Biden keeps promise on Justice Department police investigations, including Minneapolis probe

The Justice Department announced that Minneapolis police have used excessive force and unlawfully discriminated against Black and Native American people, the culmination of a two-year investigation following the murder of George Floyd. It's one of multiple investigations into law enforcement agencies opened during the Biden administration by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.  

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced June 16 there was reasonable cause to believe that the city and police department of Minneapolis "engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution."

The police department "routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers," Garland said. "MPD officers discharged firearms and people without assessing whether the person presents any threat, let alone a threat that would justify deadly force."

The systemic issues "made what happened to George Floyd possible," Garland said.

Garland, speaking in Minneapolis, said there was also reasonable cause to believe that the city and police violated federal laws, including the Civil Rights Act.

Garland said that the Justice Department, city of Minneapolis and police had agreed in principle to negotiate a court-enforced consent decree. Such an agreement, which avoids litigation, is overseen by an independent monitor who assesses whether the department has implemented remedies. Such a process could take several months or even a year.

The Justice Department's investigation fits with a promise Joe Biden made on the 2020 campaign trail. Biden pledged to expand the department's power to "address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors' offices" and to "root out unconstitutional or unlawful policing." It is one of multiple promises Biden made during that campaign about racial justice. 

The Justice Department opened an investigation, known as pattern-or-practice, into Minneapolis police and the city in April 2021, one day after a jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, death of Floyd, who was Black and unarmed. 

The Justice Department found that Minneapolis police:

• Uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force.

• Unlawfully discriminates against Black and Native American people in its enforcement activities.

• Violates the rights of people engaged in free speech.

• Discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls for assistance.

The Justice Department reached its findings after reviewing thousands of files, police incident reports, body cam footage and police and city data.

In addition to the Minneapolis investigation, the department has ongoing investigations into the Phoenix Police Department; the Mount Vernon Police Department in New York; the Louisiana State Police; the New York City Police Department's Special Victims Division; the Worcester Police Department in Massachusetts; and the Oklahoma City Police Department. 

The Justice Department also launched an investigation into local government and police in Louisville following the March 13, 2020, death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot to death by police serving a no-knock warrant at her apartment. The Justice Department announced in March that Louisville Metro police unlawfully executed search warrants without knocking and announcing, discriminated against Black people and violated the rights of police critics engaged in protected free speech.

The Justice Department reached an agreement in principle with the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government to resolve the department's findings through a court-enforceable consent decree. 

Such pattern-or-practice investigations were scarcely used under the Trump administration. The deaths of Taylor and Floyd fueled a renewed movement stretching from city halls to the 2020 presidential race for racial justice and police reform nationwide.

Biden promised to expand the use of the Justice Department's power to address systemic misconduct. During his administration, the Justice Department has conducted multiple in-depth investigations into police departments across the country, including a two-year investigation in Minneapolis that will likely lead to the city and police department entering a consent decree. 

We rate this Promise Kept.

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