The Department of Justice has released a scathing report into the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), outlining systemic abuses after a year-long investigation that began after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.
The Justice Department has found that MPD routinely uses excessive force, including unjust deadly force, the department revealed during a press conference on Friday.
The report states that MPD uses tastes and firearms without properly assessing threats. The report notes that in one such incident in 2017, an officer was “spooked” by a woman reporting a sexual assault.
DoJ also found that the MPD disregards the safety of those they take into custody, and that they failed to step in to prevent the unreasonable use of force, such as in the murder of Mr Floyd by then-MPD officer Derek Chauvin when several fellow officers stood by and didn’t intervene.
The report also states that the practice of stop and search and the use of force disproportionately affected Black and Native American residents. MPD wasn’t held accountable for racist activity until public protests ensued.
DoJ called the findings “deeply disturbing” and said that they “erodes the community’s trust” in policing.
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