Three groups vying to monitor Minneapolis' consent decrees flaunt their credentials

Jetting into Minneapolis this week for back-to-back community meetings, three national firms that specialize in evaluating law enforcement tried to assure residents they would be fair but critical if chosen to be the independent monitor of Minneapolis police reforms.

Representatives of Effective Law Enforcement for All, Jensen Hughes and Relman Colfax attended two community engagement sessions Tuesday and Wednesday that took place south of downtown, at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Plymouth Congregational Church. Representatives of each firm had 15 minutes to present their teams, resumes and approach. They spent one hour answering questions that probed their contractual history with Minneapolis and how they would handle resistance to the court-mandated measures that the city has agreed to adopt.

"The independent evaluator is an essential third party — not one of the local city stakeholders — selected to oversee the transformational changes required by the court-enforceable settlement agreement," said the Rev. DeWayne Davis, of Plymouth Congregational Church, who hosted both events. "Your voice in this process matters a great deal."

After the police murder of George Floyd, state and federal investigations into the Minneapolis Police Department found civil rights violations and disproportionate force used against Black and Native American people spanning a decade. The city has since entered into a settlement decree with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, prescribing a litany of trainings, policy changes and measurable outcomes that the police department must accomplish before the agreement can be lifted.

The U.S. Department of Justice is still negotiating the terms of its consent decree with Minneapolis, but officials intend for the independent evaluator chosen to oversee the state and federal processes.

Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA): The nonprofit has partnered with police departments in Orlando, Fla., and Montgomery County, Md., to conduct voluntary audits and issue recommendations for reducing use-of-force incidents.

Their team in Minneapolis would be co-led by Michael Harrison, a former Baltimore police commissioner and former superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department — both agencies under federal consent decrees.

"What we've tried to do is form a team that understands this challenge from both sides," said David Douglass, a former federal prosecutor and longtime deputy monitor for New Orleans. "Success ultimately will be measured by stories not told. Complaints not made. Litigation not filed. Lives not lost."

Jensen Hughes: This global law enforcement consulting firm monitors in Bakersfield, Ca., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The firm has an established relationship with Minneapolis, which hired Hillard Heintze — a Maryland-based risk management consultant acquired by Jensen Hughes in 2019 — to assess its response to civil unrest after Floyd's murder. That 86-page report detailed a critical breakdown in communications and emergency planning by city leaders that left residents feeling abandoned in May 2020. It offered recommendations to change how MPD deals with crowd control and lawful protests.

Jensen Hughes is currently under another contract with the city to conduct a comprehensive training assessment of MPD.

"We have an understanding of how the department operates and we have an understanding of your experiences," said Sydney Roberts, a former inspector general who would serve as the team's deputy monitor if selected.

Relman Colfax: The Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm's cases deal with education, housing and public service discrimination. It represented a group of Flint, Mich., residents subjected to contaminated drinking water, resulting in a court-enforced settlement agreement.

Their team members include longtime Minneapolis officer and former Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mike Davis, Metro State University Associate Professor Dr. Raj Sethuraju, and Christy Lopez, a former federal litigator who served as co-monitor of Oakland's consent decree.

"We believe that having the community participate early, throughout and even after the monitorship process is the way to have a successful collaboration between the community and police department," said civil rights lawyer Reed Colfax, who would be lead evaluator.

On both nights, activists in the crowd held up signs depicting raccoons stacked in a trench coat with the slogan: "We refuse Jensen Hughes. You're Hillard Heintze in disguise."

Michelle Gross of the watchdog group Communities United Against Police Brutality said Hillard Heintze' civil unrest after-action report was overly sentimental about what law enforcement experienced during the Floyd protests and glossed over violence against peaceful demonstrators and journalists, some of whom lost eyes from police projectiles.

"If they get picked, we're going to go to court and fight it, I can promise you that," she said.

Questions from the audience pressed members of the teams to explain what they would do to counter noncompliance by the police department or institutional resistance to change from city leaders. Two of the firms, ELEFA and Relman Colfax, said they would go so far as to ask the court to impose sanctions on the city.

"Yes, we have the ability to say so when they're wrong, and we have leverage under the consent decree to go to court if necessary," said Douglass. "But that's the most expensive and least efficient way."

Some police departments are under the false impression that they can wait out the monitor, said Angie Wolf of Relman Colfax. Jensen Hughes vowed to never "run out of stamina" even if MPD dragged its feet.

Northside resident Angela Williams quizzed the finalists about their track records reforming other law enforcement agencies, noting that police killings, misconduct complaints and racial disparities remained prevalent even after formal intervention by the DOJ.

"It should be the community who picks who they want to work with — not the mayor!" she said. "There's too much money at stake."

After reviewing community feedback, representatives from the DOJ, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the City Attorney's Office (including members of outside counsel Jones Day), the Office of Community Safety, MPD, the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department, the City of Minneapolis Department of Information Technology, the Mayor's Office and the City Council will choose one team for the job. The city declined to identify the individuals on the selection panel.

The contract, which could cost up to $1.5 million a year, is subject to approval by the City Council with an anticipated start date of March 9.

Within 90 days of assuming its duties, the monitor team will need to develop a plan to implement the first four years of reforms. It must post semi-annual progress reports to its website, and survey police officers and the community on their satisfaction yearly.

The independent evaluator will have the power to approve new non-emergency policies and trainings before they can go into effect. But according to the city's application, the independent evaluator "may only make recommendations, provide technical assistance, and issue reports," and will not have the authority to require any city, police or state employee "to take or defer from taking any action."