Minneapolis Council Members Seeking to Abolish Local Police Spend $63,000 on Private Security

A police car drives by in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 26, 2020. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Three Council members from the Minneapolis City Council who have voiced strong support for measures to attempt to abolish the local police force are now using taxpayer-funded private security for protection.

Andrea Jenkins (Ward 8), Phillipe Cunningham (Ward 4), and Alondra Cano (Ward 9) have been outspoken supporters of defunding the Minneapolis Police Department. On Friday, they were among 12 council members to vote (12-0) in favor of advancing a proposal to hold a citywide ballot on whether to go ahead with abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department, following calls from far-left groups to “change the system” following the death of George Floyd in police custody.

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Jenkins revealed on Friday the private security arrangement for her and her colleagues that is costing tax payers $4,500 a day.

Over the past three weeks, the total security bill for the three council members has reached $63,000, a city spokesperson told Fox 9 News.

“My concern is the large number of white nationalist(s) in our city and other threatening communications I’ve been receiving,” Jenkins told Fox 9 News. She said that since taking office in 2018, she had been requesting private security and that the current threats were attacking her ethnicity, gender identity, and sexuality.

Cunningham told Fox that the security was only a temporary measure, adding that he had been receiving death threats.

According to Fox, Minneapolis Police officers have traditionally provided security details to city mayors. But with the current threats against the council members, security firms Aegis and BelCom are being contracted instead of police.

The city spokesperson told Fox that police were currently needed in the community.

According to Minneapolis Police, the department has not received any reports of threats against the council members, although a report could have been filed confidentially.

Jenkins told Fox that she hadn’t filed a report with the police due to being caught up with the “global pandemic and global uprising” from Floyd’s death.