon First Amendment freedoms.

The same police that used drones to surveil the racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd.

When I door knocked in my neighborhood with a petition opposing the SkyDEO proposal, several people, upon hearing that.

Several people, upon hearing that it would mean drones in the skies above them, asked, where do I sign?

One couple expressed their opposition, but declined to sign because of fear of how the data might be used.

Drones will only worsen the fear of surveillance that many now share.

The sounds of Metro Surge still echo.

For those of you considering a yes vote, bear in mind that when your constituents find out that you voted for drones hovering over their neighborhood, you may be held accountable for that vote in the next election.

Thank you.

Next up, 11 Maddie.

Good afternoon, Chair.

Council members appreciate the opportunity.

My name is Maddie, and I live in Ward 7.

I oppose the contract with SkyDEO and a drone surveillance program for MPD.

When this was brought to council, city departments were quick to talk about the benefits, rescue, fire emergencies, and other logistical things, right?

We need to be honest that these are still surveillance tools and there are huge risks to resident privacy.

And when you actually look at the 11 reasons under state statute that law enforcement could use drones without a warrant, I see a lot of risks as well.

To collect, law enforcement may use a UAV to collect info from a public area if there is reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

Or over a public event where there is a heightened risk to the safety of participants or bystanders.

This could a hundred percent be used as a tool to expand state-sanctioned violence, surveil protests and dissent, surveil black and brown communities, and bring in huge amounts of visual data.

I worry that this will be the next course of violence against our unhoused neighbors, who, as a city, we've already decided uh don't deserve privacy, dignity, or any space to exist.

I wonder how this could affect community rapid response systems as we rely on community members to respond to ICE.

And I'd like to know how many of your immigrant constituents still living in fear would feel safer with this expanded surveillance through this third party specifically.

And as we make these investments in law enforcement, it gets harder to trust that council cares about privacy rights and over policing of communities of color.

And finally, the connection to genocide in Palestine, the concept of what the U.S.

does abroad uh comes home or the imperial boomerang, right?

This is literally what that means when we choose to use companies like SkyDio.

We are choosing to use those same tactics and technologies in our own neighborhoods, and pretty soon the testing ground becomes Minneapolis.

So I'm I'm asking you not to move forward with a pilot or a contract with SkyDio.

Thank you.

Number 12, Jan, 13 Brandy, 14, S.

Martin, 15, Emily, 16, Sana, 17, Mary.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Dr.

Jan Chen, professor of German.

I find it ironic that council would celebrate civil rights and then immediately consider more mass surveillance systems.

While other speakers today have already addressed how SkyDO is being actively used to abet genocide in Palestine, and while as an activist with Mirac in my private time, I rally against supporting SkyDio that has recently secured a half million dollar contract with ICE, I would also educate council on the broader picture from a critical security studies perspective.

Security is an imagined construct.

Jeff Hausmans, a preeminent scholar in critical security studies, describes security is a practice not of responding to enemy and fear, but of creating them.

It enacts our world as if it is a dangerous world, a world saturated by insecurities.

It invests fear and enmity in relations between humans and politicians rather than simply defending and protecting political units and people from enemies and fears.

Translated for the layperson here, the deployment of autonomous surveillance drones rests on the presumption that the regular people unto themselves are existential threats.

But if you accept and normalize that idea that every single person could be an existential threat, then you have already stripped your own residents of any inkling of humanity.

That's what totalitarian systems do, and that's what befell Philando Castile, George Floyd, Amir Locke, Techla Sunberg, and too many others in Minneapolis.

This is the paradox of security within a democratic society.

You cannot simultaneously claim that our government, this body, is for the people and by the people, while also deeming the people to be existential threats.

Yeah, but that's exactly what securitizing does.

And the more this presumption becomes normalized, the deadlier this presumption becomes.

And the more this becomes the norm, the more we build a surveillance state that rivals the Stasi, the secret German East German police.

I'm having a hard time reading, but I think it starts with the S, and I don't know what comes after that.

And I think the last name is Martin.

That's 14.

But first, Brandy 13.

Okay.

You'll be next.

Hold on one second, please.

I'm gonna pull my notes up.

Hi, uh, my name is Brandy Bennett.

I've been a resident of Minneapolis for five years, and uh I live in South Minneapolis, and we're uh Stevenson's district.

I am a privacy and data security uh attorney.

This is my practice area.

We are guaranteed under the United States and Minnesota constitutions a right of privacy from the government.

Right?

We have a Fourth Amendment and we have Section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution.

The statute that was proposed that we operate under here was passed in 2025.

It is untested in the Minnesota courts, and it is untested in the federal courts as to whether that statute is even remotely constitutional.

The Minnesota Data Government Act or Data Practices Act, apologies, um, is 30 years old.

It has been amended multiple times, but it has not been amended substantively in the last decade, except with regard to serv um service data for military members.

You have an outdated government practices statute that cannot regulate a technology that has emerged in the last 10 years.

I can speak on the civil liberties issues here that everybody else has.

We all lived through the occupation.

I was in, you know, I'm in Ward 8, right?

South Minneapolis, half mile from where Pretty was killed, half mile from where good was killed.

We watched ICE come in here with drones.

We watched ICE come in here and violate our constitutional rights.

Every technology given to state and federal law enforcement has been abused.

This will be used the same way.

The protocols that were put on place on that lovely presentation we had earlier are not sufficient from a privacy perspective.

The government practices act also requires that we do privacy impact assessments for government activities.

Where are those?

I know at least one reporter who has FOIA them who has not received them.

I'd love to read them.

I will volunteer my time for that.

I'll just end with you guys.

I'm just gonna end on Ben Frank Lincoln.

14.

Sarah Martin.

I think we could.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sarah Martin, and I am a member, I live in the third ward, and I call on you to reject any partnership with Sky Deal.

It's a company which is making its riches off the genocide of Gaza.

Last week marked 1,000 days of the US funded Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The official count or the known number of dead is 76,000 people, at least 28,000 of them children.

By that count, it means that 76 Palestinians have been murdered every day.

But that's no doubt a vast undercount.

Reputable studies have calculated that anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 people have been killed and are buried under the rubble.

Using those numbers, that means that 300 to 500 Palestinians are killed every day, and there's no question SkyDio drones account for many of those deaths.

You must decide to reject the contract with them and continue to do the right thing as you did when you passed one of the stronger, if not the strongest, ceasefire resolution in the country in 2024.

Or when you voted no to Zen City, another Israeli surveillance company.

We don't want our tax titlers going to companies profiting from the genocide.

And at companies whose drones have been used to surveil protesters, including those opposing the vicious and evil genocide.

Reject SkyDio, free Palestine.

Thank you.

Next up we have Emily 15, Sana, 16.

I'll invite folks if you agree, just maybe just use your little.

It's kind of hard to hear up here.

Thank you.

17 Mary, 18, Gene.

Emily Horwath, Ward 10.

June 10th, 2026.

There was an incident a block from the Alex Predi memorial.

A gun went off.

A woman and her daughter's life hung in the balance.

There are 15 police cars, two sheriffs, a sniper, and two police drones.

Over the course of hours, there was not anyone who changed things more than conflict negotiator.

Like the ubiquitous, you don't want to do that scenes in movies.

There are as many conflict negotiators on the entire MPD as there were police cars that day.

Fifteen, mostly sworn officers and a mental health professional, said Sergeant Cory Schmidt to KSTP.

The only thing a drone did was be shot down, causing confusion as a source misrepresented the drone in a way that could be mistaken for a human casualty.

Deprioritizing conflict negotiators to focus on drones would muddy the water and make the most sensitive situations a higher risk.

We already know what works: schools, social workers, conflict negotiators, city sanitation crews.

Since March 1st, 2025, at least 1,243 people have died in ID to drone strikes.

These were carried out by government security forces like those who killed Alex Predi and Renee Good.

When, not if ICE returns in force of the Twin Cities, they may bring drones.

If there are already drones in our skies, they will be harder to spot, easier to ignore.

When they are reported, how long do the how long to authenticate, whether they come from the MPD or ICE?

How long would it be that people are in danger when seconds count?

The 2026 elections are coming up with the primaries just next month.

Giving them the ability to scan our streets and watch our people is a dangerous thing.

As Mary told reporter Mohammed Arm Watch, it is not death we fear, it is the terror that comes before it.

The city of New York's Department of Investigation has reported that the NYPD's drone is first responder program broke the law by not disclosing the capabilities of and damage occurred by Scottio drones.

Eul Bugoslavski for Israeli defense states that SkyDio enables unmanned missions to be executed day and night.

Sergeant Jameson Harris for the US Army states that SkyDio drones can deploy grenades.

