The Justice Department is expected to announce the results of an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department on Friday, according to two people familiar with the planning, concluding a multiyear probe into the long-troubled agency, whose -abuse gained global attention when an officer killed George Floyd in 2020.
The report is expected to be released at a news conference with Attorney General Merrick Garland, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and city officials. The contents of the report are not yet known, but people familiar with the investigation said the inquiry uncovered significant problems with the system and could lead to an agreement between the parties, known as a consent order, which is administered by a federal judge.
The expected announcement was previously reported by Bloomberg Law and KSTP-TV in Minnesota.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has negotiated consent decrees in the past to enforce police reforms in Baltimore, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo., among other cities, following similar investigations.
The killing of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, by Officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 sparked protests and civil unrest across the country and led to calls for a fundamental rethink or defunding of the police. The death of Mr. Floyd, the video of which has been widely circulated on the internet, has led to condemnations across the political spectrum and criminal convictions for the police officers involved, an extraordinary event. Mr. Chauvin was convicted of murder in state court and pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Mr. Floyd. Three other officers on the scene that night – Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane – were also convicted on federal and state charges.
In Minneapolis, long a center of progressive activism, the killings and riots changed the city. Activists and some members of the City Council initially called for the abolition of the police force and promised to implement changes to ensure similar killings do not happen again. Hundreds of officers have left the police department, with some receiving disability payments for post-traumatic stress they attributed to the riot.
In the years since, the politics around crime and policing have changed again. Minneapolis voters rejected a measure on the ballot in 2021 that would have replaced the Police Department with a new public safety agency. Mayor Jacob Frey, who was jeered by protesters in the days after Mr. Floyd’s killing when he spoke out against defunding the police, was elected to a second term.
But the troubles of the Minneapolis police force, which faced protests for other killings in the years before Mr. Floyd, became more clear. Amid uncertainty about its future, the department has struggled to retain officers and hit recruiting goals. Concerns about rising crime have led some residents to avoid public transportation.
And a report last year from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights confirmed what many residents have complained about for years: a police force with a “culture of laxity and accountability” and often including prejudice to a different policy.
After that report, the state reached a legal settlement in Minneapolis. That agreement, announced earlier this year, includes a pledge to limit the use of force and stop the practice of using the smell of marijuana as an excuse to search people. It’s unclear whether some of those measures will also be included in any future federal consent decree.
