The city of Minneapolis and the Justice Department have reached a tentative agreement for a consent decree to place the city’s police department under federal oversight.
Members of the Minneapolis City Council are expected to review the agreement on Monday with the intention of finalizing it before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has been a vocal opponent of the move. He has called the court-enforceable reform a “war on police.”
There has been great concern Trump will try to stop the mandated federal oversight of the city’s police department, as city officials began their inquiry into the department’s misconduct nearly five years ago following the death of George Floyd.
“We haven’t taken our foot off the gas since we started, and I have no intention of taking the foot off the gas,” City Attorney Kristyn Anderson said in an interview last month. “I’m still hopeful we’re gonna be able to land the plane on this one.”
In June 2023, the Justice Department concluded in a report that the Minneapolis Police Department had repeatedly used “unjustified deadly force and excessive less-lethal force,” unlawfully discriminated against black and Native American people, violated First Amendment rights, and caused trauma or death when responding to people with behavioral health problems.
The city and the DOJ were expected to begin negotiating terms for the decree, but it took nearly a year for the DOJ to submit a draft consent decree for feedback following the published report.
There was no rationale provided for the delay. Already, the city has entered into a consent decree with the state. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has entered a four-year oversight agreement with the city to monitor the MPD and ensure changes are made to ensure no racial discrimination is taking place.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has allocated $16 million in 2024 and $11 million in 2025 to manage the reforms expected to be implemented from the decrees. Last year, MPD launched an Implementation Unit that will focus on improving data collection and ensuring that compliance with the new standards is met.
If the city council agrees to the terms laid out by the Justice Department, the MPD will be the first police department in the country to be subjected to both a federal and state consent decree.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