I propose another pilot program.

The chance to compare ourselves to other cities.

If we do not take this deal, nothing changes.

If we take the steel and it works out, things are a little better.

If we take this deal and we're wrong to you, we're a whole can of worms.

Thank you.

We are going to have more success.

Thank you.

17 Mary, 18, Gene, 19, John, 20, Greg.

I think I appreciate you all for your patience.

My name is Sanat Waswaz.

I am a worker in Minneapolis.

I work at the open book building in downtown Minneapolis.

A lot of the speakers that came before me already touched on many of my points.

I think right now this isn't about rhetoric.

This is about human life.

Excuse me.

This image.

This is Mohammed Ibad, a Palestinian from Gazza from the Shujayah neighborhood.

In July 2024, after a sweep, after hovering by quadcopter drones, just like the SkyDio drones proposed in Minneapolis, after the quadcopters had chosen their target, Muhammad's home was raided by the IDF.

He was taken to a room and mauled to death by IDF attack dogs.

Literally mangled to death.

Minneapolis.

When you choose to contract with SkyDio, you are deciding to be complicit in Mohammed Abhad's death.

You are deciding to be complicit in the genocide of Gaza.

In your pursuit of stopping crime, you are committing an even greater crime.

And that is the genocide and complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

I ask you today, say no to the SkyDio program for the following reasons.

You are being complicit in the targeting and surveillance of Palestinian journalists.

This is well documented.

Reporters without borders have found that over 220 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza during the genocide.

This is more than the amount killed in Vietnam and World War II put together.

We have documented empirical examples of this happening because of drone surveillance.

If Minneapolis is so concerned with theft, they would stop the theft of the Palestinian people.

Thank you.

Number 17, Mary, 18, Jean, 19, John, 20, Greg, 21, Maredith.

Good afternoon.

My name is Mary Ford, Ward 12.

I'm a member of the Anti-War Committee.

What happens in Gaza doesn't stay in Gaza.

Surveillance drones in Gaza quickly became weaponized drones.

They dropped explosives and fired bullets.

None of this is past tense.

AI powered SkyDio drones, battle-tested in Gaza, have invaded our U.S.

cities.

Hundreds and hundreds of law enforcement agencies now use SkyDEO drones.

The OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, qualifies this as a severe AI incident.

Why?

Because through drones, U.S.

domestic military surveillance has become normalized.

Our civil liberties are being eroded.

Our human rights are being violated nonstop.

In Minneapolis, we know that bad goes to worse at the drop of a hat.

I remember in late May, early June of 2020, during George Floyd, the Black Hawk helicopter swooping low and loud over my house, breaking tree branches, and scaring neighbors that had banded together.

The Minnesota State Patrol also flew a serious spy plane over our city at that time.

U.S.

Customs Border Patrol collected our data using a predator drone during George Floyd.

To track and pursue targets, both ICE and CBP have purchased SkyDEO drones.

This is not the company that Minneapolis wants to keep.

Number 18, Jean.

My name is Jean Burns.

I live in Ward 4.

So many people have spoken so powerfully about why not.

I want my counsel.

I know my council person won't do this, but I want you all to look critically at the presentation we were given.

I didn't take notes, but there was a lot of data missing about how much things cost, for instance.

He said that it would cost 150,000, just 150,000 to have those two drones on patrolling Word 4.

Just 150,000.

How much will it cost for the whole city?

How much will it cost once they analyze what it does?

Will people like say, yeah, we want more of them?

I want you all to look at that presentation and consider all of the ways in which data was missing, all of the facts, and how biased it was.

And I stand here in opposition to this drone program.

And every single neighbor, I helped collect the um over 300 signatures for the petition against this in our wards.

And not a single person I talked to in our wards or outside were supportive of this.

Not a single one.

Thank you.

Number 19, John.

19, John.

That's actually me now.

Okay.

John had to leave.

So.

Number 20 will be Greg.

21, Meredith, 22, Heather.

Well, my name is Bethany Lorraine Piety.

I live in the Falwell community and have served as an MPS educator on the North Side for 15 years.

I'm a que I'm queer, I'm a widow, I'm a mother, and I also am an advocate for my students and families.

I serve on the North Side.

Please note I'm here as a community member first and do not represent my school district or union with my words, but they are part of my identity.

In my service to the North Side, I have witnessed countless acts of police brutality.

My community and students reported an increase of anxiety and distrust distrust towards each other and the police during Operation Metro Surge.

My community deserves an opportunity to allow their nervous systems to heal so that they continue to do the good work that is happening each day in our classrooms and our community spaces.

The presence of drones will simply serve to activate an already activated community.

Again, the presence of drones will only serve to activate an already traumatized community.

The presence of drones will increase the harm perpetrated against north side residents.

Drones do not need to be a part of our history on the North Side.

The presence of these drones in our community, when I understand how they have been used historically, deeply concerns me as a historian, community member, and advocate.

The presence of drones from the very same government contract that the federal government uses against Palestine is grotesque and sends a message that we support the genocides they are perpetrating.

Do not put Minneapolis' name on a yet another genocide perpetrator list.

What would it look like to put people before profit in this case and move away from the potential for even more bloodshed on what we all know is stolen land?

So I love our north side community, and it needs space to heal and rebuild that um trust amongst each other.

We've had a complicated history on the North Side, and drones do not need to be a part of this history.

Thank you.

Number 20, Greg.

Hello, members of council.

Um my name is Greg Lind.

I live in ward eight.

I'm a data engineer by trade.

I'm speaking against this SkyDEO pilot program.

I want to focus on four aspects unclear trial goals, unproven mission effectiveness, mission creep, and regulatory inadequacy.

Unclear trial goals with no stopping criteria.

There are no defined goals or success criteria for this trial.

Metrics will be collected about response time and other factors, but is there any measurement outcome that would stop this program from going forward into a full contract?

If not, then this is just an operations test and not actually any kind of experiment or trial.

Ineffective admission.

No peer review or independent study links drones to crime reduction in any jurisdiction in the United States.

Drone companies cite operational metrics like response time because that's the only things they have.

And since they use those as both their outcomes and their operations metrics, they can juice their own stats on this.

When operational metrics are used as a proxy measure, they're no longer actually effective as operational metrics.

Mission creep.

Mission creep and mission blurring is built into this pilot program.

It's if it's an emergency response program, then why are they badged in police livery?

And if it's a policing program, then why is it being housed out of MFD uh property?

And this is this is confusing.

If you want to consider emergency management goals with drones, maybe that's been successful in other jurisdictions.

But this is clearly a policing action.

And incomplete regulatory framework, as um probably as the attorney said previously under section 6619.

Warren exceptions are far too wide for using this.

It's easy to acquire this data, and it's very vulnerable to abuse.

I don't know anything about tests.

I'm not an attorney, obviously, so just uh do your own research on that.

So maybe this is the right answer, who knows?

But this is not the right trial at the very least.

So who knows?

Thank you.

21, Mayoredith, 22, Heather, 24.

Rotom, 25, Laura, 26, Grace.

Um Meredith went first, so that was like the little remix we did.

So my name is Heather Hinkle.

I'm a resident of Ward 5, and a lot of my neighbors have already said how I feel about this contract, right?

This pilot program.

I want to talk a little bit about SkyDio as a company.

They're a private company, so they do not have to disclose any of their financials to the public at all.

This is not a very transparent kind of business model, so we can't even say how much money they've made off of selling drones to countries like Israel.

I think if transparency is important, it's important that the company that you want to consider partnering with is transparent and inherently a private organization like SkyDio is not transparent.

We can't find the information that they produce internally to prove that they have an effective business model.

And that is not an appropriate choice to make as a city, as a taxpayer.

I don't want my taxes to go to companies that profit off of genocide.

And I think a lot of my neighbors have already stated that.

I also think that your constituents will remember your votes today, and they will bring that information with them to the poll when you guys are up for re-election.

So I do want you guys to consider that as well and actually listen to what your constituents want without having already made up your minds for your vote on this contract.

Thank you.

Number 24 R.

Herman 25, Laura 26, Grace, 27, Allison.

Hello, my name is Rotam Herman.

I am a ward of, excuse me, I'm a constituent of Ward 10.

I'm an academic and an educator.

Excuse me.

I am also an Israeli American and as such am very deeply concerned about the SkyDEO proposal for several reasons.

First, I have seen the normalization of such technology in Israel firsthand and how its use and abuse becomes expected, even deemed necessary in more and more situations than it was ostensibly planned to be used.

I have seen how this normalization gradually deteriorates moral standards, legal protections, and the humanity of both the people using it and the people against whom it is used.

