Minneapolis police systemically fail in response to domestic violence calls, study finds

Minneapolis police often don't attempt to track down domestic abusers who flee a scene before officers arrive — leaving victims more vulnerable and empowering their assailants — according to a study published Thursday that examined how the department responds to calls of intimate-partner violence.

Minneapolis officers also communicate with victims in ways that show gender, racial or other biases, sowing distrust and making some victims less likely to call 911 in the future, the researchers found.

The study, published by the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Global Rights for Women, identifies a series of systemic gaps in how the Police Department handles domestic violence cases. The assessment took three years and cites input from MPD leadership, the Minneapolis City Attorney's Office, Hennepin County officials, a judge and a range of experts and advocates who work with domestic violence survivors. It also includes anecdotes and quotes from survivors who participated in several focus groups. They are not identified by name.

The study found that officers often fail to interview witnesses to an abuser's conduct, including children, or document their identity and contact information, making it more difficult to prosecute these cases. Minneapolis police also don't always properly document property crimes that accompany domestic violence, in turn depleting victims' physical and economic security and chances for restitution. Further, the department doesn't use data to identify and triage resources toward the most dangerous offenders, the study found.

The latter group of serial abusers are among those who often avoid arrest by fleeing the scene before police arrive, said lead study writer Melissa Petrangelo Scaia.

"It's almost like abusers in Minneapolis have figured out if you're not there when the cops come they're never going to come looking for you," she said.

Minneapolis city officials declined to comment on the study findings Thursday, while MPD did not respond to a request for comment

In the United States, about 10 million people are victims of intimate-partner violence every year, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

From 2019 through 2022 in Minneapolis, about one-third of the 11,645 incidents of aggravated assaults were classified as domestic assaults, according to data tracked by police. Domestic assaults in the city are down slightly in 2023 compared with last year, but the data shows they're still elevated 8% from prior three-year averages, tracking with greater violent crime trends in the city.

Out of more than 2,000 domestic assault victims identified in Minneapolis police data from 2021 through this year, about 70% involved a boyfriend, girlfriend or ex-partner. About 7% of victims were spouses of the offender, and 5% were children. The vast majority of victims — nearly 80% — were female.

Scaia said the new study started as a follow-up to a 2017 report from the Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission — an arm of the city's civil rights division — that found only 20% of more than 43,000 domestic violence calls led to reports or arrests. That puts Minneapolis in stark contrast with similar data reported the same year by the Justice Department, which found police throughout the country took a report in 78% of those types of calls on average and 39% led to arrest or charges.

The Minneapolis Police Department has seen a rise in violent crime and an unprecedented exodus of officers since the 2017 report, exacerbating lags in emergency response times and spreading investigators thinner.

One of the unnamed survivors cited in the report described how in May 2022 her partner pressed a gun to her head and dragged her with his car, breaking her nose. She said she called 911 and waited at a gas station with witnesses to the assault, but it took an hour and a half for officers to arrive. In the meantime, her partner stole her car. When police showed up, "I was covered in blood but I think they didn't think it was serious. He was driving around looking for me. He drove by while police were there, and I pointed him out, but they didn't do anything."

Another said she was repeatedly beaten by her husband while she was pregnant, and her attacker didn't relent after she took out an order for protection. When police failed to intervene, he began to assault her mother. "I feel I've called hundreds of times. He'd run and come back. I feel police didn't care because he was my husband."

The study found that women of color were at greater risk of not being helped, and some felt they needed to carry weapons to defend themselves rather than call the police. Many in the focus groups said they were not believed or "criminalized" by police, adding to the collateral damage of the attacks, said Amirthini Keefe, executive director of the Domestic Abuse Project.

One survivor, who is Black, said her neighbors called 911 after her partner grabbed her out of the shower and choked her. Police burst into the bathroom and found her partner bleeding, and she said they arrested her instead of him.

The report authors list several recommendations for Minneapolis police to improve responses to intimate-partner violence calls, including adding explicit policy language for calls when a suspect is gone before police arrive. Supervisors should ensure compliance, and the department should create specialized positions for investigating domestic calls, the report said.

The study authors point to a "Blueprint For Safety" adopted by St. Paul as a model. The document instructs police in St. Paul to gather specific information when a suspect flees before arrival, and it provides steps for how to follow-up urgently and protect victims.

Police should receive training on implicit and explicit biases, and the department should develop risk assessment tools for female same-sex relationships and immigrant victims. The department should direct officers how to gather information from children who witness assaults, provide regular training on witness interviews and identify and address officers filing incomplete reports. And it should create a data-centric approach to identifying high-risk offenders and triaging resources toward those cases, according to the study.

Even with the department's depleted staffing, Minneapolis could begin closing these gaps in service immediately, said Allison Likens, who works as a civil and criminal justice intervention coordinator for Cornerstone, a nonprofit that participated in the report. Many of the recommendations "don't necessarily take money," she said, "they take collaboration."

Staff data reporter Jeff Hargarten contributed to this report.