Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s newly formed working group on police reform calls to mind the poor track record of past efforts — the most recent one being that of Minneapolis for a Better Police Contract, which abandoned its year-long negotiations with city officials after George Floyd was murdered in May 2020. The reason cited was Frey’s reluctance to address their recommendations.
Likewise, the Police Conduct Oversight Commission formed in 2012 reported that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) was unresponsive. Its predecessor, the Civilian Police Review Authority, similarly found its recommendations ignored under then Chief Tim Dolan. In 2013, another body, the Office of Police Conduct Review, was formed to give citizens a voice in accountability. Yet a Star Tribune analysis showed that between 2013 and 2018 only 3 percent of hundreds of misconduct complaints resulted in discipline.
For the future of our city, I hope this new effort is fruitful. The small number of activists on the working group, who have long sought to end police violence and improve public safety, face an uphill task given the breadth of views represented among its 35 members. If police and city officials or conservative working group members thwart meaningful change, activist leaders may once again need to call Minneapolis residents into the streets.
There are two basic principles that should guide the working group. First, community involvement in hiring, evaluating and disciplining officers and second, the granting of subpoena power to an oversight board to investigate police misconduct.
Allowing police to hire police is where the problem begins and where the solutions must be sought. Unfit officers who harbor the type of racist attitudes and use of excessive force long exhibited within the MPD ranks may be well-trained by policing standards, but their conduct shows they cannot be reeducated via diversity training programs. The conduct of the four officers involved in the killing of George Floyd is Exhibit A.
Unless police officers are first vetted by the community they will serve, reforms in policing protocols, training and policies will remain inadequate. This is the vehicle through which to build trust between communities and public safety personnel, be they licensed officers or social workers. The interview and hiring teams should be comprised of a majority community members working along with police officials to determine who should be hired. The final authority must reside with community members.
A similar process is needed to evaluate officers and discipline those who violate police protocols, use excessive force or are charged with misconduct. Supervisory police officials and legal counsel would advise such a board on technical and personnel matters, but decisions as to whether officers are fired or disciplined must reside with community members.
Also, if a community board does not have subpoena power to compel testimony of officers it will lack authority. Currently, state law prohibits local governmental units from granting subpoena power to an oversight entity. The 2012 Legislature enacted this measure that was co- authored by John Harrington, then a state legislator, who is currently commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety under Gov. Tim Walz. Until state law is changed, any oversight board constituted is advisory only.
For about a year in the late 1960s a citizens’ review board in Minneapolis was granted subpoena powers to compel testimony. The Police Federation and officers refused to cooperate and ignored the board’s subpoenas. A year later the City Council acquiesced and rescinded the board’s subpoena power. Since then, all iterations of review boards have operated in an advisory capacity.
The outgoing council lacked the courage to take decisive steps to purge the department of unfit officers like those who took these lives. The first recommendation the working group should hand the mayor is that he fire the officers involved in these killings and all the others. Second, it should recommend that all such cases be reopened for further investigation.
It will take a powerful movement to establish any system of community control. It will take smart politics, organizing and negotiations. It will take building trust between advocates of community control and city residents. Tactically, it should aim to cause a rebellion in the ranks of police officers by encouraging good officers to back community vetting.
Since the murder of George Floyd, protesters and citizen campaigners for police reform have waged a determined effort for police accountability. This working group must not fail them and our city as other efforts have. The outcome will depend on the residents of Minneapolis holding the commission to its task.
Wayne Nealis is a writer and longtime peace and labor activist who lives in Minneapolis.
Editor’s note: This commentary was written prior to the Feb. 2 police killing of a man in Minneapolis and the timing of its release is that of coincidence.
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