"There are 12 ayes, that motion carries, and we have approved the consent decree with the United States Department of Justice."
And with that, the Minneapolis City Council solidifies an agreement reached with the federal government that will usher in some changes and more oversight of the Minneapolis Police Department. Minneapolis is now the first U.S. city to be subject to both state and federal police oversight.
After a seven-hour closed door session where members examined the document line-by-line, Council President Elliot Payne said this is a big moment for the community and City of Minneapolis.
"On behalf of this the council and the entire city, I'd like to thank our community for standing together, united in this, and for having patience with us as we have traveled a very, very long and challenging journey," says Payne.
It's been nearly two years since federal investigators found Minneapolis Police Department officers showed a pattern of unnecessary excessive force against people of color.
The department is already mandated to reform police practices under a separate agreement with the State of Minnesota. Both come in response to the murder of George Floyd that would require reforms within the city’s police department under long-term court supervision.
The agreement, known as a consent decree, has been under negotiation since the Department of Justice issued a scathing critique of the city’s police in June 2023. The report alleged that police systematically discriminated against racial minorities, violated constitutional rights and disregarded the safety of people in custody for years before Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis officer in 2020. Floyd’s death prompted a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.
The Justice Department report was the result of a sweeping two-year investigation that confirmed many citizen complaints about police conduct. The investigation found that Minneapolis officers used excessive force, including “unjustified deadly force,” and violated the rights of people engaged in constitutionally protected speech.
An independent monitor will oversee the changes and a judge must approve them.
During his first administration, President-elect Donald Trump was critical of consent decrees as anti-police. Finalizing the Minneapolis agreement before he returns to office Jan. 20 would make it harder for him to undercut the deal, because changes would require court approval.
The council approved the deal 12-0 Monday during a brief public vote that followed an hourslong closed-door discussion.
A state court judge in 2023 approved a similar agreement between Minneapolis and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights after the state agency issued its own blistering report in 2022. The state investigation found that the city’s police had engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade.
The Justice Department has opened 12 similar investigations of state and local law enforcement agencies since April 2021, many in response to high-profile deaths at the hands of police.
It has reached agreements with Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson, Missouri. A consent decree with Louisville, Kentucky, after an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor is waiting court approval. In Memphis, Tennessee, the mayor last month pushed back against pressure for a consent decree there, saying his city has made hundreds of positive changes since the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
Consent decrees require law enforcement to meet specific goals before federal oversight is removed, a process that often takes years and millions of dollars. A major reason Minneapolis hired Brian O’Hara as police chief in 2022 was his experience implementing a consent decree in Newark, New Jersey.
If the Minneapolis federal agreement gets court approval, the city would be in the unusual position of operating under both federal and state consent decrees.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.