Report reviews one year of Minneapolis’ progress in court-ordered police reform

[MUSIC PLAYING] NINA MOINI: Our top story on Minnesota Now. The court-ordered reform process within the city of Minneapolis and its police Department has reached a new phase. You may remember that after George Floyd's murder, the State Department of Human Rights found that the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Police Department engaged in patterns and practices of racial discrimination. It led to a court-ordered agreement that's now being enforced by an independent monitor.

Today, that monitor released a report that looks at the progress made in one full year of this agreement. So joining us now to explain where things stand one year in is the Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner, Rebecca Lucero. Commissioner, nice to talk with you again. Thank you for being here.

REBECCA LUCERO: Good afternoon. Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: It's significant that this progress report is coming right around this time of May 2025, five years since the murder of George Floyd, and your office launching an investigation into Minneapolis. What are you reflecting on five years later?

REBECCA LUCERO: Yeah, thanks for that question. Let me, I think, start by taking a quick step back, because I think the first thing that I've been reflecting on is how we got here, and like many of us, where we were five years ago in this moment. And so first, thinking about five years since MPD murdered George Floyd and all the work that went into a very thoughtful and comprehensive investigation.

It was in April of 2022 when MDHR, when we announced the findings of race-based policing, so that was some time ago at this point. It's been two years since the city agreed to and signed the consent decree-- that was in the summer of 2023-- and two years since the DOJ announced its findings. And I'm not meaning to go through a lot of deadlines [INAUDIBLE].

NINA MOINI: No, no, no. Please. Yeah. It's good context.

REBECCA LUCERO: Yeah. I think that all of these moments in time are important, and so we're looking at a progress report because it marks a moment in time. All of these are moments in time, and they're detailing the work that we have to go through. And I think it's a reflection of how much further we have to go. The tremendous amount of work ahead for the city, including MPD, really cannot be understated because the context is, we've got a lot of work to do.

NINA MOINI: And Commissioner, will you remind our listeners what a court-ordered reform process looks like in practice, why the court would step in, and try to oversee the reforms to ensure that they're actually happening? Can you just talk about the process of these court-ordered enforcements?

REBECCA LUCERO: Yeah. Great question. Thank you for that. This is different than any other agreement that the city has ever taken on before. So what this means by being a court-ordered, a court-enforceable agreement-- other words for it are consent decree or a consent agreement, however you want to describe it. The important thing behind it is that it is something that only the court can make decisions about when and how this ends.

And so it is only when the city has reached sustained compliance to ending its race-based policing practices, and all of the different pieces that go into it, that this ends. And so it lives past every political process, every budget, every-- it certainly lives past me. And that's the dedicated work that must be done in the years ahead to move this forward.

NINA MOINI: Well, and the taxpayers pay into all of these reforms that are going on. The cost falls to the city. So when they continue year after year, it's important to have these markers to ensure that the reforms are actually in practice just to account for all the stakeholders that are involved in this. So one year into this court-ordered agreement, where is the city and police department at? Are they on track?

REBECCA LUCERO: Thanks for that question. I think first and foremost, I think it's important to say that as a taxpayer myself in Minneapolis, I am already and was already paying for public safety in Minneapolis. And so as a taxpayer myself here, I really do want to make sure that when we are paying for public safety services, we are doing so in a way that ensures that the officers that are doing their work are getting the training and the support that they need.

That is a much better investment of city resources than paying out millions of dollars for, for instance, George Floyd's murder here. That is money-- I would rather him be alive today and for us investing that money into much better training, much better oversight, data systems that are clearly still in the very, very early stages of being planned. And so I just want to start with that.

To your question about where they are right now, I mean, as I think I've indicated repeatedly, this all takes transformational work, and this is the very early stages. So we are one year in. And so in the report, you're seeing some important progress made in these initial stages. And you're seeing that there's still a lot more to do.

And so what I'm excited about in the coming year and the coming years is having better information for us to track these things. Our investigation found that MPD's data shows that officers are more likely to stop Black community members for longer, search Black community members more often, cite Black community members, use force against Black community members, and arrest Black community members during traffic stops than white community members in similar circumstances.

And you'll see in this progress report that at this point, the city is not quite able to have the data systems in place to do that kind of evaluation, but they have now a data systems plan in place to continue to move that forward.

I'm anxious and excited for the city to get those data systems plans in place so they can do that kind of reflection and make sure that they are adapting and changing their policies and training immediately to prevent that kind of unlawful and discriminatory policing from happening on the front end, and to really support the officers that are here doing good work and would like for them to have good training, good supervision.

They want that support themselves. You'll hear that from them all over the place, including in this progress report. And that's nothing new.

NINA MOINI: So in the early stages of many reforms across the board that are coming, whether it be around officer wellness or use of force and all these different areas. And it seemed from your progress report that you feel that the city's at the table. The police department's at the table, and everybody really wants to work together. What have you heard from community members and residents in Minneapolis who have long said they really want to be centered in this process?

REBECCA LUCERO: First, let me just go ahead and clarify that this progress report has been conducted by ELEFA. Now, they are an independent evaluator, so this is not an evaluation of the Department of Human Rights. Really, our investigation should be the grounding place for our place on this. So this is ELEFA saying, look. We have a plan that we've developed. It's called their evaluation plan.

And we've put this together and in consultation with the city to identify specific deliverables that they will accomplish in these first couple of years. And part of those deliverables include centering and including community members and also officers as well. And I think that one of the things that we've seen that I think has been particularly really powerful and great to see is the way that MPD officers incorporated or considered-- at a minimum, considered-- and then where possible, incorporated feedback in a meaningful way from community members.

We saw this play out during the use of force policies. There was a lot of back and forth. And officers have said the use of force policies are all over the place. They're long. They're lengthy. We can't quite keep track of it. So there was certainly incorporating the officer feedback. But to see in live time where the MPD implementation team also meaningfully incorporated the feedback from community members was quite exciting to see.

And I hope that that's a story that they're able to show with community members and officers as they move forward. That continued engagement and meaningful incorporation is going to be important as we move forward, both with community members and with MPD officers across the board.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And it was a process to choose that independent monitor of ELEFA and bringing them into to oversee everything and make sure that things were on track as that kind of third party. So what is next, Commissioner, in this whole process? It seems like it's going to be a rather long process. Is there another marker or milestone in the near future?

REBECCA LUCERO: Yeah. Thank you for that. I mean, every six months there will be a progress report that comes out that ELEFA is responsible for issuing. There's also public meetings that they have, so you will see another progress report that comes out. These are only short snapshots of periods of time to see this process moving forward. There is a lot that we could talk about here, from misconduct investigations to training plans to data systems. So there is a lot to unpack here in the years to come as we move forward.

And I think the most important thing that has to be the center of all of this is something that was really at the center of our investigation and remains true. And you see ELEFA stating that in here. They say organizational change management requires continuous, purposeful communication from leadership to ensure employees are accepting and supportive of culture change. There is a lot going on in our city and across the world right now.

Being a really good leader is a tremendous amount of work, a lot of responsibility. And when city leaders are acting with that urgency and coordination and intentionality that is required to transform culture within an organization, you see the outcomes demonstrated through that commitment. And so I think that's going to be the grounding force that demonstrates how this moves forward in a meaningful way in the many years to come.

NINA MOINI: Commissioner Lucero, thank you for stopping by Minnesota Now. We hope you'll come back in six months and as the process continues.

REBECCA LUCERO: Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

NINA MOINI: You, too. Rebecca Lucero is the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.