Minneapolis Police Reform, In Context

Recently we learned the outcomes of the police misconduct cases stemming from George Floyd’s death and the ensuing riots.  Unconscionable police behaviors received discipline up to and including termination.

While overdue, I don’t think it tells us anything about today’s MPD in relation to misconduct and discipline.  These cases took place more than two years before Chief O’Hara was hired.

Five years after the death of George Floyd, what I want to know is how the Minneapolis Police Department is performing and treating the community today?  How do officers today see themselves and the mission of MPD?

I suspected that after an initial flurry of increased complaints, many legitimate and some gratuitous, they have declined and increased, for a number of reasons.  That appears to be accurate, but needs some analysis.

As happened in New Orleans after Katrina, some officers prone to poor service, disrespect for the public, and living under a consent decree departed of their own accord.

Significantly, MPD devolved into the most depleted and demoralized police department in modern city history.  Is MPD in recovery now?

I was hired in 1975 by Chief Jack Jensen.  The Star Tribune archive reported that in one of his first appearances before city council in 1974, he successfully argued to maintain an authorized sworn strength of 841.  Only very recently has MPD rebounded to 600.

How did we get here?  Police officer positions in Minneapolis were long sought after and highly competitive.  I took my civil service examination at Anderson Hall on the University of Minnesota campus with about 1,000 other applicants.

Policing is depleted in part because many officers, and not just MPD, made PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) disability claims.  Whether legitimate or disingenuous, the resolution of claims had become perfunctory.

In a meeting with Chief Arradondo, early in his administration, well before George Floyd, he told me about the looming threat of PTSD claims.  He explained new state law provided that if an officer made a PTSD claim and had the support of one medical professional and a second witness, the claim would be presumptively sustained.  In the 2023 session the legislature took steps to address this loophole, such as mandatory attempts at rehabilitation prior to sustaining a PTSD claim.

The motivation for making PTSD claims, beyond the genuine claims, was also a lack of support, especially from elected officials.  I am sure some of the PTSD claims were motivated by a desire to stick a thumb in the eye of city officials whom officers believed had abandoned them.

The reputation of MPD officers has rebounded amongst much of our community.  That is apparently not so with a majority of our city council members.  In previous times city council members attended swearing in ceremonies, awards, and promotions. Often elected officials were invited to speak.  They usually liked that.  They would appear face to face with officers at roll calls and did regular ride-alongs. They would publicly recognize compassionate and brave service to the community.  Only a handful do so today.  Especially today, when for a variety of reasons, few new police officers are familiar with Minneapolis, council members miss an opportunity to connect them with their constituents and their needs.

The large number officers hired as Clinton Cops in the mid-90’s have passed their eligibility for full retirement.  Without an effective recruitment strategy, further depletion can be anticipated.  This greatly concerns me and should concern us all. Last year’s city council decision to line item out funding for the successful MPD recruiting program was in keeping with their philosophy but not the best interests of the community.

In addition to grossly reduced numbers, officers anticipating a paucity of support, are discouraged from risk taking on behalf of the community.  Doing the minimum required, usually keeps an officer out of trouble. Still we continue to see acts of compassion and heroism.  We need only look back to May 30, 2024, when Officer Jamal Mitchell rushed toward known deadly danger, trying to save a life, and his own life was taken.

You can compel minimum performance, but excellent performance must be led.

I expect the character of complaints has changed and now tend to skew toward slow response and failure to provide service rather than abuse of trust.   Many of these problems are largely out of the hands of today’s MPD officers, going call to call, from continuously triaged pending calls.

In many ways we already have a new MPD, much smaller, with a new(er) outside Police Chief.   It is in all of our interests to yes, hold police accountable, but also show and require mutual respect.  I am certain the positives and the criticality of MPD exceeds the negatives by orders of magnitude.

So, back to the beginning.  How has the number and origin of complaints about police performance changed since the murder of George Floyd?

The attached table from the city website tells us a lot.  The top section compares the 2^nd quarter of each year dating to 2013.  I believe that is because we just closed the books on 2^nd quarter 2025.  So that is not especially informative.

The lower half of the chart is where important long term trend information is found. There were 395 total complaints in 2013.  There was a huge spike in 2020, the year George Floyd was killed and responses to the ensuing civil disorder.  In 2024, our last full data year, there were 535 total complaints.  That is a 25% increase over 2013?  Going in the wrong direction?  Maybe not.  Look more closely at the source of complaints.

In 2013 only one complaint, .03% of all complaints, was generated from within the department.  However, since then citizen complaints have declined 31%.  Conversely, internal complaints had risen from 1 to 258, just about equal to citizen complaints.  This tells us that the Minneapolis Police Department has made huge strides in holding itself accountable.

I continue to hear activists and political candidates saying nothing has changed within MPD.  Well, a lot has changed for the better. The outside consent decree monitor, ELEFA, reports MPD is making excellent progress.  The Reimagining Public Safety group at Plymouth Congregational Church compiled a ten page list of MPD reforms completed or underway.  Are these all just outputs or are they meaningful outcomes?   This complaint table gives us a quantitative response to that question.

In February of 1994 in the high profile Sauro/Mische police excessive force case, a federal jury found that the city of Minneapolis was “deliberately indifferent” to acts of police misconduct.  The above table demonstrates this City is not deliberately indifferent.

I believe there is no possibility of a safe community unless professional and compassionate policing is a leading part.  Of course the new alternatives to sending police, such as behavioral health response teams, are a preferred strategy for many situations.  Although I have also sat in on MPD officer training provided by the Minnesota Crisis Intervention Team that all officers now receive.  I witnessed officer’s excellent de-escalation skills, empathy, compassion, and patience.

What does trouble me though is justifying those alternative responses by saying, “you don’t need an officer with a gun for that”.  If that implies the only reason to send an officer is when a gun is needed, essentially becoming the gun squad, what a miserable job that would be.  If you think officers become jaded now, imagine a job where the primary duty is to intervene in violence.

Regarding my second question, how officers see themselves and the profession? I am hopeful.

I don’t know when peace/police officers or became thought of as “law enforcement”.  They are licensed by the Minnesota PEACE Officers Standards and Training Board. Historically, enforcing the law has been about 15% of what a police officer does.  Sure, it is rewarding to hold a violent offender preying on the public accountable.  That is not however where most of the day to day job satisfaction comes from.

The police remain the most frequent citizen point of contact with city government.  In that role, we were expected to be “ambassadors”, not warriors, for the city.  That means be helpful, even if the problem has nothing to do with the job description.  Our axiom at UMPD was, “refer the complaint, not the complainant”.  Culture change is that simple and that difficult, but I think we are on our way.