There's an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the debacle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_abolition_movement_in...
The situation in Minneapolis is complex, but we're all confused by the fact that all the new developments are selling condos starting at $900,000 and you can get artisanal hand-made tacos from Nixta and stand in line for a block in this dystopian ghost town to spend $17 on a pizza from Boludo.... But hey, gotta serve the narrative, eh?
I suspect the momentum on that died out after awhile, but haven't really kept abreast of it.
What I do know is that a large employer is moving out of NE minneapolis to the burbs (my friend works there) because, after having to install bullet proof windows in their office, the CEO said enough was enough. (Incidentally, this place is only a few blocks from where the first parts of the dismembered guy were found).
Crime has been down from the 1990s to 2020. People has been more and more scare of less and less crime.
> "defund the police" led Minneapolis to actually start working towards dismantling its police department
That is not the case, reading your link they are creating a "Department of Public Safety in Minneapolis to oversee policing, violence prevention, and community safety programs". So, from your link, nobody is dismantling the police department but they are changing its responsibilities and structure to be more effective with the current challenges.
> some extremists literally want to do that in New York
"extremists"
> need to see a policy framework worked out in smaller cities before they can be applied to New York
That is reasonable. Even better is to apply it to New York but in small scale. A little town and New York have little in common.