Second, I believe that using the same surveillance technology here as is being used in a genocide against Palestinians could be reasonably understood as an endorsement of Israeli crimes, and that we should avoid such an endorsement at all costs.

Lastly, having seen how this technology is used in Israel and in other parts of the US, we should avoid opening the door to the same terror and abuses happening to Minneapolis residents.

Rather than opening the door to this kind of surveillance, I believe we should instead refocus efforts to protect protesters, free speech, freedom of movement, and the human rights of all our citizens.

Thank you.

Number 25, Laura 26, Grace, 27, Allison, 28, Mercedes.

Hi, my name is Laura.

Um I'm a resident of North Minneapolis and Ward 5.

Um residents in North already know what the problems are, and allowing drones to surveil us surveil us is the wrong solution to the problems being cited.

A neighbor of mine recently had a legal dumping occur on their lot.

Um, like most illegal dumping, it occurred when no one was watching, so there was no 911 call.

311 had no interest in the video that they had of the dumping incident, and they were also told that now that they had this stuff on their property, they had to clean it up within a week or get a fine.

Drones won't fix any of that.

When a service is free, you are the product.

So we can just look at Flock to see how surveillance data is used freely by ICE and other law enforcement agencies to harass vulnerable communities.

It's also well documented that surveillance data is poorly protected and often misused.

You can look at law enforcement misuse of surveillance data and tools to stock and harass intimate partners and exes as an easy example.

Skydeo, Ring, Flock, and other companies that offer surveillance bill themselves as security companies.

But in reality, they're just data brokers selling the information obtained through their surveillance to the highest bidder.

North Minneapolis is already overly surveilled.

You can easily look at maps of existing license plate readers and flock cameras to see the concentration in North Minneapolis.

If this surveillance was so amazing at solving and preventing crime, we would see its use in South and Southwest Minneapolis too, but is conspicuously less evident there.

Lastly, while the plot pilot for this program is free, its continue use is not, and I'm not so naive as to think this is a one-and-done situation.

Please vote no.

26, Grace, 27, Allison, 28, Mercedes, 29, Megan.

Hello, Council.

My name is Grace Brunfeld.

I've been in Minneapolis resident for six years.

I live in Ward 10 currently in the uptown neighborhood.

Um like many people that came today, I prepared a lovely, well thought-out speech for you all about the Minnesota statutes and the vagueness of them and the concerns about you know terrorist designations and where this data is going to be used in the federal government.

But many people have raised those points, thankfully, so I get to use my time for something else.

Councilmember Chavez, you rightfully asked us to show respect to the council when you uh introduced the public comments.

Um, on the TV when we're in the room, we actually can only see the speaker.

And I just want to acknowledge that the respect needs to go both ways.

In the 10 minutes I've been in this room, Councilmember Vita has been on her phone for about 85% of that time.

And I can't help but be frustrated, even as a non-constituent of you.

Like that so many Ward 4 people came today, took time off work, took time to prepare well thought out statements, and it feels like you're doing the active listening thing when you're in a meeting you don't want to be in, where you're like looking up every five seconds.

So I just want to make that known and ask for the mutual respect, please, to your constituents, and just to continue this um advocating for the people and what they actually want.

And folks can please keep it to the topic at hand, which today is the drone conversation.

Next up, 27, Allison, 28 Mercedes.

29, Megan, 30.

It's hard to read, but I think the first name starts with a B.

Megan.

Hello, council members.

My name is Allison.

I'm a Ward 9 resident, and I grew up in Southwest Minneapolis and graduated from Washburn High School.

I'm also a member of Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America.

Um I'm here to ask you to vote no on the SkyDio drone proposal because it will actively endanger our community rather than protect us, and Minneapolis residents do not want to fund a company and technology that is complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.

We just heard the civil rights department, we just heard about the civil rights department's work, one pillar of which is ensuring equitable city contracting.

How is contracting with the weapons manufacturer SkyDio who worked with Israel to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, equitable contracting?

Have you forgotten that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has active warrants for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity?

Have you forgotten that the UN has ruled Israel is committing a genocide?

And SkyDio happily profits from these crimes.

Apartheid South Africa fell when governments and companies worldwide finally chose to boycott and divest from companies complicit in apartheid.

That is the choice that you have before you today.

And have you forgotten your police department's relationship with our community?

You really think you can bring military grade drones into our city and promise us MPD won't abuse them?

When MPD has failed miserably to keep up with the consent decree and done nothing to gain our trust.

We have already seen how surveillance technology is abused and used illegally by other police departments across the US.

And you think NPD will do better than them.

Minneapolis residents do not want our tax dollars to fund a company complicit in genocide and war crimes.

We do not want that company using the same technology in our own city.

So please be on the right side of history, protect your own residents, and don't fund a genocidal company.

Thank you.

Twenty-A Mercedes 29, Megan, 30.

B, first name, first letter in the name.

Number 31, Natalie 32, Kat 33, Emily.

And sorry that I'm saying names really quickly.

It's just we have two other items today, too.

Want to make sure we don't lose quorum.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Mercedes Raymond Schneider.

I've been a resident here for six years.

I'm a massage therapist.

This past weekend, my story reached over 700,000 views.

My video went viral, and I spoke out about what happened to me at Halo Healing Therapies here in Minneapolis, and my concerns about the camera evidence handled by the first precinct Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Hennepin County data collections, and responsible authority.

This is not about me anymore.

My question is who is watching the people who are supposed to be watching us?

I believe Minneapolis should be asking hard questions before expanding surveillance.

If these programs begin in North Minneapolis, a predominantly black community, we need to ask why.

What protections exist against racial profiling and socioeconomic discrimination?

Why should one community become the testing ground?

Many cameras should are many cameras already have the capability with software updates to support AI tools, facial recognition, movement tracking, and license plate recognition.

Whether these features are used depends on public policy, and the public deserves transparency before surveillance expands, not after.

The public deserves transparency before surveillance expands, not after.

Technology should protect freedom, not quietly normalize constant monitoring.

I don't need it.

It's weird.

Without strong oversight, powerful surveillance tools can be abused by bad actors, whether inside or outside the government.

History teaches us that unchecked power will be misused.

I am asking the city to choose transparency over secrecy, over secrecy, accountability over silence, and the constitutional rights over unchecked surveillance.

The public deserves answers, oversight, and the public deserves to know exactly what kind of future we'll build we're building here in Minneapolis.

Say no to SkyDio.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

I'll try to keep it short for you.

My name is Megan Peterson.

I'm a resident in Ward 4.

I first met you at the DFL.

I have over 15 years' experience with industrial Internet of Things and connectivity, including surveillance and monitoring.

In the briefing in May and restated today, you've been sold a bill of goods that promises utility for the greater good.

The reality that we need to consider rarely matches the ideal that you're presented with.

My concern as a homeowner and community member in Ward 4 is twofold.

That it will be a violation of constitutional rights against warrantless surveillance in Shaytree versus United States.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that you have an expectation of privacy and even short-term surveillance of movement is a search subject to the Fourth Amendment.

Secondly, I'm concerned about not just how this technology could be used, but how it could be abused.

As part of the pilot, if you decide to move forward against public opinion, then I would ask that you establish clear and explicit privacy and accountability guidelines and safeguards, including direct oversight and criteria for ending the program if they fail to meet established goals.

I'm a resident of Ward 4, and I urge you to vote no on this DFR pilot program.

Thank you.

Number 30 B.

Starts with the B.

30.

Number 31, Natalie 32, Kat33, Emily 34, Reverend Lauren.

Welcome.

My name is Natalie.

I'm gonna call this what it is.

This is technofascism.

You all are completely comfortable selling our lives for blood money.

You want to use Israel's weapons against a city already occupied by the Gestapo or ICE.

They killed our neighbors, execution style in the streets.

We all saw it.

Now you want to take this a step further and execute people with these drones.

What will your excuse be when this happens?

The AI didn't have enough training.

Minneapolis will not be the testing ground for your militization militarization of the police.

The police are already one of the biggest wastes of resources.

You've got cops sitting and watching public beaches.

Ice has been camped out at our public parks.

We already can't leave the house without you flying spying on us with flock.

Fifteen community members, union workers, teachers were raided and ripped out of their homes by the feds who you are colluding with behind our backs.

Now you want to ramp it up, step it further and use drones to hunt people, just trying to live.

You know what really stops crime?

Ensuring that people's basic needs are met.

I spent America's 250th going out and feeding my homeless neighbors.

I'm not part of an organization.

I just give a fuck.

No matter what people's circumstances are, we take care of each other.

But Fry and all of y'all want to round up and criminalize people who are being victims of a system that is meant to extract everything from you.

