As a response to the recently-posted PCRC opinion letter, below is a commentary article from Mayor Rybak that was published in November's Minneapolis Observer:
Dear Editor, I am writing to respond to the recent opinion article questioning my commitment to the Police Community Relations Council (PCRC) and its efforts to implement the Federal Mediation Agreement. Unfortunately, the guest commentator took liberties that require correction. Building bridges between Police Department and the community is tough work, especially when we are addressing issues that have been simmering for decades. PCRC and the mediation agreement will continue to be controversial, especially in the weeks leading up to an election. I am committed to improving police-community relations in Minneapolis, which is why I hired Chief McManus to reform the department and to build a constructive working relationship between the Police Department and the community. I put my political career on the line to hire Chief McManus because he is uniquely capable of healing the long-simmering racial wounds of our police. I fully support the federal mediation process as part of our effort to resolve the serious and long-standing community concerns about the department. We are making solid progress. Two years into the five-year mediation agreement, we are acting on a majority of the 82 agreed-upon action items. We have completed about a third of the action items and are in the process of implementing another third. I am pleased that community and police PCRC members are working together on a detailed progress report and I am confident that we will continue making progress on this important agreement. I agree with those involved that there are problems within the PCRC. There is a communications breakdown, caused by many factors from many sides. This breakdown has slowed our progress. The Mediation Agreement does not give the Mayor a seat at the PCRC table, but only allows the Mayor's office to participate as "an observer." This is intentional because the agreement needs to build bridges directly between the police and the community regardless of politics. I initially avoided interfering with the PCRC to give it time and space to develop a plan, and relied on Chief McManus and Civil Rights Director Jayne Khalifa to monitor and keep me abreast of progress. It has become clear to me that, due to the communications breakdown we are seeing at PCRC, my office needs to take a more active role to ensure continued progress on the mediation agreement. I plan to attend the PCRC's upcoming November meeting to clarify my expectations as Mayor, and commit to my continued support of the development of a workable action plan for the remaining action items. While important, PCRC is only one tool to improve police-community relations. Under my direction the Police Department has undertaken a number of reforms, implemented rigorous new training and established new higher professional standards for our police officers. We are also committed to creating a more diverse police force that represents the community it serves. While we have made great strides diversifying the upper ranks of the department, my budget recommendation to hire 71 more police officers in 2006 will allow us the first opportunity in years to dramatically increase the diversity of our entry level ranks. When completed, a majority of the 71 new officers will be people of color. On August 22, I announced a draft plan to increase the diversity of the Police Department. I presented my plan as a work in progress and invited review and comment by members of the community, including the PCRC. I eagerly await their feedback. The percentage of people of color in the Police Department has increased since I took office and we have promoted an unprecedented number of people of color to police command positions. Although I am proud of these achievements, I remain unsatisfied with our progress and am committed to pushing even harder for increased diversity at all levels of the Police Department. Mayor R.T. Rybak ------------------- Jeremy Hanson Communications Director Office of Mayor R.T. Rybak
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