Message from the Office of the President: Advancing Community Safety for our University Community

August 27, 2020

From the Office of the President

Dear Twin Cities students, faculty, and staff,

Since the murder of George Floyd, many communities have been demanding more accountability for law enforcement policies and practices that disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and people of color. We continue to see horrific acts of police violence against Black communities, most recently in the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, and we have joined in collective calls for accountability and justice. I write to you today about an important action we are taking to address safety on the Twin Cities campus and promote healing for our University community.

Over the last several months, we have been reminded that safety is complex and goes far beyond crime and its prevention. We are learning more about what it means for individuals and communities to feel safe. Similar conversations are occurring across the nation, and are particularly important in our local community and on our campus. How each of us defines feeling safe is deeply personal—and we are committed to inclusion of those personal perspectives and lived experiences as we review our own policies and practices.

The University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD), which serves our Twin Cities campus, has built a reputation as a responsible public safety agency within the Twin Cities. Every officer is trained in mental health awareness and the needs of students in particular. Officers study how to identify and combat implicit bias, intervene thoughtfully in crisis, and de-escalate a wide variety of situations.

However, moving forward, we know that we must all evolve together to build an equitable and just community. Our University, including the sworn officers of UMPD, wants a safe community in every sense of that word. Our strategic plan explicitly calls out this objective under Commitment Four: Community and Belonging.

To work effectively toward meaningful change, I’ve decided to bring in outside expertise. I’m pleased to announce that we have retained Dr. Cedric L. Alexander to complete a comprehensive review of where and how we can evolve, and how best to engage our community in that process. He will be asked to assess the public safety landscape of our Twin Cities campus through several lenses, including security best practices, impacts of race, social justice, training and policing, and policymaking. We will ask him to consider where our police department values and practices and our campus community’s values and experiences are aligned, and where we can make improvements to bring expectations and actions even closer to each other. This review will also inform a task force addressing institutional racism as proposed by the Equity, Access, and Diversity Senate Committee’s statement.

Dr. Alexander is a noted academic and civic leader with deep knowledge of law enforcement. He has been a police officer, a detective, and a chief of police. As a member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Dr. Alexander was instrumental in advocating for building public trust in law enforcement organizations.

Dr. Alexander will meet with students, student associations, University staff and faculty, community organizations, members of UMPD, and our community law enforcement partners as he guides us toward what we collectively want, a safe campus environment for all. His work will begin yet this month, and my office will set up meetings for Dr. Alexander to meet with various constituencies throughout the fall semester.

With warmest wishes,

Joan Gabel