We the people here are closer to the folks living in tents than we will ever be to these rich monsters bringing forth the techno-authoritarian weapons.

They would rather spend your tax dollars on drones for the police to play video games with living targets than support meeting real needs.

You've done nothing to help the people.

You've done everything to hide your complicity in the fascist regime, and the people are better off without you.

Number 30, I think it's actually Brian.

Hi, uh, my name is Kat, and I've been a resident of Minneapolis for not very long.

I honestly was coming up here and planning to strike the tone that everyone understood the seriousness of what was going on.

But I've watched the last several dozen people walk through here and had blank stares from the committee at each not every one of them, but a good portion of them.

It's been very disheartening to see, like, we're talking about the futures of our families and the people we care about.

But regardless, let me make it clear.

Let me set aside the politics.

This is like a breaking point for your constituents.

I mean, there's a saying about bread and circuses, right?

And right now the government is attempting to crack down on the internet, which, as we know, is a big distraction for my generation and above.

Um, you know, you're getting rid of the circus.

People are gonna want to go outside, and now they're gonna have drones watching them whenever they want to step outside.

Like, this isn't gonna last.

And I think that a part of most, I mean, I think politicians have to know this because otherwise you wouldn't be making drones or like making contracts with drone companies to spy on us if you didn't understand that people were reaching a breaking point.

So you can try to keep stopping it with security drones and all that, or you can like do the right thing and stand by your constituents now and not sell them out to a literal genocidal state.

Thank you.

33 Emily 34, Reverend Lauren, 35, Avery, 37, Bethany, 38, Zach.

I'm Reverend Lauren McGrail, and I'm representing the Minnesota Christians for Free Palestine.

Before I give our statement, I want to just say a few words about myself.

I'm a recent um person who moved here in February from Maine.

So one cold place to another in the middle of the surge.

And before that, I served my church in Palestine, living in occupied East Jerusalem, working with the YWCA of Palestine.

I went in and out of Gaza.

Many of my friends are dead because of drones like this, and our government working with Israel.

So this is also very personal to me, not in the way that everyone else has expressed.

But let me give you the statement from the organization that I joined as soon as I could.

We, Minnesota Christians for a free Palestine, are a community of Christians who are called to use our public voice and collective power to advocate for peace, challenge Christian Zionism, and resist all forms of empire.

We do this by mobilizing against the use of our tax dollars to perpetrate the genocide of the Palestinian people.

We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people by supporting the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

We celebrate and support our mainline churches that are taking principal stands against companies that are profiting from the illegal settlements, ongoing violence, and genocide.

We commend the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA, for its recent decision to divest.

Thank you.

Number 35.

Avery 38, Zach 39.

Arlene 40 Josiah.

Hi, my name is Avery.

Um, this is my first time going up and speaking to a council like this.

Um, I like politics, but um I haven't been very active myself.

Um I think that you know, uh a lot of my colleagues here saying very similar things.

You've probably heard a lot of um uh arguments about why the drones are bad, but uh I want to speak to um kind of public position.

Um I hate these things.

I I think I look so dumb, like reading my speech from a phone, but uh I do have some important thoughts that I do want to get down.

Um, first I want to acknowledge politics are complicated.

Um politics are this infinite juggle between uh meeting people's needs and juggling public opinion, which are sometimes at odds with each other.

What I don't understand is why we would implement the drone program under the guise of public safety.

We, the people, don't trust the uh we don't trust the people or the system administering this.

And I know a lot of you don't either.

What I most don't understand is what problem we're trying to solve.

People don't feel unsafe because there aren't enough drones in the air.

Most people don't feel unsafe because of some perceived rise in violent crime amongst bad actors.

Most people here are afraid of the police because of ICE and because of the very institutions that are sworn to protect people.

From my perspective, this is a wasteful and unnecessary spending.

We all know that when the government is given a certain kind of power, that they will never relinquish that power.

The less money that goes into civilian surveillance and drone money, the more money we have to feed our poor and support our social safety net systems.

I understand your power is limited by many factors, some designed by the system, and some because burning bridges with the people you work with every day, such as the Minneapolis Police Department, is unproductive for your goals and your position.

However, drone funding undermines the hard work that the city has been doing in order to rebuild public trust with the police and local federal agents.

I urge the council not to pass this funding to make progress towards a security issue that does not exist.

Thank you.

Number 38, Zach 39, Arlene 40, Josiah 41, Patrick.

So that would be 38, Zach.

Hello, my name's Lavish.

I live in Ward 13.

Grateful to speak to not Michael Rainville today.

Um, do you guys remember Jamal Kashkogi, the American citizen and Saudi journalist that was chopped into pieces and put into a barrel of acid in the Saudi consulate in Turkey?

That was in 2019.

Do you guys remember the pagers that exploded in Lebanon, killing over 2,000 people and injuring over 3,000, 60% of which were children under the age of 12?

Both of those, and I hope you guys did your research on this, and I'm not telling you this for the first time, were conducted by Unit 8200, Special Intelligence of the IDF.

Scottio drones are also done and conducted by Special Intelligence Unit 8200 of the IDF.

Scottio drones are a CIA-backed development that have been surveilling and killing Palestinian people the entirety of the genocide.

And who else knows what other countries that we may not know about because of these covert programs, right?

You combine this with the massive increase of flock cameras in the empire's current surveillance state, and then we watch the imperial boomerang inevitably unfold.

As what we allow to be done to Palestinians, is now going to be done to us because when you don't stand up against the empire when it doesn't benefit you for people that don't look like you, it turns on to us, and that's exactly what's happening.

So everyone sitting up here, except for Michael Rainville, because he's getting MAGA donations, will be responsible for the surveillance and ensuing deaths of your citizens.

SkyDio is already in 800 cities.

While data centers are destroying our earth, there's still a genocide here on Dakota land of indigenous and black people.

And the fact that y'all are even considering this is mind-blowing.

I know a couple of y'all care about Palestinians.

Lebanese, Cubans, Venezuelans, Congolese, Sudanese, but most of y'all don't.

But if you do care about your children, thank you.

If you allow this to happen to Philistini babies, thank you.

It will now happen to your children as well.

If we can if we can please keep the topic at hand, that would be really important.

This is 33.

I'm afraid I was skipped.

33?

Are we already on?

Sorry, never mind.

Give me a second.

Emily?

Yeah.

Welcome.

Oh, thank you so much for letting me jump in.

My number was that?

I'm 33.

33.

The next person would be then 39 Arlene.

Okay, yep.

Hello, hi.

I have lived in Minneapolis since 2007.

I have been a homeowner here since 2016.

So I do have some money invested in this place, and I truly do not want my real estate tax dollars going to a company that is part of a genocide.

Um this vote should have an incredibly obvious answer.

I did hear someone talking earlier about the cost projections of these drones, and I even heard the words cost savings, but uh there are plenty of ways to save money.

The Minneapolis police could just assault people less often.

I have been in the limb system.

I have looked up the amounts of the settlements, the payouts that people receive when they sue the city, and it is an enormous amount of money.

People used to think that body cams were going to help solve crime, but they seem to be turned off at very critical moments.

Uh, the drones also would not help solve crime.

Um terrible ideas often have some kind of affront, a fake reason used to mask something else that is not being said out loud.

I do not believe these drones would help the people of Minneapolis in any way, shape, or form.

I'm sure someone has tried to tell you that they will.

That is not true.

Uh Minneapolis does not need to turn into big brother from 1984.

Thank you.

Number 39, Arlene 40, Josiah 41, Patrick.

Thank you all for your patience.

So just ask, please keep it respectful.

All right.

Thank you.

I'm happy to be here.

My name's Arlene Matheson.

I live in Ward Eleven, and I the comments have echoed what I feel the comments have really echoed.

Um, I retired early to dedicate my time to climate action.

I want to see the city spend money on climate and other things that help people, not these false solutions.

Uh flying cameras aren't going to actually help anybody any more than AI is going to solve climate change.

So thank you.

Next up, 40 is Josiah 41, Patrick 42, Derek 43, A44, bitch.

Hello, Chair and members of the committee.

Thank you for holding this public hearing to give me an opportunity to speak.

My name is Patrick McDougall, a resident of Ward 13.

I'd like to outline a number of concerns.

In addition to the Fourth Amendment and privacy concerns and human rights abuses perpetuated by Sky Dios's other customers, my neighbors have shared today, I'd like to focus on a number of other concerns.

I'm worried about the noise that the neighbors nearby will have to endure.

I encourage you all to look into the 1996 and 2007 MAC settlements for airpoint airport noise.

