The police department in the US city of Minneapolis will be dismantled and rebuilt, city councillors said late Sunday, after the death in custody of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests about racism in law enforcement.
Council Member Alondra Cano tweeted that the decision came through "a veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council," which agreed that the police department "is not reformable and that we're going to end the current policing system."
A white Minneapolis police officer has been charged with murder in the May 25 death of George Floyd, after bystander video showed the officer's knee pinned on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes while he pleaded for his life and called for his mother.
Last year, a black former Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for the fatal shooting of an unarmed white Australian woman trying to report a crime.
Bender told CNN she was looking to shift police funding toward community-based strategies, and that the city council would discuss how to replace the current police department.