Consent decree monitor publishes road map for Minneapolis police reforms

Minneapolis police must roll out a new use-of-force policy, work to eliminate the massive complaint backlog and conduct monthly body camera audits on its officers by next spring, as part of a years-long effort aimed at rebuilding community trust in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

The city’s independent evaluator, a nonprofit organization tasked with overseeing Minneapolis’ state and eventual federal consent decrees, released its multi-year implementation plan Friday — a roadmap on how the embattled police department can achieve compliance with a series of court-mandated reforms.

Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA), the 12-person monitoring team hired in February, also submitted their plan to Hennepin County Judge Karen Janisch, who is presiding over the case.

The 87-page evaluation report outlines dozens of rolling performance goals, including upgrades to outdated technology that improve data tracking, revised policies on stops and searches, retraining of all personnel, and enhancements to the department’s early intervention system.

Although the MPD was an early adopter of body-worn cameras when the police force launched its pilot program in 2014, supervisors were not regularly auditing officers’ activations without cause.

Under the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) settlement agreement, Minneapolis police officials are required to randomly review officers’ squad and body camera videos and conduct monthly evaluations to ensure the devices were not muted or temporarily deactivated while responding to 911 calls.

As monitor, ELEFA will convene quarterly public meetings alongside elected officials to garner community feedback, as well as produce semiannual reports tracking the city’s progress.

Those reports will grade each required reform on the following scale: non-compliant, at risk, partly compliant off-track, partly compliant on-track, and compliant.

However, ELEFA recommended that city and state leaders ask Janisch to push back initial deadlines laid out in the settlement agreement, as there was an 8-month lag between the court approving the legal document and the parties choosing an independent evaluator.

That “significant disparity” created a number of practical challenges for the city that both deprived it of the monitor’s expertise and threatened to create public confusion, according to ELEFA. Leaving original deadlines in place would require numerous modifications or a finding of non-compliance, paired with an explanation attributing that conclusion to the absence of a monitor.

“These outcomes would be unfair and clearly not the Parties’ intention,” ELEFA wrote in its executive summary. The group noted that Minneapolis, in conjunction with MDHR, had been “working diligently” toward implementation even before its appointment.

That request is still pending.

More than a year before ELEFA was selected, city officials began mobilizing in preparation for a laborious legal process meant to reshape policing in the city that ignited a racial reckoning with Floyd’s killing on May 25, 2020.

Separate state and federal probes found that the Minneapolis Police Department engaged in a pattern and practice of discriminatory policing that deprived citizens of their constitutional rights. Both investigations cited deficient training and lax supervisory review for failing to hold problem officers accountable.

The MDHR agreement is expected to last at least four years. An anticipated consent decree by the Department of Justice, which has yet to be finalized, could span upward of a decade.

Managing those dual reform efforts will cost an estimated $16 million in 2024 and $11 million in 2025. “Change isn’t cheap,” Mayor Jacob Frey said in his annual budget address last spring.

Chief Brian O’Hara, who was hired in 2022 in large part due to his experience helping lead Newark, N.J., through a federal consent decree, said Minneapolis must create a “self-correcting” police department with policies that can remain intact long after a monitor leaves.

Last year, the MPD launched its Implementation Unit, staffed by three sworn officers and roughly two dozen civilian analysts, dedicated to improved data collection and achieving broader compliance.

Police officials solicited feedback on a range of department policies, including use of force, during a series of community engagement sessions and finalized equipment audits to identify and replace broken gear.

In a recent quarterly review session examining traffic stops, O’Hara made suggestions on how officers could bolster community relations: Introduce yourself by name, identify what agency you work for and be direct — tell the motorist why they’re being pulled over, rather than making them guess.

These simple changes produce a tangible impact on the street, he said, that “leave people having better customer satisfaction than what we’re providing.”

But retraining the entire police force on an assortment of updated department policies will be an arduous task, given its ongoing staffing crisis. The agency has attempted to triage with historic amounts of overtime, but that may become increasingly difficult as officers are regularly pulled from patrol to complete mandated courses.

“It’s a serious problem,” O’Hara acknowledged in an interview. “I try and reassure officers that we’re not going to jeopardize public safety to get this stuff done. … If we’re a little late with some of the training, it is what it is.”

ELEFA is led by David Douglass, deputy monitor for the city of New Orleans, which has been under a federal consent decree since 2013. His team in Minneapolis has visited roll calls and conducted ride-alongs in all five precincts since March.

That group is co-led by Michael Harrison, a former Baltimore police commissioner and former superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department — the only chief in the nation with experience overseeing two departments under federal consent decrees, according to ELEFA’s application.

Under Harrison’s tenure, New Orleans police began using a new training system designed to prevent police misconduct, reduce mistakes and promote health and wellness. It’s now a national program called ABLE, which has been adopted by 370 agencies across the United States. The Minneapolis Police Department began training officers in the ABLE techniques in 2021.

ELEFA is expected to issue its first official progress report in coming weeks.

“MPD can’t just do this by themselves,” said Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette, whose office is tasked with leading the city’s coordination efforts to create permanent reforms that outlast paper mandates.

“The chief changes the culture,” he said. “The consent decree changes the systems.”

Barnette also said, “Our community is depending on us not to slide backwards.”