Neighbors living uh within the airport having greater than 60 decibels of noise.

Uh the Mac had to pay out 126 million dollars and 185 million dollars in 1996.

Uh drones are significantly louder than that.

Uh they are 70 to 95 decibels loud as far as I could tell.

I'd like to also uh make a comment about aviation safety.

Uh I myself am a student pilot uh who have has flown out of Crystal Airport before.

Uh Crystal Airports um uh Minneapolis underlies Crystal Airport's Class D airspace uh and also borders Robinsdale.

Uh Robinsdale has North Memorial Hospital, which has Medivac helicopters that are landing and taking off from the top of the building.

Um and I'd also like to point out that Crystal Airport has 41,000 landings and takeoffs uh at Crystal.

And the planes are very low at that point when they're taking off and landing.

Uh, and they could be conflicts with police drones operating in Minneapolis.

Uh finally, I'd like to uh call out that um as one of the other members who spoke uh talked about um the metrics in terms of how these things should be evaluated.

Um I'd like to encourage the committee to look at the incrementality of this.

So if, for example, police were going to respond anyway, I'd like to make sure that you're taking into account like what would have happened had these drones not been present.

Thank you for your time.

42, Derek, 43A, 44, Rich, 45, Julia.

Thank you all.

Alright, so uh I'm Derek.

I think other people have done a great job talking about the civil rights issues here.

Um, I want to actually seriously question the actual utility of drones as a first responder.

Uh I think the MPD might be falling, or the city rather might be falling for another uh just a kind of a slick sales pitch.

Uh so these things would have there's no way for the operator to actually talk with anyone on site.

Uh that means these things are gonna have pretty limited capability of like actually gathering information about what's happening.

It's just a flying camera.

Most domestic disturbances are gonna take place indoors.

I can't see these things being actually very useful for much beyond, you know, mission creep where they just become the thing that's like monitors protests beyond essentially becoming a mass survey surveillance tool.

Uh I think the public is going to hate seeing these like faceless, voiceless drones flying around observing them.

Uh I think it's going to really undermine the you know remaining trust that people have in our police departments.

Uh I was also pretty frightened to hear that our data would be kept safe by department policy.

It was also department policy to use the maximum restraint technique that killed George Floyd.

And so forgive me if I don't quite trust department policy to keep me safe.

Uh uh department policy can also change.

Yeah, they're not sharing data now, but in 10 years they might be.

I don't really this is something I really can't trust to not, you know, scale over time to not grow over time.

Uh I also want to say that uh uh mainly I really think this is going to end up with a lot more uh unnecessary addresss, a lot more unnecessary assaults on officers.

I can't see this actually leading to uh more safety for anyone.

I really can't see this, I think it's like every other big tech invention.

It's not really gonna benefit the public home that all that much, but it's gonna benefit the company that created it a whole lot.

I think this is just going to make money for SkyDio and not a whole lot else.

Uh, in conclusion, this is gonna be an expensive way to not increase public safety.

Please don't give away my civil liberties because some like fancy tech guy from California came and gave a nice sales pitch.

43A.

Uh hello everyone.

Uh uh everyone else has made such good points.

I'm really getting down the list here.

But uh anyway, I wanted to bring up search and seizure laws.

Uh, I don't know if you all are aware, but there's plain view doctrine.

I really question what that means when you can have telephoto lenses and um like infrared cameras and heat cameras and such that fly over people's houses.

Uh I also worry about them setting up things like what they would have at the state fair was essentially they just have drones in the air providing like 24-7 surveillance all the time, um, which I don't know if you've seen that at the state fair, but look for this year.

Uh I would also, uh, you know, we're again we're getting down there, so stay with me.

You know, I'm I'm mad that you guys have money for this when we don't have lifeguards.

I mean, you like give us lifeguards, not this stuff.

Also, uh, also, um, I've been trying to get a hold of data for uh God, flock uh cameras for for months now, going on six months.

It's court ordered that I should be able to get a hold of this.

Uh my request was denied, it's uh now being appealed.

Uh, I appealed probably four months ago.

I know that department is backed up, but um uh, you know, again, again, get one of these flock cameras as well.

Also, you know, if you guys can't give me data for this, will you give me data for other things?

And the answer is probably not, and then there's gonna be another uh like court finding in a couple of months saying that you know what, all this footage and all the findings from these drones are also public information, and you know what?

Uh, you guys are gonna drag your heels on giving that information as well.

So uh yeah, just you know, uh get rid of the flock hammers, do not accept this.

Uh, and release all the public publicly available information that should be publicly available from all existing ALPRs.

I know you guys use other ones.

I know that there's some offering runs, I imagine they're cheaper and they uh make people less mad, but they need to go as well.

Thank you.

Number 44, Rich 45, Julia 46, Natalie 47, Asher and Lass 48 Hassan.

Mr.

Chairman, members of the uh group, my name is Rich Neumeister.

I'm one of the foremost folks on privacy and open government in the state.

I've been doing it for a half a century, and I know some of you, some of you have even referred folks for me to talk to on some of those on some of those issues.

What I wanna be able to talk is about five things I think you need to do if you're gonna go ahead with the study.

I helped write the law in 2019, I'm familiar with all these dynamics in the dashboard.

You must make sure all information is available on the dashboard, the exception of the law, why it the case number, uh also other information to where, and also put on top of the dashboard that people will be able to see where the drones go, that they can do a data request because a lot of public information is public, more detailed of why the drone was used or whatever.

That brings accountability in one, build the system so that when one asks, because under state law, there is video available and is available to the public if it becomes an active criminal investigation.

This I get drone video all the time, and this is where I've seen where police officers will go after people at rest that gives an eye for accountability and transparency.

See, I haven't testified in Minneapolis in years.

I'm a St.

Paul kid, so can't get used to this.

Number three, and at the legislature a lot, you sit down.

There's a fine line between patrolling and going out for first response in my studies of what other cities have done.

So you need to look at that when you come up with some plans for this study.

You and the city of Minneapolis need to have some evaluative uh marks if you're gonna do this 75-day thing.

And I would be willing to work with the chair or uh council Payne, who I've worked with in the past, to have some of those, because as you know, under city ordinance, you can be more restrictive.

And the real thing is that thank you, Rich.

Don't have an ongoing clause that it continues past 75 days, stop and evaluate.

Thank you, Rich.

And thank you very much for your time.

And you can submit those to council comment if you want to work with the clerks.

Next up, 45 Julia, 46, Natalie 47, Asher, 48 Hassan.

And if you wish to testify, you still can, but not required, and we also need to move on to other topics.

Um good afternoon, city council members and colleagues.

My name is Julia Gerinbeck Miller, and I live in the Seward neighborhood ward too.

I have lived my entire life in South Minneapolis.

I've gone to school here, and I'm proud to be from here.

And the safety I have felt in the in the city has not come from police ever, nor will it come from this proposed AI drone implementation.

Now, when I say I have always felt safe here, I am not a person that the suspicious person's alert or protection from suspicious people applies to me.

Um as mentioned in this slideshow.

I'm not a person that the drones will identify as a credible threat ever.

So this new drone implementation will only further invade immigrants and people of color and their personal privacy.

Not to mention that ICE is still very much present and active in our city and everywhere else.

SkyDio was not asked for ever.

Definitely not by the undocumented immigrants currently in ICE death camps right now, nor by any Minneapolis residents.

I encourage for this program to not go through and to be shut down immediately.

Thank you.

46, Natalie 47, Asher, 48 Hassan.

Hello, thank you for having me.

My name is Natalie.

I was born in Minnesota.

I've lived in Minneapolis for the last seven years, and I currently live in Ward 7.

I like to think of myself as a normal resident of Minneapolis.

When I care about something politically, I go out and I show my support, whether that be at an event or a rally or a demonstration or a protest or whatever that might be.

Earlier we mentioned the uses of drones without warrants, which included areas that might be suspected of having criminal activity or events which might become unsafe, both of which are very open-ended.

This is a very obvious slippery slope into cataloging and recording people, possibly with facial recognition down the line, which I'm opposed to.

I believe um attending the demonstrations and protests uh is a necessary part of being in a democracy and making our voices heard.

In our political climate, activists and protesters are being labeled as extremists.

If I go to a protest for any reason, I don't want to be surveilled, cataloged, shared with government agencies, and labeled as an agitator or an extremist, or something even worse.

So please, I urge you all to vote against the SkyDio deal and any sort of drone surveillance program for Minneapolis.

The people of the city do not want it.

I appreciate your time.

47 Asher, 48 Hassan.

Over here.

Uh, we've heard a lot of people speak today about the drone company's connection to the U.S.

Israeli genocide in Gaza.

