Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said it quite clearly and accurately on Wednesday, talking about the Minneapolis ballot question to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with some ill-defined Department of Public Safety.

“To vote on a measure of reimagining public safety without a solid plan and an implementation or direction of work — this is too critical of a time to wish and hope for that help that we need so desperately right now,” he told reporters. “I was not expecting some sort of robust, detailed word-for-word plan, but at this point, quite frankly, I would take a drawing on a napkin and I have not seen either.”

There is no plan, other than that the new Department of Public Safety (DPS) “could” include police, but there is no idea on how many police would be needed, or who the DPS would answer to. Arradondo now answers to the Minneapolis mayor. If the question passes, he would answer to the 14 members of the Minneapolis City Council, a prospect he considers a “wholly unbearable position.”

There is no direction in this ballot question on when the DPS would take form, how soon it would start working, how much it will cost to operate, and what the city will do for public safety while it figures all this out.

We’ve said before that this is a poorly thought out idea, one that puts not only the residents of Minneapolis at risk, but also anyone who visits it. We may not have much standing in telling Minneapolis residents how to vote, but we sure hope they vote no.