The City Council approved a resolution last month that would allow the city to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, but the movement still has a long way to go. Associate Professor Michelle Phelps is quoted in this MN Daily article.

The Minneapolis City Council is moving forward with a proposed amendment to the city’s charter that would disband the current police department and replace it with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the council’s proposal in November if it passes some bureaucratic hurdles in meantime. This week on Dialogue Minnesota, University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Sociology Michelle Phelps discusses systemic racism in our nation’s police departments and what a new vision for law enforcement might look like.

Memory could have a stronger hold on our current circumstances than we think. Professor Alejandro Baer of the Department of Sociology and the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies explores the human ability to overcome conflict through public remembrance.

Despite following the Obama-era playbook for police reform, Minneapolis has yet to rebuild trust between community members and the police. Professor Michelle Phelps is quoted in this Star Tribune article.

“With our longer life spans, many people live as many years in retirement as they did working,” said Phyllis Moen, who holds an endowed chair in sociology at the University of Minnesota. “With this longevity bonus and years of active engagement, they’ve rewritten the script. Now there’s a sense of loss as they recognize their choices and opportunities are changing.”

Being a first-generation college student can be a struggle. Professor Penny Edgell reflects on her beginnings and shares her advice to fellow first-generation students for success. “Focus on the basics,” she encourages.

Police abolitionism, like all seismic social re-imaginings, is not a monolithic movement. Questions about tactics, priorities, and even terminology have punctuated conversations about how best to work toward a police-less society in recent days. Professor Michelle Phelps is interviewed for this Mic article.

Protests spread over police shootings. Police promised reforms. Every year, they still shoot nearly 1,000 people. This Washington Post article quotes professor of sociology, Michelle Phelps.

We reaffirm our Department’s commitment to research, teaching, and advocacy that helps push forward justice and equity in Minneapolis and beyond. This includes supporting Black students, staff, and faculty at the University; working towards alternatives to policing; and dismantling white supremacy in U.S. society.