The Biden administration secured an agreement to implement police reforms in Minneapolis ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Monday’s consent agreement with the Minneapolis Police Department follows a similar decree the department reached last month with police in Louisville, Kentucky. The agreements follow the Biden administration launching 12 investigations in 2021, which examined a possible “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations by police departments across the country following anti-police riots that occurred after the death George Floyd in 2020
Both decrees await the approval of the courts. The The 171-page Minneapolis Agreement it would review the city’s police training and use-of-force policy, while requiring officers to “promote the sanctity of human life as the highest priority in their activities.” The ordinance also mandates that officers must not allow race, gender, or ethnicity to “influence any decision to use force, including the amount or type of force used.”
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Other elements of the Minneapolis agreement include strengthening protections for protesters, new data collection requirements aimed at reducing racial discrimination, guidelines prohibiting officers from searching for fleeing subjects, new interrogation requirements, a mandate against racial profiling in investigations, traffic stop reforms and more toga.
A local resident looks at a police vehicle driving down a street north of Minneapolis on September 9, 2021. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
Assistant State’s Attorney Kristen Clarke of Ministry of Justice During a press conference Monday in Minneapolis, the Civil Rights Division was repeatedly asked whether the Trump administration could rescind the agreement.
“I can’t predict the future,” Clarke said. “What I can tell you is that the findings that we have identified in Minneapolis are difficult. These are real problems that affect people’s lives. The community wants reform. The city wants reform, the police department wants reform, and the Department of Justice stands here today as a full partner in the effort to achieve reform and transformation of this community.”
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Minneapolis Police Chief Brian OHara addresses more than 100 uniformed officers as they await the release of an officer who was shot in the line of duty in north Minneapolis, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023. (Photo by Aaron Lavinksy/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in an email to constituents, Minneapolis City Councilwoman Robin Wonsley said she doesn’t believe the new Trump administration will be a “serious partner” in supporting the recently negotiated consent decree.
A similar consent decree negotiated by the Biden administration and Loisville police about three weeks ago also forces the department to revise its use-of-force policy, imposes new restrictions on traffic stops and police searches and calls into question how police deal with protesters.
The city’s local police union is challenging the reforms, urging a judge not to approve the deal. Meanwhile, the conservative Heritage Foundation argues that the purpose of the consent decree coming so late in Biden’s tenure is to “bind the Trump administration 47 and future elected administrations in Louisville who may vehemently and categorically disagree with the proposed consent decree.”
Protesters demonstrate outside a fast food restaurant on fire Friday, May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. (John Minchillo)
Both Minneapolis and Louisville have been flashpoints for debates over police reform after both cities saw the high-profile deaths of Floyd and Breonna Taylor 2020 Both cities, along with many others, saw protesters rampage through the streets after their deaths, leading to multiple deaths and billions of dollars in damage that year.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department for comment, but they declined to comment.
