Minneapolis City Council approves federal oversight plan for police

Deena Winter and Liz Sawyer, Star Tribune on Jan 6, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — About 4 1/2 years after the police killing of George Floyd triggered state and federal investigations and sparked protests worldwide, Minneapolis officials have reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice outlining sweeping reforms that will be made to address discriminatory policing.

The Minneapolis City Council discussed the consent decree in a closed-door session for nearly seven hours Monday before emerging to vote 12-0 to approve it, with Council Member Michael Rainville absent. City Clerk Casey Carl said Rainville was in the building at the time, but inadvertently missed the vote and may try to get his vote recorded at an upcoming meeting.

“We have traveled a very, very long and challenging journey,” Council President Elliott Payne said after the unanimous rollcall vote. “This is marking the end of the beginning on a very long road.”

The 170-page document, reviewed exclusively by the Star Tribune, details reforms the Minneapolis Police Department must take in the coming years under the supervision of a federal judge, including adopting a new disciplinary matrix; following through on investigations into serious misconduct even if an officer leaves the department; requiring the chief act on discipline recommendations within 60 days; and bolstering education of field training officers.

Among the specifics: Police would no longer be allowed to start a foot chase simply because a person flees upon seeing an officer. They couldn’t work off duty if they’re on administrative leave or under investigation for misconduct. Nor should they handcuff a child under 14 years old.

The consent decree — a legally binding agreement enforced by a federal judge — lays out how the Minneapolis Police Department will reform its training, discipline and policies to address systemic problems laid out by the DOJ in 2023. U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time that those conditions “made what happened to George Floyd possible.”

The DOJ found Minneapolis police used excessive and unjustified deadly force; routinely discriminated against Black and Native American people; violated reporters’ and protesters’ free speech rights; and discriminated against people with behavioral health disabilities.

Similar oversight agreements have been instituted in other U.S. cities, such as Baltimore, Cleveland and New Orleans, often after high-profile police killings, but this marks just the second consent decree during President Joe Biden’s administration — despite its launching of a dozen federal investigations into police departments nationwide.

The agreement will next be filed in federal court as the two sides race to get a judge to sign off on the deal before President-elect Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20. Trump was hostile to such agreements during his first term, scaling them back and calling them a “war on police.” Trump’s election put Minneapolis in a race against the clock because formal talks with the feds didn’t begin until nearly a year after the DOJ reported its findings in June 2023.

Council Member Robin Wonsley said in an email to supporters that she has no faith that the Trump administration will be a serious partner in supporting the implementation of the consent decree.

“Having a federal consent decree signed and in place is valuable to police reform efforts, but we need to be sober about the fact that it will take local political will to hold the city and the Frey administration accountable to implementing and enforcing the terms of the consent decree,” Wonsley said.

She also noted Minneapolis is already 18 months into a similar court-enforceable agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights it signed in 2023, after the state did its own investigation into MPD. Minneapolis is the first U.S. city to be subject both state and federal oversight of this type.

A police department in turmoil

The police force has long been a lightning rod in Minneapolis, a progressive city, with all 13 City Council members and the mayor either members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party or Democratic Socialists.

Floyd’s killing sparked a brief movement to defund the police, and nine council members publicly vowed to “begin the process of ending” the police department 13 days after Floyd’s death.

But that never happened: Minneapolis voters rejected a 2021 ballot measure that would have replaced the police department with a new kind of public safety agency. And they re-elected Frey, who opposed defunding the police.

Police department funding dipped in 2021 but has steadily increased since then, to a record $229 million this year, which will cover historic pay police raises and dozens of new positions to carry out reforms.

Meanwhile, hundreds of officers have left the department, with many retiring claiming they’re disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder from protests and riots after Floyd’s murder.

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