Federal consent decree mandating Minneapolis police reforms expected after city and DOJ reach tentative agreement
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The city of Minneapolis and U.S. Department of Justice have tentatively agreed on a consent decree that could mandate extensive reforms to the Minneapolis Police Department, sources confirmed to MPR News.
The consent decree has been anticipated since June 2023 — when a DOJ investigation following the police murder of George Floyd found MPD used “unjustified deadly force” and engaged in racial discrimination for years, violating the U.S. Constitution.
The tentative agreement was first reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune Tuesday evening, a few hours after city officials announced Mayor Jacob Frey had called for a special Monday city council meeting with the city attorney. That will include a closed-door briefing on the DOJ’s “potential litigation and resolution possibilities concerning the city of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Police Department.”
The newspaper states that elected officials will be asked to vote on the document during a public meeting, following the closed-door session. That means the agreement could be filed in federal court before President-elect Donald Trump returns to office on Jan. 20. During his first term, Trump opposed consent decrees as anti-police, and his inauguration is viewed by some as a deadline for the settlement to come to fruition.
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“The Trump administration is hostile to DOJ consent decrees and, frankly, to any kind of accountability for police,” said Michelle Gross, the president of Communities United Against Police Brutality. “We were urging the city to get a move on and we were getting really nervous because of how close we were to this actually not happening. So today, I’m quite relieved to hear that it looks like it is going to happen after all.”
Communities United Against Police Brutality was among those that called on federal authorities to investigate MPD in 2021, and has since provided recommendations to the DOJ, alongside testimonies from thousands of residents, Gross said. She said she’s been waiting for the level of oversight, promised by a federal consent decree, to come to Minneapolis for over three decades.
In an address to the police department late Tuesday, Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the decree could bring both challenges and opportunities.
“This is our city and our opportunity to lead the way forward and to set the standard for policing in this country,” he said in the video message.
O'Hara — who has experience implementing a consent decree when he served as public safety director and deputy mayor in Newark, N.J. — said the department will remain committed to improving staffing levels and supporting officers' health.
“When we focus on the right priorities — supporting one another, engaging with our community and remaining committed to our shared values — we can and we will navigate this process successfully and emerge stronger,” he said.
If the agreement is finalized, Minneapolis would be the first city in the nation bound to both state and federal consent decrees, mandating court-enforceable reforms. The city has been under a state-level settlement agreement since 2023, after a Minnesota Department of Human Rights investigation found the police department engaged in a pattern of racist practices that violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
Under the state-level agreement, MPD must have new policies governing the use of force, body camera usage and interactions with minors by mid-March. It must also make “substantial progress toward or complete elimination” of the backlog of internal affairs and civilian complaints against officers.