Update (July 21, 2020): In response to the killing of George Floyd, the Minnesota Legislature has passed new police accountability measures that ban neck restraints, PIX11 reported.

The bill was approved by the House 102 to 29 just before midnight as lawmakers worked on what was described as one of the most substantial changes to the state’s criminal justice system in years. The package also bans chokeholds and so-called warrior-style training, ABC News reports.

The legislation calls for improvements to the state’s data collection on deadly force encounters and establishes a unit to investigate such cases.

The Senate passed the new measures 60 to 7 and sent it over to Gov. Tim Walz.

The bill had been under negotiation since the passing of Floyd on May 25. 

Floyd died after former officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee in his neck for almost 10 minutes while restraining him on the ground after he was handcuffed, as Blavity previously reported.

Original (June 8, 2020): The Minneapolis City Council has voted to disband the police department. The decision comes after the killing of George Floyd, whose death sparked protests across the country and beyond.

The New York Times reports nine out of 13 city council members voted in favor of dismantling the department. 

Still, the process of disbanding the police department will take some time.

"This isn't like, tomorrow we're not going to have a police department and we're going to have this huge gap," Council member Phillipe Cunningham told MPR News. "There will be intentional transition and investments and policies. I just want to make sure folks understand that there's not going to be suddenly no one to call when they need help."

According to CNN, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was showered with boos after he told demonstrators he opposes defunding the police department. 

“Shame, shame, shame,” the protesters shouted as Frey walked out through the crowd.

Many of the council members took to Twitter last week to float the idea of completely disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department.

"The response to George Floyd’s death needed to be much more than any prosecution could offer," councilman Steve Fletcher wrote on Tuesday. "What people in the streets have won is a permanent, generational change to the mainstream view of policing." 

Fletcher then said the goal is to disband the department and start fresh.

"Several of us on the council are working on finding out what it would take to disband the MPD and start fresh with a community-oriented, nonviolent public safety and outreach capacity," he wrote.

Councilman Jeremiah Ellison said the city will rethink how it will "approach public safety and emergency response." 

"We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together," Ellison wrote. "We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It’s really past due."

Councilwoman Lisa Bender also supports the plan. 

"Yes. We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety," Bender wrote.

Bender added that the change is needed because previous plans have not worked.

"Every single MPD officer has had racial implicit bias and de-escalation training," she said. "Thank you to all the leaders in our community who are speaking out about why these things aren’t working."

The councilwoman also called on white people to listen to the ongoing discussions about race and stand with Black communities.

"We’ve had hours of public hearings, we’ve had so many community meetings. We need deep conversations across Minneapolis about race," Bender wrote. "We need to let the communities of color who have been impacted by community violence and by police violence lead. We need white people to listen."

Black Lives Matter movement co-founder Patrisse Cullors lauded the decision. 

“This is massive,” Ms. Cullors told The Times. “This is the first time we are seeing, in our country’s history, a conversation about defunding, and some people having a conversation about abolishing the police and prison state. This must be what it felt like when people were talking about abolishing slavery.”

The Minneapolis Public School system has already decided to cut ties with the city's police department in the wake of Floyd's death, as Blavity previously reported. The University of Minnesota and several organizations and businesses have also made the same decisions, according to CBS News. 

Former police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes and killed him, is now charged with second-degree murder. The three other officers who stood by without taking action have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.