I had heard one person speak about the Imperial Boomerang and the weapons used in Gaza coming back to be used in the US, like the deadly exchange program, and another speak about body cameras and its effects detailed in the book Propaganda.

I wish to make it clear to all that are present.

The state is not class neutral.

The state is organized committee of the ruling class.

And in a capitalist system, the state is beholden to the interests of the capitalist class.

This is a class war, and every tool in our class and me uh is a weapon to be used against us.

Uh we must agitate, educate, and organize.

Number eight, Hassan.

First, uh, my name is Haroon, not Hassan.

It may be somebody else.

It says Hassan here.

So is there anybody else named Hasan?

Well, there was a man that stepped out, actually.

Okay.

Did you sign up?

If you don't haven't signed up after you testify, can you please just sign up?

I have signed up.

I believe it's me, 48.

Yeah, that's me.

It's uh H-A-S-A-N.

R-U-N.

So you'll just if you can just sign up after.

We have uh 48 that we're missing for Hassan.

I'm 48.

Oh, don't okay.

I think we'll just figure that out after.

If you you could just sign up again, that'll be helpful for us.

Thank you outside.

After you could speak.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

All right.

I wasn't prepared to speak today, but after hearing everyone speak about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, this gave me the courage to stand up and say something.

The most horrifying thing I've seen in my life is an infant in Gaza dying in pain underneath rubble.

And the corporation responsible for that is a corporation you all want to do business with.

Is this how morally bankrupt we are as a country, as a people?

It doesn't matter.

To see tens of thousands of children slaughtered and to to do business with them to give them our money.

Are these the values that the city council represents?

The state, this country.

But I was too young to understand.

Now I'm a little older.

I understand that it's capitalism, it's money.

Nothing else.

And then killing.

When will it end?

When does the killing end?

When do the lives of children matter more than money?

And why don't they matter more than money to all of you?

That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else wishing to address the committee?

And I'm gonna ask three times, going once, going twice.

Going three times.

And Council President Payne, if you mind leaving after Council Member V Tab returns, that would be helpful so we don't lose quorum.

Um I just with that, seeing no one else wishing to speak, I will now close the hearing.

I just want to thank the public for coming to testify.

Uh we don't want to lose quorum in general, so that's why I we want to make sure that we can get through this item.

Folks can take a vote on this item, and then we can proceed to the last three items that we have on the agenda.

So with that, um, I will now open the queue.

Well, I will close the public hearing as I said earlier, and I'll open up the queue to see if any committee members want to say any comments, um, ask questions.

I'll first um pass it to council president Payne since you will have to leave as soon as possible, if that's okay with everybody.

Just quick point, and is there are are people hoping to take a vote before we take off before?

The goal here, and I can explain the goal here.

The goal is gonna be moving it forward without recommendation, and for the public to know what that means is uh it's a vote of no position.

So the final vote will happen on Thursday, where the full city council will be able to vote either in support or against of the contract.

So today the goal will be moving it forward without a recommendation, and um, so that's the goal today.

Yep.

So the public, the the what that means is it's no position on the contract.

The contract would then come to a final vote at full council where all thirteen council members will be able to vote in favor of it or not.

That's how committees work.

A vote from a committee is not an official final action on a vote.

That's just a recommendation that then goes to the city council to make a final decision.

Okay.

Council President Payne.

Yeah, I just want thank you, Chair Chavez.

I just wanted to uh say I have to go to the Board of Estimate and Taxation at 4 o'clock.

I had a number of questions about this.

Um, any of them having to do with um policy four two-two-six on UAVs.

I don't think I have the time to actually get into those questions.

So I'm just hoping that um commander that you could be available during the full council meeting when we take the final vote on this to actually be able to speak to some of those questions or connect with me before that.

Council member waiting.

And confirm we don't lose quorum with four people, correct?

That's correct.

Good, cool.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Uh, and thank you to to all I think 49 folks that have come in uh uh spoke uh right.

I'm writing down here, right?

I think I have 37 individual um concerns uh for members of community today about uh specific things related to uh the Scotty Yo contract.

And so uh I have a a large list of questions, and so for whoever it makes the most sense, DC, if that makes sense for you, happy to kind of walk through them.

Uh right, uh outside of kind of my understandings about the program.

I think there are a lot of uh what we are hearing, a lot of uh uh valid concerns about a program such as this.

Uh I think the ones that I am hearing kind of as it just goes writing them down, uh, the first I think level of this uh question is around surveillance uh and surveillance kind of capacities uh with this level of technology and these drones, and so uh can you speak to uh right your understanding of what these drones are they going to be used for surveillance technology?

Do they have the capacity to surveil anything uh in relation to that would be helpful and any clarification?

Sure.

Uh through the chair to Councilman Whiting.

Um let me just say I brought uh Sergeant Roger Moo up, he runs operations too for our drone, our current drone unit.

So if there's any questions, I might defer to him.

Um but we we do not surveil with our drones.

Their mission purpose, um, if it's uh an operation from like was mentioned earlier, the operation down on Nickelet.

If we're gonna use drones um to make the scene uh or else that get more information on something that's going on, or if it is, yeah, we are responding to an active 9-1 call.

Um, but by no means are we using these for any type of surveillance.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Uh as it relates to kind of the the state statute specifically about the uses uh in which these drones can kind of be uh flown piloted.

Uh the one that raises I think a larger question specifically for surveillance for me uh is the the portion in which it can be used for um uh kind of monitoring monitoring public events, um if it fits within uh I'm gonna use let me get the exact language here so I'm not speaking out of my mouth here.

Um goodness.

Give me one second here.

So the best part of committee is we don't have a time on how long we can speak and ask questions for.

And so you want me to recite like subdivision three, it might be the one.

If you're able to, that's helpful.

Or a public event where there's a heightened risk to the safety of participants or bystanders.

Yeah, and so in those scenarios, I guess like what what if if if it is not surveilling, what is the the the reason for like I guess the deployment of the drone in that situation?

Sure.

Um, you know it so we could get intel from one of our intel units um here at the city or at the county, um, of a they might under you know uncover a known threat, somebody um who might be um you know there might be a threat for something placing a bomb or um a target targeting events for for whatever unknown purpose, we could um launch a drone to see if we could find that individual if we if we know like a time and place uh of that individual, we could launch a drone to try to counter that.

Okay, and that right, and that sounds like more specific, a more specific uh scenario in which a drone would come up based on a call or suspicion of of something within other things, right?

I think the the language here, right?

The way I am reading is these are are seen as the floor of what we should do uh for for kind of regulatory framework around uh drone, like right, I just am having a hard time really connecting, like what the usage for, right?

And it sounds like in in your example, right, it it would be used as as trying to figure out if there was a bomb or something in the area rather than just general surveillance.

Right.

Uh, right.

And I think that the the statutory language is a little I think unclear on what that actual usage uh could be.

And so I think that's something that I would like to see if you know, outside of a pilot program, uh uh and this goes into to more comments that I have about a regulatory framework.

Maybe, and maybe the sergeant has an example too.

I don't know if you um for for that uh subdivision.

Yes, council members.

So for an incident like that, uh more than likely we would be using utilizing the drones to basically conduct a threat assessment of the area, and that's just not you know by random um like we're just doing it because we have nothing else to do.

It's because of a concern.

And not only that, but I just also want to mention that these state statue rules and regulations are very vague.

As you break it down into our department policy, we narrow it down even more.

So for this incident here for subdivision number three, in order for me to even utilize a drone, I have to notify my chain of command.

They have to approve it first.

So we have our own approval process as well before I can even utilize the drone for something like this.

Yeah, and and right, and I think you know, looking at our policy and can uh it distills it down harder to kind of get the approval for, but I think that the reasons for the launch still stay the same.

And I think that's where my I I think hesitation lies of uh right.

If we are if if it has to be one of the 11 uh or I think like seven um uh reasons to launch the drone, uh, but then department policy, MPD department policy is just on approval for, right?

It's approval based on one of the eleven, right?

And so I think that we have to have some regulatory framework that goes farther than the what the the state statute does here.

Um and so that it's kind of you know, I I will touch on surveillance later, and I think you know, uh also as it makes sense.

I think having conversations before uh um Thursday would be helpful, and then and absolutely before any level of a full contract would move forward.

Uh I can just I think maybe to clarify too, just for for public purposes, um can you talk a little bit right?

And I will try to explain uh where we are on a contracting uh kind of level right now, right?

Seventy-five days, no cost contract with no obligation to move forward with a with a larger contract.

Is that correct?

That's accurate.

Okay, wonderful.

Um other question here, I think you know, heard a lot about um trust uh and mistrust and not having trust um in MPD and those that would deploy the drones.

