Toddrick Barnette, the chief judge of Hennepin County Courts, was nominated Monday by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to become the city’s next community safety commissioner.

Barnette would replace Cedric Alexander, the inaugural commissioner of the Office of Community Safety who stepped down after just one year in the job, announcing over the summer his intent to retire Sept. 1.

The Office of Community Safety was created last year by Frey as part of an effort to restructure the city government after the mayor gained more administrative authority over most city departments via the passage of the “strong mayor” ballot initiative in the 2021 election. The position directs the city’s police, fire, 911 dispatch, emergency management and neighborhood safety departments.

Alexander’s tenure began with criticism over tense social media interactions with the public over how he was doing his job. The commissioner pointed to Operation Endeavor, a 90-day crime reduction effort involving local, state and federal law enforcement agencies that targeted carjackings, as one of his successes to transform the city’s public safety apparatus.

Frey said during a Monday news conference that he revised the job description after Alexander’s departure to focus more on the managerial aspects of the job. In their search for a replacement, Frey said community stakeholders expressed their preference for a local candidate.

“What we heard from a lot of different community partners, and there was not quite unanimity but very close, was we really want someone with relationships from the get go,” the mayor said. “To have somebody that has those relationships in place from the get go, that has developed community trust from the very beginning, we feel was important not just in and of itself but also to keep people safe.”

If confirmed, Barnette, the first person of color elected to the position of chief judge of the state’s largest judicial system in 2020, brings experience as a judge, prosecutor and public defender to the role. He told reporters on Monday he’s been asked by many why he would want to take on this job, and his response is his excitement about the capacity for reform and reimagining public safety.

“I think it would be comfortable to continue as a judge in Hennepin County – it’s something that I know, something I’ve been doing for the last 17 years,” he said. “But here I see this as an opportunity that has a commitment behind it, where it’s just not talk anymore in Minneapolis it’s about action and moving things forward.”

Barnette pledged that accountability and transparency will be large focuses on efforts to reimagine public safety in Minneapolis, and stressed the importance of the community’s involvement in those efforts. On the difference of the experience he’s bringing to the role compared to Alexander, who was a former police chief, Barnette said he’ll depend on the expertise of the five department heads under his command.

“I know from my experience as chief judge, I didn’t know everything, and that I had to rely on the talent around me and that’s what I’ll do here,” he said.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he met Barnette when O’Hara arrived in Minneapolis last year, and the judge has since helped O’Hara and the MPD find solutions to increasing car theft by juveniles.

“He was key to helping us trying to figure out how to have greater levels of accountability, particularly over juveniles and kind of the explosion of small group of juveniles repeatedly being involved with auto theft and escalating crime,” O’Hara said.

Barnette’s nomination will go before the City Council during their Sept. 21 meeting next week.

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