The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a motion to toss out its proposed consent decree with the city of Minneapolis and its police department, citing flaws in the analysis and a lack of confidence in the findings.
The move comes nearly five years after the death of George Floyd, which sparked widespread riots and ushered in a wave of anti-police sentiment across the country.
The decree, based on a two-year DOJ investigation, alleged that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) “uses excessive force” and “unlawfully discriminates against Black people.”
Now, federal officials say they won’t be moving forward with the agreement, which would have imposed sweeping federal control over MPD’s operations and further restricted officers already stretched thin by staffing shortages and political pressure.
“Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees.”
Minnesota officials insist reforms will continue—on their terms
In the wake of the DOJ’s withdrawal, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) quickly issued a statement making clear that its own court-enforced agreement with the city remains fully in effect.
“While the Department of Justice walks away from their federal consent decree nearly five years from the murder of George Floyd, our Department and the state court consent decree isn’t going anywhere,” said MDHR Commissioner Rebecca Lucero in a press release.
“Under the state agreement, the City and MPD must make transformational changes to address race-based policing. The tremendous amount of work that lies ahead for the City, including MPD, cannot be understated. And our Department will be here every step of the way.”
Lucero said the state agreement, approved in July 2023 by a Hennepin County judge, remains fully enforceable and legally binding.
“The court is the only entity that can terminate the state court enforceable agreement once it determines that the City and MPD have reached full, effective, and sustained compliance with the terms of the agreement,” the department said.
The agreement stems from MDHR’s own investigation, launched immediately after Floyd’s death, which they allege found a pattern of race discrimination by MPD in violation of Minnesota civil rights law. It requires MPD to “recognize the humanity and civil rights of community members,” eliminate race-based policing, and reform its internal culture.
Mayor vows legal fight, blames Trump for consent decree collapse
At a press conference Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was defiant.
“Minneapolis is serious about our commitment to police reform even if the president of the United States is not,” he said. “We’re going to move forward—with or without the White House.”
Frey also took aim at the timing of the Justice Department’s decision to withdraw.
“Of course it is predictable that they would move for a dismissal the very same week that George Floyd was murdered five years ago,” he said.
He emphasized that the city intends to fully comply with the agreement it signed.
“Here is the bottom line: We’re doing it anyway. We will comply with every sentence of every paragraph of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year,” Frey added.
He ended his statement with a sharp rebuke of the president.
“If Donald Trump wants to try to entirely avoid the Constitution—if he wants to drop kick the Constitution of the United States into the trash can—we’re going to challenge him in court.”
Police chief: Reforms add strain to already depleted force
At the same press conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara stated that the department would continue to follow the terms of the federal agreement as signed, regardless of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw.
“The consent decree is real—it covers all of the issues that people around this country find as problematic with policing in the United states. We are addressing them and we are making more progress than any other city has,” said O’Hara.
At the same time, O’Hara acknowledged the strain the department is under, noting that MPD is “a police force that has been depleted over the last few years while the demands of crime and investigation has risen dramatically.”
He added, “We need to recognize that we are adding all of this additional work in terms of reform and that’s new work that didn’t exist before at a time when staffing is low and the demands are so much greater.”
O’Hara’s remarks revealed the challenge of implementing major reforms—like those outlined in the consent decree—amid a staffing crisis and rising crime, though he expressed hope that continued investment and internal fairness would eventually lead to greater officer buy-in.
“I am hopeful that there will be increasing buy-in because I think that’s what’s happened in other places,” he said, pointing to the potential for “more investments in them and hopefully more and more fairness in terms of how they are treated internally.”
Police union lawyer blasts decree as ‘bizarre’ process
While city officials defend the need for reform, critics argue the consent decree process has been flawed from the start.
Jim Michels, attorney for the Minneapolis Police Federation, is an outspoken critic of the decree. Alpha News reached out to him for comment following the DOJ’s withdrawal and the state’s decision to press forward.
“We should actually look to see what is to be achieved by this and what it will do and not what we think in some sort of nirvana will happen,” said Michels in response to the state doubling down on its court agreement with the city. “When are we going to learn?”
On the DOJ’s motion to dismiss, Michels added: “I would hope the city of Minneapolis would look at what the motion says, that this is not in the public’s best interest, and talk to people before they do the automatic liberal response, ‘This is something proposed by the Trump administration and we have to automatically oppose it.'”
Michels previously raised concerns to Alpha News about MPD’s severe staffing shortages and their impact on public safety during a recent appearance on Liz Colin’s podcast.
“The easy and sad answer is that right now the department is hovering, give or take, about 500 officers. So they’re down to roughly 60% of their authorized strength,” he said at the time. “The actual number of police officers available on the street to answer calls on a daily basis, a little bit under 400. It’s as low as it’s ever been in any time that I can think of. And I’ve been representing the police federation for 35 years.”
Michels believes the city’s approach is counterproductive to recruiting and retaining officers.
“Anything that we do, we should put through the lens of, will this help us attract good people to this noble profession or will this continue to drive people away?” he said.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
