Washington — The Minneapolis Police Department disproportionately targets Black and Native American people in law enforcement activity and is using unjustified force in many instances across the city, according to a yearslong federal review of the department stemming from the killing of George Floyd.
“The City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” the Justice Department’s report found in its investigation into the city’s law enforcement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the findings Friday in Minneapolis, accompanied by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
“As I told George Floyd’s family this morning, his death has had an irrevocable impact on the Minneapolis community, on our country, and the world,” Garland said.
The Justice Department’s civil investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department’s practices began in April 2021, after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in Floyd’s death.
The sweeping review was undertaken to determine whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. The civil investigation was separate from the federal criminal probe into Floyd’s death, which resulted in convictions of three Minneapolis police officers who were found to have failed to step in to stop Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force against Floyd, thereby depriving Floyd of his constitutional right to be free of such force. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights.
The federal probe — which comprised police ride-alongs, discussions with over two thousand community members, and dozens of interviews with officers — focused on the entirety of Minneapolis’ police force and the resulting report recognized the city has already worked to change some practices. The police department now prohibits neck restraints and “no-knock” warrants, restricts certain crowd-control measures and has created a behavioral health response program, according to the report.
Still, federal investigators recommended nearly 30 remedial measures and improvements the city should implement to combat the racial disparities and excessive use of force in the department, like enhanced training and accountability measures and improved data collection of police activity.
According to the Justice Department’s findings, the Minneapolis Police Department disproportionately stops and uses force against Black and Native American individuals and patrols differently “based on the racial composition of the neighborhood.”
Federal investigators said the department conducts traffic and pedestrian stops against Black people 6.5 times more frequently than White people in the city, a rate only surpassed by enforcement activities against Native Americans, who are stopped at a rate of 7.9 times more than White people, when adjusted for their share of the population.
And throughout the period during which the study was conducted, the department used force against Black people at 9 times the rate and against Native American people at 13.9 times the rate that it used force against White people, the investigation found.
In all, according to the report, when compared to White people behaving in a similar manner in comparable circumstances, Black people in Minneapolis experience 24% more uses of force, 22% more searches, and 37% more vehicle searches.
“Though MPD has long been on notice about racial disparities and officers’ failure to document data on race during stops, and was made aware of expressions of racial bias by some MPD officers and supervisors, MPD has insufficiently addressed these issues,” the report alleged.
The Justice Department’s review also criticizes the excessive and unlawful use of force by police throughout the city, even in situations when race appeared not to be a factor.
“For years, MPD used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a petty offense and sometimes no offense at all. MPD used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police,” the report said.
Approximately 75% of the Minneapolis Police Department’s reported uses of force “did not involve an associated violent offense or a weapons offense,” according to the Justice Department. One example highlighted in the report involved an unarmed White woman who was shot and killed by an officer in 2017 after she approached his vehicle and “spooked” him.
Justine Damond was killed by a Minneapolis police officer after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. One of the police officers who responded later told investigators he heard a voice and a thump on the back of the squad car, and glimpsed a person’s head and shoulders outside his window. The officer in the passenger’s seat fired through an open driver’s side window and struck Damond in the abdomen with a single bullet. That officer was convicted of manslaughter and the city paid the woman’s family $20 million.
Unreasonable use of tasers and chemical irritants, and using force unnecessarily against individuals already restrained — including against young adolescents in the city — are also areas of concern emphasized in the investigation.
The Justice Department opened the investigation after a jury convicted Chauvin of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for Floyd’s death in May 2020.
Consent decrees were used in federal investigations of police departments during the Obama administration as part of a renewed commitment to civil rights issues and accountability in law enforcement. During the Trump administration, a 2018 memo restricted their use. Garland rolled back the memo when he opened the investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.
On Friday, Minneapolis and the Justice Department entered an agreement in principle to reach court-authorized consent decree that formalizes the federal findings and recommendations and appoints an independent monitor of the department.
“An enormous and important task lies ahead and we want this community to hear us clearly,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We stand with you at every stage of the process that lies ahead.”
The report also underscored the need for improvement in the Minneapolis Police Department’s cultural and training environment after finding “poor” de-escalation tactics and scant accountability measures were put into practice.
“This is truly about trying to change culture around policing…so we have a culture that our officers intentionally try to earn people’s trust in every interaction,” O’Hara said.
Since 2016, according to the Justice Department, the only officers who were punished for failing to intervene in a situation where another officer was acting inappropriately were those who failed to stop Chauvin from putting his knee on George Floyd’s neck.
“No other officer was disciplined for standing by while their colleagues violated someone’s constitutional rights” between 2016 and the present, the investigation found. And a review of the department’s conduct review process found more than a quarter (26.1%) of cases of reported officer misconduct went unresolved after two years.
The Justice Department also alleges Minneapolis police unlawfully retaliated against members of the press and protesters and did not appropriately respond to individuals in mental health crises.
“Your profession is essential…You are asked to keep your community safe, to uphold the rule of law, and to ensure equal justice under law,” Garland said Friday, addressing members of the Minneapolis police force. “This agreement is an important step forward to providing you with the support and resources you need to do your job effectively and lawfully.”
Clare Hymes contributed to this report.
