Minneapolis weighs giving Harteau 3 more years as police chief

It's probably safe to say that having critics march through the city isn't a high point of anyone's job review.

That's part of the context as Minneapolis weighs whether to give Chief Janee Harteau three more years running the state's biggest police force. Her reappointment faces a final public hearing on Wednesday.

Demonstrators took to the streets repeatedly in the last year to protest the deaths of black men at the hands of police. In December, Minneapolis police cleared protesters from an encampment in front of their 4th Precinct station.

That same department has fired four officers for misconduct in the last two years and now has Department of Justice investigators reviewing the latest fatal police shooting.

But Harteau is winning some surprising support as she faces a reappointment vote, possibly this week, and a key test of her leadership.

Ron Edwards, a longtime and well-known community activist in Minneapolis' black community and a frequent critic of City Hall, spoke last week at an initial City Council committee hearing on Harteau's nomination for a second term.

"I applaud this chief," Edwards said. "She is doing what she has to do. And hopefully she will be able to establish her place in history as having changed some things. This is an institution, the MPD, that has resisted change for longer than 50 years. I applaud you, Chief Harteau, and God bless you."

Harteau has been with the department for nearly 30 of those years. But she represents change at the top: She's the first woman ever to lead the department, and she's the city's first openly gay police chief. She launched a reform initiative and dubbed it MPD 2.0.

Supporters, including Mayor Betsy Hodges, say Harteau is the right person for the job and can adapt to a changing culture and changing expectations for the 800-officer force. Hodges urged City Council members to confirm the chief.

"Matters of police-community relations are and should be front of mind and front of policy and front of work for every police department in this country," Hodges said. She said Harteau held that view "long before the national conversation was as heated as it currently is."

Still, some aren't buying it. They see Harteau as representative of a long list of ills in the city.

"Something is wrong at every level and so, in my opinion, everyone's got to go, and that's the chief, and I'm sorry, the mayor," said Claudio Rivera, an activist from north Minneapolis.

Rivera told City Council members that Minneapolis needs to start over.

"I'll just keep it at that," Rivera said. "I think everybody's got to go, because I believe Black Lives Matter and we need to get justice for Jamar."

He was referring to Jamar Clark, the 24-year-old black man fatally shot by Minneapolis police last November.

The City Council will reopen the public hearing into the appointment of Harteau, Fire Chief John Freutel and Civil Rights Director Velma Korbel at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The council could approve Harteau's appointment as soon as Friday.