Minneapolis and the
Department of Justice Report
The Department of Justice initiated an investigation into police practices in
the City of Minneapolis (MPD) after the murder of George Floyd. The
report is perhaps the most comprehensive ever done on policing in
Minneapolis, with a more detailed analysis and use of statistics than the Minnesota Department of Human Rights
Report from last
year. The latter report had concluded “A pattern or practice of
discrimination is present where the denial of rights consists of something more
than isolated, sporadic incidents, but is repeated, routine, or of a
generalized nature.”
The basic takeaway from the DOJ report is that the police department
violated the First (free speech) and Fourth (illegal search and seizure)
Amendment rights systematically, especially in terms of its application of use
of force against people of color.
In reaching that conclusion it is first important to understand two points
concerning the DOJ Report. First, its focus is on the use of
(excessive) force. It did look at other issues such as police stops and
what is often called racial profiling, but most of the report examined racial
disparities in terms of use of force. Second, the US Supreme Court has
said that questions of use of force raise constitutional questions, defining
them as a Fourth Amendment search and seizure issue.
Overall the picture the report paints of Minneapolis is
troubling. It introduces us to a point many of us have made for
years in places such as here and here—Minneapolis is a tale of two
cities. As the Report states:
By nearly all of these measures, the
typical white family in the Twin Cities is doing better than the national
average for white families, and the typical Black family in the Twin Cities
doing worse than the national average or Black families. The median Black
family in the Twin Cities earns just 44% as much as the median white family,
and the poverty rate among Black households is nearly five times higher than the
rate among white households. Of the United States’ 100 largest metropolitan
areas, only one has a larger gap between Black and white earnings.
The cause of the racial disparities are many, but when it comes to
policing, the DOJ offers several stark conclusions. In examining
thousands of uses of force, the Report concluded:
Our investigation showed that MPD
officers routinely use excessive force, often when no force is necessary. We
found that MPD officers often use unreasonable force (including deadly force)
to obtain immediate compliance with orders, often forgoing meaningful
de-escalation tactics and instead using force to subdue people. MPD’s pattern
or practice of using excessive force violates the law.
MPD officers often used neck restraints in situations
that did not end in an arrest. MPD officers used neck restraints during at
least 198 encounters from January 1, 2016, to August 16, 2022.
Despite banning neck restraints in 2020, the MPD still used them.
The Report documents the use of unnecessary or excessive force across a
range of tactics that include physical restraint, tasers, and weapons.
And there appears to be a racial disparity in such use of force.
Additionally, the MPD fails to provide needed medical care and officers
are failing to intervene to prevent other officers from using excessive
force.
The DOJ Report also describes disparate treatment when it comes to
traffic stops and searches. For example, it concludes that “We estimate that
MPD stops Black people at 6.5 times the rate at which it stops white people,
given their shares of the population. Similarly, we estimate MPD stops
Native American people at 7.9 times the rate at which it stops white people,
given population shares.”
Finally, the Report documents significant violations of the First
Amendment rights of protestors and the media to cover, photograph, or report on
police misconduct.
Overall the Report reaches a series of conclusions that the Minneapolis
Police Department is out of compliance with the Constitution, in part as a
result of poor or improper training or supervision. Necessitating the
City enter into a consent decree and agree to remedial action.
The Price of Injustice: Taxpayer Payouts for Police Misconduct in
Minnesota
But is Minneapolis alone? This is the question I sought to answer
in my report that was recently released and updated.
After Minneapolis paid out $27 million to the family of George
Floyd many wondered how much governments payout for police
misconduct. Nationally there is no database on this, nor is there one in
Minnesota or any state. In previous research I made some estimates that
the amount was in the billions. I decided to construct a database for
Minnesota.
We surveyed all cities in Minnesota with populations of 5,000 or
more; all 87 counties; and the State Patrol, Metro Transit, and the
University of Minnesota Police. This produced an effective coverage of
98%-100% of the population of the state. Requests were sent to a total of
239 governmental units asking for a list of all instances of police
misconduct resulting in payouts from January 1, 2010, to December 31,
2020. Results were obtained from all 239 surveyed.
Here is a summary of what we learned.
Nearly 30% of all governmental units made some form of payout.
There were a total of 490 incidents that resulted in payouts.
The estimated total payout is $60,784,822.
The estimated total payment for Minneapolis is
$36,535,708.10.
Minneapolis accounted for 60.1% of total payouts in the state during the
ten-year time period.
For the entire state the mean or average payout per incident was
$124,500. For Minneapolis alone, the mean or average payout was $212,
416. The mean or average for the rest of the state excluding
Minneapolis was $76, 255.
In Minneapolis the median payout is between $26,282 and $28,010.
For the rest of the state it is $6,500. The overall median pay out was
$12,000.
My report also asked for information about instances resulting in
payouts, and they included use of force, property damage, improper and
improper use of data, among other instances. However, the largest category was
unspecified. We simply do not know or have sufficient data to tell us the
factors such as race that led to specific police misconduct.
The conclusion of the study was that gathering this data was difficult
and time consuming and there is still too much we do not know. I conclude
that we need mandated statewide collection and standardization of data about
police misconduct if we are going to seriously think about any policy change
when it comes to policing.
How the Two Reports Interact
First, the DOJ report is only about Minneapolis. My report is
statewide. Two, my report covers all instances of police misconduct which
resulted in payouts. Third, the DOJ report gathers its own statistics to
analyze, while my report is based on an analysis of self-reported data
from the governmental agencies. Fourth, the DOJ was able to discuss and
examine race issues in Minneapolis, my statewide report lacked the data to do
that.
One pushback I received on my report is that not all instances of
misconduct are really misconduct. However, the information reported here
is self-reported and governmental entities could have opted not to report
if they did not deem it misconduct. Two, even if police disagree, my
report documented misconduct resulting in settlements by the reporting
governmental entity. Whatever happened the reporting jurisdiction decided
that they had to make payouts for what their police did.
However, another way to view how the reports interact is in the focus on
Minneapolis. The two reports look at different time frames but reach
parallel conclusions on issues such as payouts for
misconduct. But what jumps out is that the total instances of
misconduct in Minneapolis and statewide may be higher than thought.
My study reports 172 instances in Minneapolis over a ten-year period that
resulted in payouts for police misconduct. If the DOJ report is accurate,
there could have possibly been hundreds of other instances that
should have resulted in payouts. Why the under-reporting?
In my study I hypothesize that of all the instances where
police and civilians interact, only a fraction of them may be circumstances
where something goes wrong. Of those, only a fraction involve situations where
civilians know something went wrong and then file a complaint or lawsuit and
then of those, only some result in payouts. What the DOJ report suggests is
that the number and percentage of misconduct in Minneapolis is probably greater
than my report indicates. This too may be true statewide.
Overall, the conclusion of my report is that we need to understand what
happened in the instances where payouts occurred and use them as case
studies to help formulate policy change. The DOJ diagnoses the problems in
Minneapolis and offers recommendations for change. Whether what is happening in
Minneapolis is generalizable to all of Minnesota we still do not know, and
neither the DOJ or my report can answer that question.
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