And I think those those are valid and fair concerns.

Uh and I think right we shouldn't expect the community to trust uh MPD or those that use drones to use them uh in a way that that is uh within bounds of this.

I think that is our job is to create a regulatory framework and controls and uh a processes that alleviate any level of of uh unaccountability in this frame.

Uh can you kind of maybe talk to um if I has in other jurisdictions gone farther than what kind of their state statutes do, or is that I guess is SkyDO open to, I guess it's not even both, it would be our more or less ability and implementation of but how would a regulatory framework given out through the city council or the city of Minneapolis um be used to kind of implement these drones?

Would that get in the way uh of kind of this process, or is this like the the state statute kind of see is like, oh, this is the golden standard of what uh the implementation of these kind of drones are?

And sorry, that's a that's a not very clear question.

Uh you I can or yeah, I think I can answer that, council member.

So in regards to SkyDio, uh their frame framework is gonna be their framework is gonna be dependent on what we set.

So whatever standards we set, they have to abide by that.

Obviously, the rules and regulations between each state are gonna be different.

So we'll follow the guidelines from state statute in relation to our department policy as well as the roles within the FAA, but then we can narrow it down tighter depending on what everyone wants.

Great.

Yeah, you you you knew my question more than I did.

So thank you.

Yeah, I think that was my question.

Is that can can we confine what that is within SkyDio kind of.

And we can.

Okay, wonderful.

Um, sorry, I got a few more questions uh for you.

Uh and then you know, other I think as you all you all sat through and I appreciate you all sitting um and hearing uh the kind of testimony from from residents.

Uh I think the other one on there is data management uh and data fidelity policies.

Um, outside of, I know I think it was uh I think we see like seven days here.

Is that like a SkyTeo policy?

Is that a state policy?

Um, like does does any of our data go back to SkyDO, or is this completely housed uh internally into the city of Minneapolis and MPD?

Like where is that kind of data fidelity uh happening?

Council member, we control all the data.

Uh so what happens is a drone would launch, they would record whatever data they have, and the moment it lands in a dock, the dock will everything would upload automatically through the dock system and it goes straight into our uh basically data management system with axon.

So SkyDio doesn't have any the chain of custody isn't broken because SkyDEO is just the provider of that equipment.

Right, and so there's so and like I think it would also be helpful too, because I haven't seen, I'm assuming we are we'll be signing a contract for a pilot version of this.

Um, if it's possible to send that over to us, I haven't seen the contract and the terms as they exist.

If it's able, if you're able to send that to us, that would be really helpful.

Um, so but it sounds like there are no data retention policies uh that SCADIO governs from your perspective.

No, sir.

Within for that seven days, it's mandated by state law.

So we're just following that.

Okay.

But again, if you want to tighten it up, just like a Minatanka does, we can do it as well.

Okay, helpful.

Um my list here, um.

Yeah, I guess that's a piece in there.

Uh, question that I came up with as it relates to um evidentiary flights.

Um that that we in department policy based and and state policy sounds like we won't collect um or or retain uh data if it's not for evidentiary flights, it has to be for evidentiary purposes to retain that data.

How are we defining uh like what an evidentiary flight is?

Because I haven't been able to see uh a definition on that.

So, council member, with that term, it's gonna be categorized depending on the pilot.

Uh and our benchmark, our standard is if there's any type of criminal liability or civil liability, we document it as evidence because we don't know what's gonna happen five years from now.

Okay, but anything else that doesn't capture anything.

So let's just say uh we get dispatched to uh someone overdosing, right?

We go to the incident, uh, we don't locate anyone.

Uh at that point, there's nothing of evidentiary value.

We've captured nothing.

That evidence is categorized during a certain category, and then it's automatically deleted.

And then we can't even control it.

It's set by our department.

Okay.

Helpful.

Uh more questions here.

Uh, Councilman waiting, if you mind if you don't mind, to we're gonna be delaying the rest of the presentations, so I know staff is sticking here for it.

We have to get out of here at 4 30.

Oh so I just want to make sure that folks know that the three items that are presentations, I know staff is still here.

We didn't expect uh a lot of uh folks to show up.

So we weren't able to prepare the captioning.

So at least this will be the last item.

I can I can pass to other council members.

Okay, we have one to 30.

So do we have till 430?

I'm like, I won't take, I won't take all till 430.

Um other kind of kind of notes here, right?

The one thing that I was uh I was looking at some of the data that that St.

Paul uses, and I saw data point that said I think 11% of their flights um remove any officer, right?

They go out and actually don't have to dispatch an officer or any level of uh emergency uh kind of response to that.

It sounds like I think from from DC from your presentation that if we even if we are sending out a drone, we will still have a emergency response.

Um is that just within the pilot for kind of again fidelity reasons, or is that something that would be baked into like a larger uh policy?

And the reason I ask is I think that actually is the the largest benefit of a program like this is actually sending it out and understanding that hey, actually we don't need an emergency response to come.

So just curious of why that's not why that isn't happening in the pilot.

Uh council member, um, yes, we are still gonna send a squad cart to every call.

It's we want to figure out you know the benefits of that of that drone flight, the the time it takes to get there with that drone, assess the situation, um, but we still want to show that difference in time, right?

That squad still has to go there, it's like, well, it's that the call then sat and pending for another 20 minutes.

Okay, the squad still had to go, but we could prove that.

Well, we could have cleared that call, you know, off the uh right.

So it's kind of like a metrics, it sounds like to basing it on a baseline.

Just trying to prove its value, right?

Okay, helpful.

Helpful to know.

Uh, last kind of uh question here uh that I have is um right, it sounds like that there are the other piece that I think is is quite valuable there.

There was a there was a resident, there's a constituent that that noted uh like the the goals and metrics of this, and I think that is an entirely valid point of of how are we going to measure the success of this pilot program, right?

And so uh I haven't seen anything within the presentation um that are saying, like, hey, if it meets these things, great, good to go.

If it does not meet these things, it it maybe we shouldn't be uh contracting with it.

Like, how are you all, I guess, measuring that?

If there's something internal, um, uh, can you kind of explain that to us?

And if not, uh, I think it would be helpful to have something like that, both for for our kind of uh uh information and then for publics as well.

Sure.

Um, do you want to answer the goals and metrics?

Sir, so the metrics for this program is to basically compare the data from a drone's response to an actual actual officer response.

The goal of this program is at the end of it, we can come back up to council and say these are the metrics we utilized, and we can compare the data from the drone to an actual offer officer response and say, our drones responded to these many calls, however, uh we may necessarily not even need an officer to respond.

And we can utilize those resources and basically move them over here where they are better utilized for the city.

Okay, yeah, so that's that's ultimately like the biggest metric that we're gonna be utilizing, and that's one of our goals.

Yeah, I think it's right is is helpful for me.

I think what what would be helpful is a tighter understanding of what those metrics are that we can see for success or failure of and and having that version in right.

I don't think we need it now, but we would need it to fully evaluate a program uh expansion uh if this was to go forward in a larger context.

Yeah, and council member, I mean, I think another really big metrics on this, and you've seen it in the presentation is that response time to those priority one calls, party zero and one calls of getting to those under two minutes.

If somebody's having their crisis of their life, um at least we can get there.

Yeah, it's a drone in the sky, but we can document a vehicle fleeing the area, somebody fleeing the area, somebody with a gun.

We can identify people, suspects, victims, you name it right.

Um, right now our priority party one call times, our median call time in the north side is seven minutes and forty-eight seconds.

If we can get that down to 120 seconds or under, I think that metric speaks for itself, you know, aside from the time it takes, you know, a squad to get there, you know.

Um I think that's huge.

Perfect.

That was my last question.

And and and just I think no, and so thank you, thank you all.

Just kind of uh uh where I am sitting and thinking about this too, I think there is there is a lot of of valid concerns and hesitation about a a program as such.

And I think it is our job as both MPD and the policymakers that do it to actively uh address those concerns, build in, build in the safeguards for this, if it is going to move forward.

Uh, with that, I think there is a version of this in in in my work in the reform world.

I think the thing that I have seen the most is uh we have to both for for community safety and officer safety, the the higher we can remove officers from uh situations where where you know they have to make a split second decision uh where they were right, you know.

I'm looking at kind of the incidents where a drone can respond, right?

Persons with weapons calls, auto theft calls, shooting stabbing, suspicious persons, right?

You all know that those are our situations where tensions are are elevated, and so if we can have a drone come in there, uh lower the temperature, actually have that informed response before an officer gets there.

I think that is invaluable.

