Police reform is coming to Minneapolis. Here’s what implementing the consent decree will look like

CATHY WURZER: An independent organization will soon begin its work to oversee the city of Minneapolis's court-enforced settlement with the state over policing in Minneapolis. The nonprofit Effective Law Enforcement For All will be known as the independent monitor in this situation.

Mayor Jacob Frey signed off on the contract last week. Effective Law Enforcement For All helped oversee consent decree processes in New Orleans and Baltimore. The group will now begin years of work in Minneapolis. Joining us is the co-founder of Effective Law Enforcement For All, Attorney David Douglass. Mr. Douglass, thanks for your time today.

DAVID DOUGLASS: Oh, it's a pleasure to be with you.

CATHY WURZER: Can you remind listeners, what exactly is your role as an independent monitor?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Our role is to monitor the Minneapolis Police Department's and the city's compliance with the terms of the agreement, to provide technical assistance when requested, and to report to the parties and to the public concerning progress toward implementing the agreement.

CATHY WURZER: For folks who don't really know much about you or the organization, how did you get started in this business?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Well, since 2013, I've served as the deputy monitor for the Department of Justice consent decree over the New Orleans Police Department. And arising out of that experience and the lessons I learned, I saw that there were opportunities to use consent decrees as a framework to bring the public and their police agencies together to develop a shared vision for policing outside of the consent decree process. And so we formed a sect of law enforcement for all to accomplish that.

CATHY WURZER: So you've worked in New Orleans. You also worked in Baltimore. Is that correct?

DAVID DOUGLASS: I did not work in Baltimore. My co-lead evaluator, Michael Harrison, was the superintendent of police in Baltimore. He was also, prior to that, the superintendent of police in New Orleans. So I worked with him when he was in charge of the department that we were monitoring. Other members of our team also have experience in Baltimore.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Just it was interesting, because it's been seven years after Baltimore entered in a consent decree after the death of Freddie Gray. In January, it was determined that the police department there was in compliance with two reforms-- the transportation of people in police custody and for officer support and wellness practices. But there's 60% left to work on in seven years.

It feels like progress at a snail's pace. Can you tell folks, what are the expectations you want to lay out here about this process in Minneapolis?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Institutional reform is a long process. There are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of people who have to play their part. So people should expect that it takes a long time. And of course, remember, we're remedying practices that have been ingrained in police departments for a long time.

This agreement has a four-year term. The parties can certainly modify it. But our commitment is to work to accomplish the requirements of the agreement within that four years.

CATHY WURZER: There have been bumps in Baltimore and New Orleans, as you know. How will you ensure better outcomes in Minneapolis than in those two cities?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Well, I think, to be realistic, there's always gonna be bumps in the road, as I was saying. Institutional change is always challenging. And there are always unpredicted or unexpected events.

But we're going to work closely with the parties. We're going to take a strict project management approach so that we hopefully will diminish the number of those unexpected developments and try and keep the-- keep progress toward fulfilling the agreement on track.

CATHY WURZER: How will you be engaging with community members? There was a meeting fairly recently. I know you were at that meeting, and members of the community were pretty vocal in saying, we want to meet with you. We want you sitting there, right in front of us. We want to know what you're doing. How will you be transparent with them?

DAVID DOUGLASS: We'll do that in a number of ways. First of all, community involvement is really central to the mission of Effective Law Enforcement For All and one of the reasons we were attracted to this project-- because of the degree of community interest and community involvement.

Under the terms of the agreement, we're required to have regular meetings with the public generally and with interested stakeholders. Apart from that, we will be meeting with stakeholders. In fact, a few members of our team, even though we've not been formally engaged yet, a few members of our team have traveled out there to meet with some of the groups that we've already established relationships with through the selection process.

So we expect that engaging with a wide range of interested parties in Minneapolis will be central to the work we do. And we'll develop-- we'll have a website and other ways to keep people apprised of our work.

CATHY WURZER: In our conversation, you said that it's going to take a little while. A local TV station reports that Minneapolis police say they are already unlikely to meet certain deadlines. We've reported about the hundreds of officers that the MPD is down right now.

What happens when Minneapolis Police perhaps can't meet certain requirements put forward by the consent decree? What role would you play in cracking the whip on that, in a sense?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Well, we'd like to avoid cracking the whip. We know that the department is facing many challenges, but we also know it's very committed to this process and has begun working on it. So really what the parties will have to do is assess exactly where things stand. We'll develop timelines. And then we'll address issues with deadlines as they arise.

It's not uncommon in these to have to adjust deadlines along the way. So we anticipate that, and we'll work with the parties to make reasonable adjustments so that we can keep moving forward.

CATHY WURZER: Now, help us out. We're still waiting for the federal consent decree from the DOJ. How does that work? How will you balance both the state and the federal court agreements?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Well, the agreement contemplated that there would be a federal consent decree and that we would be the monitor for that decree as well. We would expect that decree to be complementary to this one. So once it's in place, we would simply incorporate its requirements into our work.

CATHY WURZER: OK. There's a lot here that you're going to balance, obviously. What does success look like?

DAVID DOUGLASS: There is a lot to balance.

CATHY WURZER: There's a lot to balance here. What does success look like to you?

DAVID DOUGLASS: I think success looks, at a minimum, like compliance with all the material elements of the agreement. And if there's a DOJ consent agreement, that as well.

But more importantly, I think of the agreement and the consent decree sort of as the blueprints for the house. But the house that we're trying to build here is one in which the police and the public have trust in each other, in which the department is able to sustain the changes that have been made. That when deviations occur, that they are self-correcting. That we've built public trusts so that we have set the conditions to improve public safety and crime-fighting abilities.

CATHY WURZER: Final question, and using your "building a house" analogy, when you submitted your proposal, I believed you had a plan for the first 30 days. How will you start building that house in the first 30 days? What does that look like?

DAVID DOUGLASS: So in the first 30 days, we have a lot to learn. Progress has been made. There's a lot of history. There have been a lot of groups that have already been involved in the process So the first thing we're going to be doing is reviewing lots of documents, talking with the parties to understand where they are, listening to the community to make sure that their concerns as reflected in the agreement are addressed, and from there, we will begin to develop a work plan for the parties.

The agreement provides for a 90-day assessment. And then at the end of that 90 days, we'll have a plan for the four-year process. But the first 30 days will be a deep dive on our part so we can make sure that we understand exactly where the parties and the community are with respect to the reform process.

CATHY WURZER: Somewhere along the line, I thought I remember hearing that this process could take as much as 10 years. Is that right?

DAVID DOUGLASS: Well, the agreement calls for a four-year period. And since our role is to-- since our authority is governed by the agreement, that's what we're sticking with.

CATHY WURZER: OK. All right. I appreciate your time. Thank you and good luck.

DAVID DOUGLASS: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

CATHY WURZER: Mr. David Douglass is the co-founder of Effective Law Enforcement For All and is the independent monitor for the city of Minneapolis's consent to decree.