Minneapolis reaches tentative agreement with the U.S. DOJ to secure consent decree mandating reforms

The city of Minneapolis has reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to secure a long-awaited federal consent decree mandating sweeping police reforms, a source confirmed to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

City Council members are expected to review the document during a closed session with the city attorney’s office on Monday morning. Afterward, elected officials will be asked to vote on it during a special public meeting called by Mayor Jacob Frey.

If approved, the lengthy legal agreement will be filed in federal court — just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and return to the White House.

Trump’s re-election this fall left the pending consent decree in potential jeopardy and left harried city officials desperate to ink a deal before his second term. The Trump administration expressed hostility to such agreements in the past, denouncing court-enforceable reform efforts as a “war on police” and federal overreach into the business of local law enforcement agencies.

Many feared Trump would seek to quash Minneapolis’ protracted push for federal oversight — and, by extension, its ability to rein in misconduct within the embattled police department — nearly five years after the murder of George Floyd.

As the New Year approached, skepticism remained among members of the public that city officials would, or could, get a consent decree signed by a judge in time.

Yet, Frey and his top advisers insisted that they were determined to push forward.

“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.”

The Justice Department’s June 2023 report on the Minneapolis Police Department concluded that MPD used unjustified deadly force, unlawfully discriminated against Black and Native American people in particular, violated citizens’ free speech rights and at times caused trauma or death when responding to behavioral health crises in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city and the DOJ were expected to negotiate the language outlining those reforms, but formal talks did not begin until the DOJ submitted a “lengthy” draft consent decree for feedback — nearly a year after their initial findings report was issued.

No rationale was provided for the delay, Anderson told the Minnesota Star Tribune. Since then, the parties have been working in earnest to reach an agreement, she said, meeting once every three to four weeks and remaining in constant contact.

Frey allocated $16 million in 2024 and $11 million in 2025 to manage reforms expected to result from both state and federal consent decrees, requiring dozens of new employees. Last year, MPD launched an Implementation Unit, dedicated to improving data collection and achieving compliance.

A consent decree is one of the federal government’s most aggressive tools for restraining police departments it finds to be systemically violating the U.S. Constitution. They are typically launched in the aftermath of a high-profile incident, like Floyd’s killing.

Minneapolis is already under state court supervision. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights negotiated its own settlement agreement with the city in 2023 after a pattern and practices investigation found that MPD engaged in race discrimination in violation of the state’s Human Rights Act.

The Human Rights Department’s legal agreement is expected to last at least four years. The process is being overseen by Effective Law Enforcement for All, a nonprofit organization selected in February to serve as independent evaluator for both consent decrees, should the federal one be formally approved in court.

If that happens, Minneapolis will become the first city in the nation with its police department governed by both state and federal mandates.

On Tuesday, the city calendar was updated to reflect a special City Council meeting at 8:30 a.m. Monday, described only as a briefing on the DOJ’s “potential litigation and resolution possibilities concerning the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Police Department.”

The clerk’s office noted that the council will resume a public meeting following the closed session. A formal agenda has not yet been published online. Frey’s office declined to comment on the matter.

It’s not yet clear what is included in the closely guarded legal document or how many people within City Hall have reviewed it.

President Joe Biden’s DOJ recently finalized a 248-page agreement with Louisville, Ky., prompted by the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in a botched no-knock raid. But two weeks later, a federal judge has yet to sign off on it.

Federal consent decrees can last longer than a decade and cost tens of millions to enforce, experts say, but have proved to reduce police brutality in some cities.

This story contains material from staff writer Deena Winter and the Associated Press.