And so I think there are actually large uh portions of this that can be very, very helpful for our city, but there are a lot of concerns that I think we we have to address.

And so I really appreciate uh you all uh doing that and doing the due diligence to do this and look forward to uh kind of working with you all to figure that out.

Thank you.

Um before we move on to the next topic without objections, colleagues, I'd like to uh move item number six, seven, and eight for continuation to the next meeting on July 22nd.

Is there any complaints?

All right, that is is that good, Clerks?

Okay, good.

Now we can continue.

Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

First, first I want to thank everyone for coming today to speak.

I don't remember what the count of speakers was, but I certainly appreciate everyone showing their perspective, and they took time away from their families, from their work, from the communities to be here, and I I certainly appreciate that.

And I also heard the concerns about privacy, surveillance, civil liberties, government accountability, and the ethical responsibilities the city um has when choosing its partners.

Those are serious issues and they deserve to be a part of the discussion for sure.

I also want to thank staff for working with me all of this time to put this presentation together.

This is not something that you know just popped up.

This is something that has been going on since I was elected as a city council member back in 2022, sharing my platform with folks, you get to hear back from them what they need and what they expect of a city council member.

And so that is where this conversation began.

And I uh I want everyone in Ward 4 and in Minneapolis to understand that I take my role as a city council member serious.

I like being a city council member because I want to come up with solutions to help my neighbors.

When someone reaches out to me and says I'm experiencing five to $20,000 a month in illegal dumping, that's a serious issue to me.

That's not something that I take lightly.

That is something that I'm working every day to try to make better because businesses in North Minneapolis are suffering from illegal dumping, and so are neighbors.

And it's my job to make sure that I try to find solutions for that.

You know, when people are upset because police officers can't get to these low priority calls because the number of officers is, I mean, it's growing certainly, and I appreciate all of the work that's going into recruitment, but we're not there, and it's becoming embarrassing for me to keep using that as a reason why officers can't show up to calls is that we don't have enough officers.

People get tired of hearing it, and I'm tired of saying it.

We have to be coming up with solutions as I have to be coming up with solutions as a city council member for people.

So when I heard about an opportunity for a first responder drone to help with some of these low priority calls for things like stolen cars or um uh open-air drug markets on Laurie and Penn Avenue that I've been dealing with for years and years and years that people just this morning I woke up to a text message from someone saying, uh, should I call all the news channels, you, the mayor, and all your colleagues, because we need help on Larry and Logan.

What are you doing about it?

Like, that doesn't feel good to me as a person.

I want to help those people, so I'm always gonna be looking for ideas and ways to help.

And that is exactly what this pilot is.

This is not a long-term commitment.

I've actually asked all of my colleagues and MPD not to talk about this as a long-term commitment because I think the pilot is what we need to know.

We like I want to use this 75 days to see if there are solutions here.

I'm not trying to commit to anything without knowing if it can help or not.

What I'm asking for is a pilot to see if we can get the help and the resources that folks need in North Minneapolis.

And I will say, of course, I knew that there were gonna be people who showed up that did not like this idea, and I welcome that.

I'm not a person that needs to only talk to people who think like me.

Did I know it was gonna be a hard decision for me to be the council member to say I'm gonna bring this before the council?

Absolutely positively, and I'm willing to do that because when I took the oath of office, that commitment was to do whatever I could to make the lives of the residents that I serve better.

And these are liveability issues, these are safety issues, and I'm gonna try with everything within my power to make it better for people.

So I appreciate everyone who came, I appreciate everyone who listened, and I appreciate the folks who are listening with me and want to help.

You know, we had a presentation a couple months ago, and I think within 48 hours, an older gentleman came up missing in my ward, and folks were looking for him.

And the drone that we have now was deployed, and I'll let you two speak to this because you have a little bit more details.

But we currently have drones that are being used now, but this program could have been a little bit different.

So if one of you want to speak to speak to the incident that we had um a couple days after the last presentation, that'd be great.

Go ahead.

Yeah, so regarding the incident that council member Vita was uh referencing, it was regarding a missing person in North Minneapolis.

And what had happened was this gentleman here had wandered, had wandered away from home, got lost, and no one no one knew where he was, no one could find him.

He had been missing for an extended period of time.

And when we first got the call, one of my drone operators went out there, they flew a drone because we already have an established drone program.

This DFR program is just it's just gonna be an expansion of our current program right now, if it comes to fruition.

But a drone operator was able to go out there and he flew around the area where he was told that this male gentleman may have been.

Uh within a short period of time, he actually located this gentleman by a creek.

He was extremely vulnerable, he needed help, and without a doubt, if the drones didn't find this gentleman, I don't know if he'd be here today.

So the drones were able to locate him in the creek bed, successfully located them, relay this information to boots on the ground, officers who are on the ground uh in relation with fire personnel, and they were able to go rescue this gentleman from the creek bed and ultimately saved his life.

Thank you for that.

And I just want to say, you know, I do love that you know we have something in place that was able to save this man's life, but I believe this pilot program would have approached that situation a little different.

A 911 call would have came in, the drone could have been deployed to the area within a minute and a half because this is just a fourth precinct pilot, and it can get any to my understanding, and I have had a demonstration, so to my understanding, it could be there within a minute and a half, which is different than an officer having to drive to the place in the fourth precinct, an officer available to drive to the place in the fourth precinct, and then launching the drone from there.

So I thank you, um, Officer Moore for your work on that and saving that that man's life.

I really do appreciate that.

Um, some of the other livability issues that have come up around this are environmental issues with um with we have a lot of frustration from folks who are fixing cars and equipment on the streets in North Minneapolis, and the stormwater drains have oil in it and chemicals and things because people are doing things on the street.

A regular complaint for me almost daily, someone is calling in and frustrated uh with chemicals and oils in the storm drains because of mechanics on their block.

Um excess traffic, noise, like all of these things that could be zero in one calls that officers respond to uh with the drone.

So those are the things that we're really trying to see if this if this pilot could help with those things.

I'm my my expectation in this is not to change anything or to get rid of officers or to like um you know, like stop us from responding in ways we do, but it really is to help provide a service that can probably enhance the way we interact with people and not make everything a police interaction.

I don't believe everything has to be a police interaction.

Some of these things can be done by the drone when we get there, we're not there yet, but some of these things don't have to be about a police coming and having an interaction with someone, and so my goal is to increase livability in the neighborhoods, um, and and to provide this service as as something as a tool that we could potentially use in the future, but more than anything, figure out if we could use this uh service in the future.

So I thank you all.

I know a lot of my colleagues still have a lot of questions and and concerns, and so do uh residents of Minneapolis.

As you can see, that people came and spoke not only from uh North Minneapolis but from all over the city.

And just to reiterate, this is a free, uh, completely free program that is only going to be in the fourth precinct.

This is not surveillance, this is a 911 dispatch drone call.

Um, someone has to call in for the drone to be dispatched, and the dashboard will be set up where people can track uh how the drone was being used and what for uh during this service.

Um I have a lot of questions and comments that go beyond the minute and a half we have before we have to end.

So uh please be available at uh full council for those questions.

Um I just want to explain my vote today to folks who are here just so because I'm not able to uh say what I need to say and ask the questions I need to ask.

Um I'm gonna be voting to move this forward without recommendation of the full council.

I do not support this at all.

Um I would like to be able to say more and ask more uh in the future, but um we need to be able to deal with this finally uh in the council meeting and not just I suspect if we voted, you know, the way that we really felt about this, that would probably be two two, which means that it would go to the next uh committee meeting, which is not good practice.

So we can deal with this finally by sending it forward and having the full council deal with it.

Um with the remaining 30 seconds, I think I'll let you know.

I'll be quick with my questions.

Um I want to know if and this can be through memo, if the city has done any due diligence on SkyDo's federal contracts, and if SkyDio currently sells drones or related services to ICE or any other DHS components, if there are any mechanisms in place to prevent them from using our data for ice.

I want to know if staff knows that in Chula Vista they spent over one million dollars in legal fees fighting to withhold drone footage, and if MPD is planning to do the same thing here, um there was flight records released that at least uh 31 times it was used to surveil an ice out protest in downtown Los Angeles, which saw thousands of peaceful protesters march against the Trump administration occupation of Minneapolis, and if MPD will do the same thing here.

I have a lot of questions I'm just gonna follow up over email about this.

I wish I could ask the questions today, but um we'll have that discussion at full council.

So with that, colleagues on the motion to move this forward without recommendation, all those in favor say aye.

Aye, those polls say nay.

Abstentions.

All right, the final vote will happen at full council next week.

Colleagues, with that, I believe we dispense with all of our items and seeing no further business before us, I would declare this meeting adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I think that's what