Justice Department to investigate Minneapolis police misconduct
MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Department of Justice will undertake a sweeping investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a “pattern and practice” of illegal conduct, including whether officers routinely used excessive force during protests.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the investigation Wednesday, the morning after a Hennepin County jury found ex-officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the murder of George Floyd. Garland said he’s watched closely as communities in Minneapolis have reeled from the trauma of police violence.
“Yesterday’s verdict in the state criminal trial does not address potentially systemic policing issues in Minneapolis,” Garland said.
The investigation, applauded by 12 City Council members and the mayor shortly after the announcement, will seek to establish whether the state’s largest police department is engaging in practices that promote or allow systemic wrongdoing. Over the next several months, the independent civil rights probe will bring Justice Department investigators inside the walls of the police department and out in the community to talk to potential victims. It will be conducted by a combination of Justice Department “experienced” attorneys and other personnel in Minnesota and from the headquarters in Washington, D.C., Garland said.
The pattern and practice probe will run parallel to the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation into Chauvin.
Leading up to the trial, the federal prosecutors ramped up calling witnesses before a grand jury, signaling a possible round of federal civil rights charges for Chauvin. Sources familiar with those secretive proceedings say federal prosecutors are investigating Chauvin’s use of force on Floyd and a 2017 arrest during which Chauvin pinned a 14-year-old with his knee.
The decision to open a pattern and practice investigation in Minneapolis marks a reversal in strategy from the Trump administration, which effectively abandoned these types of far-reaching probes into police departments. In the weeks after George Floyd’s death last summer, then-Attorney General Bill Barr drew criticism from former Justice Department officials when he refused to order such an investigation of the Minneapolis department.
This investigation will focus on whether Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern of unlawful excessive force, discriminatory policing, using force against activities protected by the First Amendment and use of force not in compliance with laws protecting people with mental illnesses and disabilities, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
It will also assess the police department’s systems of accountability, and whether new mechanisms should be implemented to protect the constitutional rights of people in Minneapolis.
“Congress gave the department the authority to conduct civil pattern and practice investigations, which look beyond individual incidents to assess systemic failures,” Garland said. “Those investigations allow the department to determine whether a police department has a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.”
Garland said he believes most of the nation’s police behave lawfully and honorably, and will welcome the effort to hold bad cops accountable. “I strongly believe that good officers do not want to work in systems that allow bad practices,” he said. “Accountability is an essential part of building trust with the community, and public safety requires public trust.”