Inspector Charlie Adams thought he was being summoned to a meeting. Instead, he rounded a corner inside his North Side police station to find dozens of community members waiting to surprise him.
They erupted in applause, then presented Adams with a plaque for "going above and beyond" the call of duty. The award acknowledged his 37 years of service as a police officer in Minneapolis, but also his steadfast efforts to build trust with and mentor youth — on and off the football field.
"He is the gold standard," said Gerald Moore, a retired Minneapolis Police Department commander who once served as Adams' field training officer. "Wish we could hire more folks like him."
Adams, the latest Northsider to lead that precinct, is a true son of the city.
He was raised in low-income federal housing projects and, as a teenager, was occasionally hassled by police while out with his friends. Adams understood what it felt like to be viewed with suspicion by white officers. After stints working security and driving the No. 21 night bus out of St. Paul, Adams joined MPD in 1987, hoping to change the system from within.
Since then, he's been an outspoken advocate for diversifying the department's ranks. That viewpoint wasn't always welcome.
Lt. Richard Zimmerman recalled the time in the 1980s that Adams, his former partner, was sent to internal affairs for giving a TV interview about the need to recruit more Black officers from the community. Despite resistance, colleagues credit his efforts with recruiting and training the next generation of minority cops.
He was one of five Black officers — known as "the Mill City 5" — who sued the department in 2007 over allegations that Blacks on the force were for decades subjected to a hostile work environment and disparate treatment. The officers settled out of court with the city for $740,000.
