The Minnesota Department of Human Rights on Wednesday released a 72-page report detailing widespread racial discrimination by Minneapolis police officers.
Here are seven key takeaways from the report:
The probe found numerous racial disparities in "how MPD officers use force, stop, search, arrest and cite people of color"
"MPD officers use disproportionately, higher rates of more severe force against Black individuals, and this remains true even when comparing MPD officers' use of force against Black and white individuals in similar circumstances," according to the report. While just 19% of Minneapolis residents are Black, the report found 63% of all use of force incidents by MPD officers were against Black individuals between 2010 and 2020.
Officers used fake social media accounts for surveillance of Black people and organizations, without evidence of criminal activity
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The investigation found that "in social media posts and messages, MPD officers used language to further racial stereotypes associated with Black people, especially Black women." Officers also used fake accounts "to pose as community members in order to post comments and content online attacking police critics and criticizing local officials."
MPD officers frequently use racist, misogynistic and disrespectful language
"MPD maintains an organizational culture where officers consistently use racist, misogynistic, and otherwise disrespectful language. Furthermore, MPD does not uniformly and consistently hold officers accountable for using this language," the report said.
MPD continues to emphasize paramilitary or "warrior" training that leads to unnecessary escalation and inappropriate use of force
The report said that training is insufficient, resulting in problematic policing tactics, while reinforcing a "warrior mindset" despite having banned warrior-style training in 2019. Further, officers regularly expressed a lack of confidence in department policy, saying changes were frequent and not well communicated.
MPD has failed to hold officers accountable for misconduct
The report found that no meaningful independent review process exists for holding MPD conduct accountable: "Almost every investigation of a police misconduct complaint against an MPD officer, no matter how preliminary, is assessed or guided by sworn MPD officers," the report said.
City and MPD leadership has not acted with urgency to address racial discrimination in policing
"City and MPD leaders have been aware of deep organizational culture problems within the MPD resulting in the long-standing, disproportionate impact of race-based policing on people of color and Indigenous individuals ... The organizational culture at MPD has existed unchecked," the report said.
The state will pursue court-enforced changes at MPD
"Moving forward, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights will work with the City of Minneapolis to develop a consent decree, which is a court-enforceable agreement that identifies specific changes to be made and timelines for those changes to occur."
Staff writers Andy Mannix, Liz Navratil and Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.
