Brooklyn Center’s police budget has grown rapidly in recent years

It’s not up to me to determine when anyone else feels ready to translate grief over Daunte Wright’s murder into action.

Some people just need to grieve right now. I respect that.

For those who feel ready to delve deeper, here’s one pattern I think hasn’t gotten enough attention.

It’s this: in recent decades, it’s suburban jurisdictions like Brooklyn Center, not Minneapolis, that have seen the fastest growth in their police budgets (as a percent of the overall budget).

In 2000, Brooklyn Center spent about 29% of its non-capital budget on police. By 2018, it spent close to 40% – an increase of 31%.

But Brooklyn Center isn’t an anomaly – in fact, most suburban jurisdictions in the Twin Cities have seen double-digit % increases in police spending in recent decades. A map I made this week using data gathered for my master’s thesis reveals this spatial pattern.

Brooklyn Center spends about $270 on policing for every resident in the city – much less than Minneapolis ($412) or St. Paul ($369), but more than nearby suburbs like Golden Valley ($251) or St. Louis Park ($203).

By contrast, Brooklyn Center spends about $87 per resident on parks, and $65 on economic development. Like many other suburban cities, spending on policing far surpasses most other budgetary line items.

I’ve seen commentary on how inner-ring suburbs like Brooklyn Center have become more ethnically diverse. What I haven’t seen is any mention that these changes have been accompanied by a rapid reallocation of the city budget towards policing.

To be clear, I don’t have an answer for how much a suburb like Brooklyn Center *should* spend on public safety. That answer depends on many forms of knowledge I lack – chief among them the views of residents who are most harmed by current systems, like Daunte Wright and his family.

But I do think it’s past time we recognize that the problems with public safety aren’t just a Minneapolis problem, or even a big-city problem. These are regional & statewide & national problems. They need transformative solutions at each of these scales.

Having conversations about how your city invests in public safety and other priorities seems like a good place to start.

For more on how to start conversations about public safety and understand the conversations already underway, I’ll point you to my thesis, which contains ideas from leaders in Minnesota and elsewhere who know these issues far better than I do.