By Andrew Goudsward
(Reuters) -Minneapolis’ City Council voted on Monday to agree to systemic reforms to its police department and to submit the department to outside oversight after a U.S. federal investigation spurred by the 2020 murder of George Floyd uncovered a pattern of civil rights abuses.
The city’s clerk and a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the 12-0 council vote on Monday.
Minneapolis and the Justice Department reached a court-enforceable agreement, known as a consent decree, that will seek an outside independent monitor to report on the city’s progress.
The agreement, which must be approved by a federal judge, cements police reforms in a city put in the world spotlight in 2020 after Floyd’s murder by a white police officer touched off weeks of nationwide protests and civil unrest over racism and police violence against Black Americans.
Floyd, who was Black, died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes.
The settlement was finalized just weeks before Republican President-elect Donald Trump returns to office.
Trump has been vocal in support of police, and advocates expect the incoming Trump administration to exert less oversight than Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which came into office pledging reforms in the wake of Floyd’s murder.
The Justice Department investigation, which concluded in 2023, found that Minneapolis police regularly used excessive force and discriminated against Black people and Native Americans.
The probe found that police used potentially deadly neck restraints, since banned by the city, and shot at people in situations where there was no immediate threat.
The probe, known as a “pattern-or-practice” investigation, was separate from the federal criminal prosecutions of four Minneapolis police officers, including Chauvin, who were convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Chauvin was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in the federal case. He was also found guilty of state murder charges.
Pattern-or-practice investigations, which examine an entire department, often led to consent decrees, agreements filed with a court that mandate reforms and often years of outside monitoring.
Minneapolis is the second U.S. city to reach such an agreement following an investigation started by the Biden Justice Department, despite the department starting a dozen police department investigations over the last four years.
Louisville, Kentucky struck its own agreement with the Justice Department last month.
Other cities, including Phoenix, have resisted outside oversight and objected to Justice Department findings. Several probes have only been completed within the last several weeks, leaving little time to finalize court agreements before the end of the Biden administration on Jan. 20.
Trump vowed during his presidential campaign to increase legal protections for police. The Justice Department in his first term curtailed the use of pattern-or-practice investigations and sought to challenge previously negotiated court agreements, viewing them as overly burdensome for police departments.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)
