Nearly two years following George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights was preparing to announce the findings of its investigation into whether the Police Department had a pattern of racial discrimination in the execution of his homeworks.
An affirmative finding might lead to a consent decree—an agreement implemented by the court—requiring changes.
The state launched its investigation just a week following Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020. Police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee to the black man’s neck for nine and a half minutes in an incident that sparked worldwide protests once morest racism and police brutality. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last year of murder. Three other officers in the case — Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng — were convicted earlier this year of violating Floyd’s civil rights in a federal case and face a state trial in June.
Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said then that the state hoped to use the investigation to find long-term solutions for systemic change. He said the goal was to negotiate a consent decree with the city that the court might implement with injunctions and financial penalties, citing similar deals in several cities, including Chicago, where the Justice Department found there was a long history of racial bias and use excessive force by the police.
The department quickly won an injunction in which the city agreed to make immediate changes, such as banning chokeholds and requiring officers to intervene when they see another officer use inappropriate force.
Since then, state investigators have been sifting through decades of data, including data on traffic stops, searches, arrests and uses of force, and examining policies and training. They also invited citizens to submit their own stories of encounters with the Minneapolis police.
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights is the state’s civil rights watchdog agency. Among its tasks is to monitor compliance with the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which, among other things, makes it illegal for the police to discriminate on the basis of race.
