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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A year after George Floyd's death, the Justice Department has resumed investigations into police agencies and reinstated the use of a federal tool designed to force agencies to make changes. Both changes represent significant movement toward fulfilling President Joe Biden's promise to expand the department's power to investigate law enforcement misconduct. 

The Justice Department in April opened investigations, known as pattern-or-practice investigations, into law enforcement agencies in Louisville and Minneapolis. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the investigation into Minneapolis police a day after a jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, death of Floyd, 46, who was Black.

"Building trust between community and law enforcement will take time and effort by all of us, but we undertake this task with determination and urgency, knowing that change cannot wait," Garland said.

The investigation into offices in Louisville follows the March 13, 2020, death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot to death by police serving a no-knock warrant in her apartment. A grand jury declined to bring charges against the officers involved.

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

The Minneapolis investigation will assess all types of force used by police officers and whether the agency engages in discriminatory policing. Federal investigators will review the department's policies and systems of accountability, including how it handles complaints and discipline.

In Kentucky, investigators will similarly look into the policies and record of the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government and the Louisville Metro Police Department. The Louisville investigation will include examining whether police conduct unreasonable stops, searches, seizures, and arrests, including in executing search warrants.

Congress in 1994 gave the U.S. attorney general the authority to investigate and litigate cases of police patterns or practices that violate constitutional or federal rights. This happened after a video of the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers fueled public outrage and the subsequent 1992 riots and protests over police officers acquitted on state criminal charges.

These types of investigations examine broader behavior to determine whether there's misconduct within a department. The Justice Department under Obama opened 25 investigations into law enforcement agencies. During Trump's administration, such investigations were rare. In mid-2020 we asked the Trump Justice Department how many pattern or practice investigations the agency had launched, and we didn't get a response. The Lawfareblog found that under Trump the department opened one such investigation into the Springfield, Mass., police department's narcotics unit.

The willingness to launch pattern-or-practice investigations isn't the only way the Biden administration has taken a more forceful into law enforcement practices.

Garland in April also reversed a Trump-era order that aimed to limit the use of federal consent decrees prosecutors used in investigations of police departments. Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, argued that it was not the federal government's responsibility to manage non-federal law enforcement and that consent decrees got in the way of day-to-day police operations.

Under Biden, the Justice Department has indicated it will resume consent decrees. When the department identifies a violation of law, it generally seeks a resolution that avoids litigation in the form of a settlement agreement or consent decree. A consent decree is overseen by an independent monitor who assesses whether the department has implemented remedies. 

For example, in 2016 the Justice Department entered a consent decree with the city of Ferguson, Mo., after a Justice Department identified a pattern or practice of unlawful stops and arrests; violations of the right to observe and record police activity; excessive force; and discriminatory policing. The investigation involved the police department in the St. Louis suburb where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in August 2014. 

Biden's discretionary budget proposal, released in April, includes additional money for the Justice Department's civil rights division. The proposal doesn't expressly mention pattern-or-practice investigations, but it states that the money would be used for police reform. Biden's budget proposal is a starting point for negotiations with Congress.

Biden also supports the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House in 2020 but hasn't reached a vote in the Senate. Lawmakers from both parties have been in negotiations over conflicting ideas about police reform. The legislation would give the Justice Department subpoena power in pattern-or-practice investigations.

Biden promised to give the Justice Department expanded power to address systemic misconduct in police and prosecutorial agencies. The pattern or practice investigations and consent decrees are not new powers, but they appeared to be largely dormant under Trump. The Justice Department announced that it has resumed using these tools, but it could take years until we see the outcome.

There are other moving parts that overlap with the department's work to investigate police misconduct, such as congressional efforts at police reform and Biden's budget plan. 

For now, we rate this promise In the Works. 

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