The US justice department has announced an investigation into the Minneapolis police department, a day after Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, to determine whether Floyd's death was part of a pattern of discriminatory and illegal behaviour. The announcement came amid longstanding complaints from activists that the force is riven by deep-seated racism.
RT Rybak, who served as mayor from 2002 to 2014, said that every mayor since 1980 had pursued a reform agenda but none had achieved the change required. He pointed to the interaction between Chauvin and a younger officer during Floyd's killing as evidence of an ingrained culture. "Since 1980, every mayor, including me, has had a reform agenda for the Minneapolis police. None of us has made anywhere the change that is necessary," he said. "I think it's difficult to come to any other conclusion than: there's deep systemic racism within the department. That doesn't mean that every officer is racist, but it does mean that the culture is."
Previous efforts have included training in community relations and implicit bias, but these have been undermined by lessons officers teach one another on the street, as well as by union resistance. After Floyd's death, the then-head of the police union called Floyd a "violent criminal" and branded protesters terrorists. Following Chauvin's conviction, the union accepted the verdict and expressed "deep remorse" but also criticised what it called the "political pandering" and "race-baiting" of elected officials. The majority of the city council has pledged to dismantle and abolish the department, though the effort has encountered political and bureaucratic barriers and is now expected to be put to voters.
The police chief, Medaria Arradondo, said he welcomed the investigation and believed it would provide additional support for changes he wanted to see. Arradondo was among five Black officers who sued the department for racial discrimination in 2007, a lawsuit settled for $740,000. Some residents said they were hopeful federal scrutiny could bring improvements, while others argued the problem was broader than one department. Over the past 20 years, 208 people have died in Minnesota after physical confrontation with law enforcement; Black people, who make up 7% of the state's population, account for 26% of those deaths.
Several high-profile killings of Black men have been committed by officers in Minneapolis suburbs, not the city itself, including Philando Castile in 2016 and Daunte Wright earlier this month. Activists remain sceptical. Miski Noor, a local campaigner, called the investigation "political theatre" and said the department was unreformable. "The Minneapolis police department has served as the poster child for reform. If you can think of a reform, it's been tried in Minneapolis."
