According to BRITTANY BERNSTEINdefunding the police deparyment is not easy. Minneapolis residents have started neighborhood watches and armed groups to protect neighborhoods in the wake of unrest from the murder of George Floyd. Officers are still patrolling the streets of Minneapolis, some citizens have taken security concerns into their own hands. Crime has surged following the protests and rioting in the city: Minneapolis saw 75 shootings in June, more than triple the 24 shootings during the same period last year. In the first half of July there were 43 shootings, compared with 29 in all of the previous July. a substitute.” The city council on Friday approved its first permanent cuts to the police budget: $10 million will be cut from the $193 million budget, an answer to protestors’ call to defund the department. The council had also previously approved a proposal to replace the police department with a new department of community safety and violence prevention next May.