Pick for Minneapolis chief asked to change culture

Black community, police relationship seen as strained.

People who have worked closely with the man tapped to lead Minneapolis’ embattled police department say he has qualities that would suit him well in the role: He’s friendly, seems forthright, has deep roots in the city and is African-Americ a n, which could help improve the sour relationship between the police force and the city’s sizeable black community.

Medaria Arradondo’s long history with the department — he has risen from school resource officer and patrolman to assistant chief during his 28 years on the force — have some wondering whether an outsider might be better suited to changing the culture of the department, which has been accused of being too quick to use force.

Facing public anger over an officer’s fatal shooting last weekend of an unarmed, white 40-year-old Australian woman who had called 911 to report hearing a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home, Mayor Betsy Hodges asked police Chief Janee Harteau to resign, which she did Friday, and nominated Arra- dondo as Harteau’s replacement. Hodges dismissed protesters’ calls for her to resign, too.

“Over the next few years, the Minneapolis Police Department will work to continue the transformational change that we all know we need, and to strengthen and ingrain into our policing the changes that we have already made,” Hodges said in a prepared statement. “I am confident that Assistant Chief Arradondo is the right person to lead us through it.”

Arradondo, nicknamed “Rondo,” would need the city council’s approval before he could become police chief.