The City Council approved five MinneapolUS safety contracts on Tuesday after a week of deliberation and scrutiny from council members and the public.

The five safety contracts will go to nonprofit violence intervention groups that have previous experience in the community and violence prevention, Deputy Director of the City’s Neighborhood Safety Department Lea Lakes said. 

MinneapolUs is a city-led safety program meant to prevent violence escalation and help people who may be at risk of committing or being victims of violence through de-escalation. 

Lakes said the five groups will split time between Ward 4, Ward 5 and Ward 9. Volunteers with these groups will be taught de-escalation techniques as well as CPR and first aid.

Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2), who has been critical of the Neighborhood Safety Department in the past, said she felt confident about the contracts now that there was more information.

“I am excited to approve these contracts and what will happen. But I want to see what the data will look like,” Wonsley said. 

A sixth group, run by Rev. Jerry McAfee, Salem Inc., was considered for a contract before it was pulled by the Neighborhood Safety Department after two people involved with the group were arrested for a shootout.

Although most city council members were happy to support the violence intervention contracts, several members were upset about the lack of attention the groups would be showing their wards.

While the group’s name was not spoken outright, city council members LaTrisha Vetaw (Ward 4) and Jeremiah Ellison (Ward 5) said the removal of Salem Inc. could cause North Minneapolis to lose its progress. 

“My concern is that we are putting it at risk again. What people are concerned about on the Northside is the loss of jobs and the loss of services and the jobs,” Vetaw said. “Regardless of who the group is, this is still taking away resources from the Northside.”

Council Member Jamal Osman (Ward 6) said focusing on violence intervention areas in three wards has left Cedar-Riverside without the important service. 

“The way I understand it, services continue and they help the community and taking that away will be a huge loss for the community,” Osman said.

Cedar-Riverside previously had the Metro Youth Intervention program, but the city will not renew the contract for this year.

In response to the plan, Osman raised a separate legislative directive to allocate around $643,000 from the Neighborhood Safety Department to fund safety services for Cedar-Riverside and Elliot Park. 

This brought more debate from council members about the nature of the money and how it would impact the Neighborhood Safety Department program. 

Council Member Michael Rainville (Ward 3) successfully encouraged Osman to wait until the council had more information.

Executive Director of Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc. Abdulrahman Wako said he felt the Neighborhood Safety Department did listen to the people’s concerns, but that he was still worried about Elliot Park losing services. 

“I think they did improve their services. I like the fact that it’s a lot more professional now and there’s an evaluation process,” Wako said. “But one thing that I am a little disappointed in is the way they choose neighborhoods or hotspots.”

Wako hopes the Neighborhood Safety Department will extend the violence interruption to all neighborhoods. 

“I think the (Neighborhood Safety Department) needs to consider and have interrupters in all of those neighborhoods because if you have it in some neighborhoods and you don’t put it in others because of some arbitrary criteria, then you kind of just move the violence around, so it’s kind of like a whack-a-mole in which one neighborhood gets it, the other neighborhood doesn’t,” Wako said.