Recommendations on how to build trust between Minnesota’s police and minority communities were approved this week by a council tasked by the governor to do just that.

However, several of the council’s law enforcement representatives voted against the recommendations or abstained. And a portion didn’t show up to vote.

The recommendations passed 6-3, with representatives from the sheriffs’, county attorneys’, and police and peace officers’ associations voting against them.

Nate Gove, representing the state’s police training board, was the only voiced abstention of those present.

The Governor’s Council on Law Enforcement and Community Relations — created after the fatal police shootings of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights — was formed with 15 voting members, split fairly evenly between law enforcement agencies and community groups such as Black Lives Matter and the Minnesota Youth Council.

Six members of the council – including the Black Lives Matter representative, who hadn’t appeared for months — did not show for the vote Wednesday at the Capitol. Related Articles Start of fall means changing leaves in Minnesota. Here’s where you can find peak fall colors.

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But a few other police watchdog and community groups who have criticized the council’s process and avenues for outside input said they were disappointed in the recommendations, saying they did more harm than good.

The recommendations, which are nonbinding, will be forwarded to Gov. Mark Dayton as well as state legislative leaders. They include:

Adding a special prosecutor to investigations of police. The special prosecutor would partner with, but not replace, a county attorney.

Conducting “cultural competence and implicit/explicit bias training” along with mental health and crisis response training for police. Both topics were singled out in a bill supported by the council that passed last legislative session.

Encouraging departments to get officers to spend 20 hours of on-duty time at local social service agencies during their probationary period.

Recruiting more women and minorities for police careers.

Offering financial incentives to officers living in the communities they police.

For a number of areas, such as recruitment, the council suggested agencies get more data to track how things are going.

To compile racial data of those involved during interactions with police.

Other recommendations were more broad, such as having police and communities “create opportunities to meet on a regular basis,” or finding leaders who will work with police to create a better community connection.

Anoka County attorney Tony Palumbo, representing the attorneys’ association, attended more meetings than most at the council. But he still voted against the recommendations as a whole.

“I supported almost all of them,” Palumbo said, pointing to diversity recruitment and a focus on de-escalation training. But he said some were problematic.

Particularly the call for a special prosecutor.

“Essentially, I felt elected county attorneys are doing their jobs,” he said.

After talking with police, Palumbo said he also had issues with requiring racial data from those interviewed at police stops. The action could actually exacerbate tensions during already-tense situations, he said.

“Law enforcement thought that was a terrible idea, having to ask, ‘Could you tell me what race you are?’ … Or otherwise, you have to guess.”

Jim Franklin, who represented the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, said that while he voted against the recommendations as a whole, “There’s many things we do support. … There will be much more discussion.”

But a couple of law enforcement members voted for the recommendations, including those representing the Minnesota Department of Public Safety and the National Black Police Officers’ Association.

Joining them were members of ISAIAH, a faith-based coalition; the Minneapolis YWCA; the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Isaac Kaufman, with the Law Enforcement Labor Services of Minnesota, a police union, was a nonvoting member.

After the vote, Kaufman told the council that it rankled him when he heard claims that all officers are racist. But Kaufman, who is not black, added that he realized after Castile was shot that he himself also had a broken tail light and never worried about being pulled over. Former St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez ostensibly pulled Castile over for a broken tail light before he was shot, but in discussions with dispatchers, Yanez said he believed Castile matched a description of an armed-robbery suspect. Yanez was acquitted this summer in Castile’s death.

“I understand that if I’m driving around with a broken tail light without a care in the world, that says something,” Kaufman said.

It was conversations like that that led Jaylani Hussein, the CAIR representative on the council, to say that at least lines of conversation were being drawn. He called on the group to stay in touch.

But after the meeting, Hussein was confronted by Michelle Gross, of the police watchdog group Communities United Against Police Brutality, who argued that the recommendations did more harm than good.

“We have two options: Build a wall and walk out and leave, or try for incremental changes,” Hussein said.

Gross countered: “I don’t think it was any kind of victory, because they just laugh and they go home.”

When asked about specific issues with the recommendations, both Gross’ group, as well as the Minneapolis NAACP, quickly pointed to one in particular: the call for a special prosecutor, who would work with, rather than replace, county attorneys on cases in which police officers are investigated.

They’d rather have an independent special counsel, overseen by a governor-appointed community board, with sole authority to both investigate and potentially prosecute.

Both also criticized the report for not recommending any measures of accountability.

“These are simple recommendations that are at the mercy of whoever,” said Jeffrey Aguy of the Minneapolis NAACP, which, unlike the state chapter, did not participate in the council. “It may actually produce a lack of trust.” Related Articles Cottage Grove: Read the preliminary NTSB report about the fatal plane crash

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But James Burroughs, the governor’s chief inclusion officer who served as the group’s co-chair, said “the substantive conversations held between law enforcement and others in the community really created some common ground.”

Earlier this year, the council voted to support a police training bill that addressed some of its recommendations.

The bill, drafted by law enforcement and approved with bipartisan support, allocates an extra $12 million through 2021 to pay for police training specific to the areas of “crisis intervention and mental illness crises; conflict management and mediation; and recognizing and valuing community diversity and cultural differences to include implicit bias training.”