The Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) Wednesday released a report on its investigation into patterns or practices of race discrimination by the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).

The investigation was begun on June 1, 2020, less than a week after an MPD officer murdered George Floyd. Floyd’s murder sparked widespread protests in Minneapolis and around the country, demanding an end to police brutality against Blacks and other minorities. “Those demands remain just as urgent today with the announcement of the investigative findings which paints an unsettling picture of the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department engaging in a pattern of racial discrimination over the last decade,” said MNDHR Commissioner Rebecca Lucero.

The MDHR investigation looked at ten years worth of data about the use of force incidents in Minneapolis, along with approximately 700 hours of body camera footage and 480,000 pages of documents, including police reports, disciplinary records, and MPD’s covert social media accounts. They also conducted interviews with City of Minneapolis staff, including current and former elected officials, as well as asked over 2,200 community members about their interactions with MPD officers.

The investigation revealed probable cause that the City and the MPD “engage in a pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.” In particular, there are serious disparities in how MPD officers use force, stop, search, arrest, and cite people of color, in particular Black individuals, compared to white individuals. Officers use covert social media accounts to surveil Black individuals and organizations unrelated to any criminal activity. Officers were also shown to consistently use racist and misogynistic language.

The report stated that the discriminatory practices stem from an organizational culture where officers receive deficient training that emphasizes a paramilitary approach to policing, ineffective accountability systems, and a lack of urgency and cooperation among City and MPD leaders to address racial disparities in policing. “Without fundamental organizational culture changes, reforming MPD’s policies, procedures, and trainings will be meaningless,” the report concluded.

MDHR’s next step is to work with the City to develop a consent decree, a court-enforceable agreement identifying specific changes in Minneapolis policing, and a timeline for those changes to take place. MDHR is gathering information from community members and other stakeholders for ideas about what should be included in the decree. Commissioner Lucero said, “I look forward to the work ahead with the City, MPD, and community members to improve public safety by reversing unlawful policing practices.”