On December 16, after protests and pressure from The Free Palestine Coalition, the Minneapolis City Council voted to terminate a contract with a Jewish- and Israeli-owned tech firm aimed at improving police-community relations.
The nonbinding resolution passed but has no legal effect. It calls on the city to amend its budget to effectively end the contract between the Minneapolis Police Department and Zencity.
Zencity was founded in 2016 and has dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and Brooklyn. The company works with municipalities across the US by using surveys backed by artificial intelligence to strengthen community relations between police departments and the communities they serve.
The survey initiative, developed following a two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death, began moving forward in June 2023 when the City of Minneapolis issued a request for proposals. The RFP received 6 responses and was made available to the public.
After evaluation, the City Council approved a three-year contract with Zencity in October 2023.
Information about the tech company’s surveying techniques was made available to the public after the selection process.
In December of 2023, MPD launched the Zencity survey tool. Mayor Frey said he hoped the survey would give them honest and objective feedback and help find ways to deepen the trust in MPD, and made the survey results transparent and available to the public on the Mayor’s Dashboard
“Zencity goes beyond a consent decree or a settlement agreement — it’s the right tool to help the residents of Minneapolis. I’m excited to learn more as surveys continue to roll out,” said MPD Chief Brian O’Hara.
The voluntary surveys were launched across social media and web advertisements.
The Free Palestine Coalition launched a pressure campaign to end the contract, claiming the Israeli military used Zencity in Gaza and the West Bank.
In a letter to the Mayor dated Nov 18, 2025, Council Member Elliot Payne attempted to convince Frey to stop the next payment set for January 1, 2026.
“It is difficult to defend the need for the Community Perception Survey to our constituents, given questions regarding its purpose, ethics, and concerns over surveillance,” said Payne.
On November 21, 2025, Council Member Robin Wonsley joined Council Member Payne and pushed to end the funding in her 2026 Budget Amendments.
“The proposed funding source for this allocation is the MPD Contract with Zencity for Community Perception Surveying, which does not contribute to public safety,” Wonsley said.
“Over 2,000 residents have signed a petition asking Council to remove funding for this contract.”
Zencity CEO and co-founder Eyal Feder-Levy said the pressure campaign relied on misinformation about how survey results are used. He also rejected claims that Zencity’s technology is being used in the war in Gaza, calling those assertions untrue.
“Zencity has never been engaged in any work related to the Israeli government and has never worked with any military clients in Israel or in any country,” he said. “Not only that, Zencity is actually one of the only companies employing both Palestinians and Israelis, and about 25% of our engineering team are Palestinians living in the West Bank.”
In response to The Free Palestine Coalition claims that ‘Zencity’s technology has been used by US law enforcement nationally to surveil the Black Community’s internet activity after high-profile killings of black people,’ “Zencity does not provide any type of surveillance, let alone of a specific community. Zencity has actually partnered with cities, police departments and community organizations in hundreds of cities across the country to reach out to communities that traditionally don’t have a seat at the table,” said Feder-Levy.
In a written statement, Mayor Frey said that cancelling Zencity’s contract would harm efforts to improve relations between the Minneapolis residents and the MPD.
“Cancelling a contract with a vendor that was selected through a competitive process because some people don’t like their religion or nationality would be both wrong and expose the City to legal liability.”