THREAD: Tonight, something really special happened in Brooklyn Center, the city where Daunte Wright was killed by the police during a traffic stop less than a month ago. The city took a step toward overhauling how it handles traffic stops & how it handles policing in general 1/

The mayor introduced a bill to prevent these types of killings from ever happening again and to begin changing the role of police in the city. Since there's some confusion about what the bill does, I wanted to say a few words. Here's a copy of the bill: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e5g6abvvy577pur/Daunte%20Wright%20and%20Kobe%20Dimock-Heisler%20Community%20Safety%20Act%20(5-7-2021).pdf?dl=0 2/

First, it creates a brand new Community Response Department to handle 911 calls where a person is experiencing a mental-health, behavioral or similar issue. The people responding would be trained non-police first responders, who will never use a gun. Police won't be involved. 3/

Second, it creates an unarmed civilian Traffic Enforcement Department with the responsibility for enforcing all non-moving traffic violations in the City, like the one Daunte was pulled over for. It will potentially have the power to go even further. 4/

Third, it creates a new Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention that will now oversee the police and fire departments, and the newly created Community Response and Traffic Enforcement Departments, all under the rubric of a community health approach. 5/

Fourth, it will create a new committee, with a majority of members being residents with direct experience being arrested or detained by the police, to review and make recommendations regarding the police, including collective bargaining agreements between the police and city 6/

Fifth, it prohibits custodial arrests or searches for all non-felony offenses as well as non-felony warrants & non-moving traffic infractions. This will avoid so much pain inflicted on communities and prevent so many unnecessary flashpoints of confrontation 7/

Sixth, it institutes de-escalation requirements and requirements to use alternatives to force, as well as prohibitions on when police can use force in the first place. And much more, including requiring adequate data to actually make sure this all works 8/

This is a big deal. And tonight there was a hearing about this proposal where resident after resident, including family members of people killed by police, testified in support of the law. It was incredible 2 see a city come together following such a horrible killing by police 9/

Instead of disharmony, there was a feeling of a city that is ready to take bold action and to do what it knows is right. This law won't solve everything, not at all. It's a beginning. But it's a much bigger leap than the vast majority of other places have been willing to take 10/