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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 5 greater public service. I want out community to know that we will continue to ensure that our 1 officers are receiving the highest levels of training to keep our community safe.” 2 3 Mayor Stille thanked Chief Mangseth for the heartfelt statement and the work done by both 4 Chiefs. He asked if there were any questions or comments from the Council. 5 6 Councilmember Jenson stated he asked that as the City develops the process for a Public Safety 7 Commission and they get a draft process in place that it is clear how this will drive actions that 8 will improve fairness, equity and justice and the leadership as well as the staff of St. Anthony. 9 10 Mayor Stille stated the killing of George Floyd was a senseless tragedy and does not make sense. 11 He stated they have to do better and commit to doing what is right. He knew the policing has 12 gone through a lot of numerations and improvements over the years and have implemented 21st 13 Century policing policy and initiatives. The community came out during the Department of 14 Justice exercise, the cops’ program, and said they wanted de-escalation training emphasized on 15 procedural justice. Fair and impartial policing, crisis intervention and communication and the 16 City has done that. The City has dedicated officers that are here to make sure that nothing like 17 this ever happens in this community. 18 19 Councilmember Walker stated he would not say this is a statement that would disagree with what 20 Chief Mangseth just said but he would say when a Police Department does its job correctly it is 21 functioning where it is committed to impartial policing justice and so forth, there is no need to be 22 concerned about being tarnished. If you are doing your job right as a department or as an 23 individual officers the community would not view you as being tarnished, they would make a 24 distinction between your performance and what happened to George Floyd. As far as what 25 happened to George Floyd, he hoped that not only St. Anthony, but Minnesota, the Country and 26 the World will see that this is not an isolated case and that this was an unprofessional act of this 27 unprofessionally acting Police Officer and that it is not an isolated thing, there is a systemic issue 28 that needs to be addressed and he is concerned that people would demonize this officer who 29 killed George Floyd and say that is the end of the story and we can move on. To look at that 30 situation and say that is systemic of something much larger and to look at policing as something 31 that needs to be reformed. Yes, an individual was responsible for George Floyds death, but he is 32 a symptom of a much larger issue and that should be the focus of people’s anger and frustration, 33 not directed at just that individual officer but at a system. That is not saying that a system entails 34 that the individual members of the system are bad Police Officers for the department but there is 35 overall a system that needs to be reformed even though there are officers and good departments, 36 that still does not rule out a systemic reform for Police Departments around the Country. 37 38 Councilmember Webster stated leadership matters and as a community member and a 39 Councilmember she was grateful for Chief Sitarz and Chief Mangseth’ leadership in the 40 community. She was also grateful that neither one settles, and both are focused on continuous 41 improvement in the departments and she wanted to thank them for that. As shared earlier, the 42 murder or George Floyd was not only congeable, but his death was preventable. The world 43 watched as Mr. Floyd died as a knew was pressed against his neck for eight minutes and forty-44 six seconds and after reflecting on the horrific death she reflected on the symbolism of the image 45 of the knee in his neck and one of the things she thought about is Mr. Chauvin’s knee really 46 5